What is Viral Marketing?
“Viral marketing is word of mouth marketing on the web. In other
words it is the “e” term for word of mouth marketing.”
Viral marketing was born in 1996. Viral marketing messages
receive 5 –15% click through rate. 57% say word of mouth or
viral marketing-+ is their main source of information about new
websites.
The Classic Example…
The classic example of viral marketing is Hotmail.com, one of
the first free Web-based e-mail services. E-mails sent using
this service contain an advertisement for Hotmail at the bottom
of the message.
Power of Viral Marketing…
This medium could be used to spread the word about your business
among the target audience. The essence of it is that you empower
visitors to your website to tell other people about your company
and your site. You provide something that encourages people to
spread the word, and momentum builds. What’s great about viral
marketing is that it is low effort and low expense.
Viral marketing is more powerful than third-party advertising
and you can expect a good conversion rate because it conveys an
implied endorsement from a friend. People who visit your website
as a result of viral marketing will have good impression about
your company or the product because someone has recommended it
to them.
Forms of Viral marketing…
We can identify two most common forms of viral marketing as
service and incentive based models.
Service Based
In the service based model consumer has to spread the
information about the company or the product to his / her
friends in order to get the service.
Netscape Instant messaging is an excellent example of a
service-based model. Also some search engines and directories
use this model to list websites. Some companies use this model
to provide access white papers.
Incentive Based
Incentive-based models provide consumers cash, credit, or other
rewards for spreading company information to friends. This model
is encouraging people to spread the message actively because of
the incentives. Incentive based viral marketing campaigns will
cost more than the service-based campaigns.
Viral Marketing methods and techniques…
Viral Marketing works best in combination with e-Mail marketing,
since e-Mail marketing provides Viral Marketing with a great
communication medium. You can use e-mail to spread the message.
This could be done by sending e-mail messages to individuals or
by joining e-mail discussion groups. Most of the service based
viral marketing campaigns are using e-mail as the main
technique.
Another medium to carry out your viral marketing campaign is
through message boards and discussion forums. It is important to
identify message boards and discussion forums relevant to your
industry, product or service. By participating in these message
boards and discussion forums you can create awareness of your
company among the target audience.
Writing articles is one of the powerful ways to spread your
message. All you need to do is allow people to republish it for
free, as long as they include a paragraph at the end of the
article containing details of your company. This method is
widely used by companies providing professional services like
search engine marketing and web advertising.
Freebies, Giving something away for free is another powerful
marketing method available. Giving away a free something like
e-book, mouse pad will encourage people to spread your message.
About the author:
Rajitha Dahanayake is a guest writer for
http://www.emarketinganswers.com, providing free, comprehensive
emarketing resources and online promotion tools. He has over 4
years experience in Internet Marketing. He is a Member(MCIM) of
The Chartered Institute of Marketing UK and a professional
member of eMarketing Association (eMA) as well as International
Internet Marketing Association (IIMA).
