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Guide To Viral Marketing - Part 1

You'll recognise this scenario: you go to a restaurant and have a great time. The food was excellent, there was a fantastic atmosphere and the service was superb. It was so good that you tell your friends about it, who in turn go along, have a great time, tell their friends, who in turn…yada yada yada – so it goes on. This is "word of mouth" – no surprises there. On the Internet, this is known as 'viral marketing' – creating a buzz about something that makes people want to spread the word about it themselves. All those people tell others, and before long the numbers start getting exponential. It spreads like a virus – hence the name.

A great example of this is Hotmail, one of the original free web-based email services. Their plan was simplicity itself: Give away free email addresses and webmail services; at the bottom of every email sent using their facilities, add the line "Get your private, free email at www.hotmail.com"; wait while people email others who see the message, sign up for the free service, email their contacts, and so it went on. In just over 18 months Microsoft had more than 12 million people signed up to Hotmail. Viral marketing was born!

One of the key factors that Microsoft took advantage of was that a personal recommendation is more powerful than any advertising campaign. Viral marketing’s strength is based on the fact that people are more likely to respond to a marketing message or take interest in a product if it comes with the endorsement of a friend. It gives small and medium sized businesses like yours the chance to target a whole new array of customers while keeping circulation costs down.

The crucial thing is have your customers do all the hard work for you. They'll recommend your business or offer to their own friends, family and colleagues, who in turn will pass the message on. If your campaign is effective, it can potentially reach thousands of potential customers incredibly quickly.

With more consumers becoming ad-savvy and immune to mass-marketing and advertising, viral marketing has the advantage of not making people feel like their being sold to. This makes them more receptive to your offer. A word of warning at this point, though - especially if you’re going to use email. There are dodgy companies galore out there sending unsolicited emails, and while emails offering cash incentives or prizes can motivate people to pass the message on, you have to very cautious that this does not encourage them to 'spam' their friends, as this could damage your brand, undoing all your hard work.

In the next part we'll take a look at some more basic principles of viral marketing and I'll have some tips on how to run your own campaign.

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