Viral Marketing Part 1

Defined by Dr. Ralf F. Wilson as: "...marketing that describes any strategy which encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. "

OK fine, "So what does this mean to me?" you ask. Viral marketing or traditionally "word-of-mouth" advertising, basically means creating awareness through modern forms of mass communication. Word travels fast in our "ever-connected" society through email, text messages, and other forms of electronic communication. These electronic connections combined with the rapidly growing social media phenomenon, have resulted in ideas and concepts communicated faster than we have ever seen.

A simple tag at the end of your email with a special "give away" that directs a person to your website can be considered viral marketing. IF this email gets forwarded to a friend or co-worker the snowball begins or the virus begins it's multiplication.

Take your company's newsletter for example. Let's say you send out a bi-monthly e-newsletter. It has some very informative "how to" tips. This message may get forwarded to your recipient's circle of influence. As a result, 25 people sign up on your website for your newsletter. The real circulation of the information can be ten times more than what your recipient list actually reflects.

Hotmail has largely been recognized as the first example of viral marketing. All email sent via Hotmail was tagged with the simple message, "Sign up for your free email account". Hotmail grew to unprecedented success in the 90's which may have contributed to the spawning many other free email services like Yahoo and Gmail providing expanded services.

So how do you do it? Send an email to your customer base informing them of a "buy one, get one free" special that you are currently running. If the special is of real value and has a true call to action element, it will get disseminated to others.

How many times have you heard someone say, "Hey, ABC company is giving away X if you go in on Saturday"? This is a true example of viral marketing and in most cases can be a low cost/no cost form of advertising.

There you have it. Now you know what some one is talking about when you hear "its gone viral."

Check back tomorrow for Part 2 on viral marketing and the influence that "brand advocates" have on this type of marketing.