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| Everyone who's involved in marketing or advertising
must master the art of reaching their target consumers in a fast, effective,
easy and even cheapest way. There are lots of ways and means on how to touch
prospective clients and the television is proven to be the most effective yet
expensive way. Nevertheless, with the fast boom of technology, the Internet is
now also considered as one of the easiest and comfortable avenue to disseminate
product awareness. |
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The word "free", perhaps, is the most compelling word in a marketer's
vocabulary and this is basically what Viral Marketing is all about. From the
term itself, which is coined from the word "Virus", viral marketing is a
marketing technique which is similar to the spread of an epidemic that can
reach others through word of mouth to increase brand consciousness. |
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Viral Marketing has been popular because it's been proven to be more efficient
than the others. It makes advertising easier, and it can obtain a high and
rapid response rate at a relative low-cost. Remember, if one likes a particular
service, a person will tell it to his friend then his friend will pass it to
her friend, therefore, a word or mouth marketing starts. However, one main
weakness of this technique is that messages, which are usually send through
e-mails may look like spam mails, thus creating a bad impression on the brand
and without knowing it, the said promotional messages will just be sent to the
e-mail's trash bin. |
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| One typical example of viral marketing is the
Hotmail.com wherein the tactic goes like this. They give away free e-mail
service, then every message they sent has a simple tag at the bottom which says
"Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com". On the other hand,
those who receives the e-mail will be able to see the note below the message
and it will encourage them to get their own e-mail address with hotmail since
it is just for free then the list goes on, the propelling of message to reach a
number of recipients hence increasing social networks. |
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There are several types of viral messages and methods of transmission. One type
is the pass-along message which encourages users to pass the message to others.
One example of this is chain letters which prompts readers at the end of the
message to forward the e-mail to a number of users believing that they'll get
good luck if forwarded and bad luck if done otherwise. Another form would be
the infamous anonymous matching on ecrush.com which requires a user to create a
list of friends or acquaintances they secretly crush on. A match only happens
if the object of their affection responds by logging in and does the same. Most
of these services allow users to email anonymous messages notifying them that a
concealed person fancies them. Hopeful romantics become hooked up on this
marketing as they aim to find out if their crush also feels the same for them.
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Also, the process of dissemination can occur in various ways. It may be through
word of web where it converts web-based information into an e-mail. One classic
example is the article from CNN.com wherein there's a link that encourages
someone to send a particular article to a friend. Another sample would be the
word of email, which is considered to be the most common type. It's just the
simple forwarding and exchanging of e-mails such as jokes and the like. But
perhaps, the fastest mode of transmission would be through instant messaging
such as Yahoo messenger, ICQ, Google and MSN since this is the most popular
among young people and a link referred by a friend is more likely safe than by
some unknown sender through e-mails.
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| Sometimes marketing companies even offer rewards or
special offers for referring customers, encouraging the use of the
aforementioned methods. Freebies and discounts can be music to the ear of
everyone especially if acquiring them is just as easy as counting from one to
three. This is probably one of the main reasons why marketers prefer this
technique among others.> |
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For a viral marketing technique to be successful, an effortless transfer of
marketing message to others is important and this works famously on the
internet because on the spot transmission is a lot undemanding and less costly.
Also, from a marketing point of view, it is essential that the message to be
transferred is simple to avoid degradation. In short, the principle of KISS
must be followed. Keep it short and simple so that marketing message would not
trigger the recipient to aim their mouse pointer to the "report as spam" button
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