SolveYourProblem
Internet Marketing Series
Principles Behind Viral Marketing
If you haven’t been employing viral marketing
strategies for your online business, you’re missing a world
of exposure and profit for your enterprise. Viral
marketing, you see, is the most powerful form of advertising
in Internet
marketing today. Named after a disease-causing organism,
viral marketing is always compared to a virus, hence its
name, because of the rapid, exponential growth that it causes
for your business message. This is similar to how a virus
would contaminate a community, spreading from one host to
another, and another, and another after that… all at a fast
pace that quickly results in a contagion.
Imagine
a free product that is truly enjoyable. Imagine
further that this free product carried your business message,
like a link to your website or affiliate products, or to
a sales page of an information product you are selling. Picture
yourself distributing this free product to five people, who
would come to love it because of its amazing and fun features.
Now, think of the possibility that these five people would
distribute the said product carrying your business message
to the members of their respective networks. If the members
of their respective networks fully enjoy the same product,
they would spread the same to the members of their own network.
This would be a far reaching cycle that would only benefit
your business.
From 5 initial “seeds” or persons to whom you will distribute
the product which is the carrier of your business message, the
number will grow exponentially to 25, to 125, to 625
and so on and so forth, at a pace faster than you would ever
expect! Products that could carry your business message include
eBooks, special reports, articles, trial versions of programs,
free email accounts, free web hosting, screensavers, fonts,
wallpapers, animated cursors and the likes.
The
root of Viral Marketing is “word-of-mouth” advertising. This is the offline form of viral marketing where products
or services are recommended by word of mouth through a person’s
social network. Presently, the Internet is responsible for
the snowball effect of Viral Marketing. The Internet revolutionized
an era where information is quickly disseminated at a click
of a button.
Let’s
take a look at the principles behind viral marketing:
1.
There is a Great, Free Product. “Free” is the
most powerful word in marketing. Most Viral Marketing
programs give away
useful products or services to attract attention. These would
be better email services, ring tones, wallpapers, screen
savers, etc. Viral Marketing starts a wave of interest from
something free.
2.
Exploit Human Behavior. A person gets excited
when a great product is introduced. He would be excited
that he was among
the first to know, and he also wants to be the first to let
others know about it. He makes the initiative to spread the
news around. Knowing, or at the very least, making an educated
prediction of certain trends in behavioral patterns would
go a long way for the success of your viral marketing campaign,
and consequently, the success of your business.
3.
Easy Information Dissemination. This simple means that the marketing
message should be conveyed easily and effortlessly.
Viral Marketing works best on the Internet because the Internet
provides a venue for instant communication.
4. Maximize
Available Resources. Instant communication means
instant transmission of messages and information, personal
networks become larger, and wider. Networks within networks
are created. Viral marketing takes advantage of these connections
by using the latest technologies in getting the message across
these vast networks through the use of technology.
Viral marketing is popular because of the ease it provides
in executing the marketing campaign. Viral marketing
is a low cost strategy with good targeting and high response
rate. The main strength of viral marketing is its ability to reach
a diverse group and large number of people instantly.
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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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