The 6 Simple Principles Of Viral Marketing

I read this years ago, and I recommend it to anyone:


I admit it. The term "viral marketing" is offensive. Call yourself a Viral Marketer and people will take two steps back. I would. "Do they have a vaccine for that yet?" you wonder. A sinister thing, the simple virus is fraught with doom, not quite dead yet not fully alive, it exists in that nether genre somewhere between disaster movies and horror flicks.

But you have to admire the virus. He has a way of living in secrecy until he is so numerous that he wins by sheer weight of numbers. He piggybacks on other hosts and uses their resources to increase his tribe. And in the right environment, he grows exponentially. A virus don't even have to mate -- he just replicates, again and again with geometrically increasing power, doubling with each iteration:

1
11
1111
11111111
1111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 11111111111111

In a few short generations, a virus population can explode.
Viral Marketing Defined

What does a virus have to do with marketing? Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions.

Off the Internet, viral marketing has been referred to as "word-of-mouth," "creating a buzz," "leveraging the media," "network marketing." But on the Internet, for better or worse, it's called "viral marketing." While others smarter than I have attempted to rename it, to somehow domesticate and tame it, I won't try. The term "viral marketing" has stuck.

It's continued here -> The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing

here is another article on Viral Marketing
Viral marketing: Get to know Viral Marketing

The Power of Viral Marketing

A report published by the ORCI (Opinion Research Corporation International) shows that users tell an average of 12 other people about an online shopping experience. On the same token if that person has a bad experience 12 others will get to know about that as well. This is the engine that powers viral marketing.

Viral marketing has become the blueprint for Internet marketers looking to copy the success of Hotmail or ICQ. Almost everybody wants to take his or her product and "make it viral." It's important though that you give some thought in to what underlies viral marketing.

When talking about viral marketing, people may not realize that they're really talking about not one but of several variations of viral marketing. Different variations of viral marketing operate for different reasons, following different mechanisms and produce different effects. However, it seems that most have the same core mechanism being that they provide the user with quality products or experiences.
Types of Viral Marketing
Value Viral

What is it?
Information exchange about quality experiences amongst friends

How does it work?
Bill had a great experience-using product X and recommend Charlie should try it too.

Can I make it viral?
No you can’t! Why? The products must be good enough to be recommended. "Tell a Friend" technologies alone cannot make this happen, they only allow users to tell others about good products.
Guile Viral

What is it?
Guile Viral is people trying to forward viral marketing mails in exchange for incentives.

How does it work?
Bill tries convincing Charlie to try product X simply because Bill will get rewarded if he is successful with Charlie.

Can I make it viral?
No you can’t! Why? This can be successful only if the users think that the reward is worth it and that the products are good enough to risk the possible displeasure of others. Incentives being offered for inferior products could simply backfire, with messages being sent against making any purchases.
Vital Viral

What is it?
People want to share experiences with others, which requires the use of certain other products.

How does it work?
Bill wants to share the experience he had with product X, but Charlie needs to have Product Y to do so.

Can I make it viral?
No you can’t! Why? People need to be convinced that the experiences that can be derived from X is worth to buying Y.

Spiral Viral

What is it?
People needing to share funny, dirty or interesting experiences with others.

How does it work?
Bill wants to share the same experiences he had as above with Charlie because he assumes Charlie might like it too.

Can I make it viral?
No you can’t! Why? Because although there are success stories to this kind of viral marketing they actually were not initiated with such intentions. There true intentions were to be funny, dirty, and/or interesting.

Vile Viral

What is it?
People warning others of the negative experiences they had.

How does it work?
Bill has a nasty experience with product X and tells Charlie not to buy it.

Can I make it viral?
Of course you can! This is the easiest viral marketing form. All you have to do is create some poor quality product without the users needs in mind or which is perceived by the user to be marketed in an underhanded manner.

Next time someone asks you to "Make it viral," ask, "Which type?" Then try to understand the user's wants and needs. Your product should be able to fulfil those needs and satisfy those wants, and provide a positive experience. You would know when you’ve done it right and so will 12 other people.

Advice on Viral Marketing for Marketers

Viral marketing, or "refer-a-friend," email campaigns have attracted a lot of attention from the media recently. These campaigns persuade recipients of promotional emails to forward the messages to their friends. This type of marketing has attracted both positive and negative reviews from consumers, privacy advocates, and industry pundits

At the core of the issue are concerns over sending unsolicited email. The tactful use of viral marketing can help marketers avoid negative reactions, and gain an increased reach for a targeted marketing message beyond its original audience.
Five Ways to Execute A Viral Marketing Campaign Most Effectively

1) Offer an incentive
Viral marketing will yield its best results if a valuable and tangible incentive is offered that will entice individuals to forward an email message to their friends. However, marketers should limit the incentive to a specific quantity to avoid spam-like distribution of the message. For example, giving a 20 percent discount to any person on his or her next purchase if the message is forwarded to five friends. On the other hand an open-ended incentive, offering a $5 credit for every five friends referred, can lead to causing a marketer customer service, financial, and privacy-related problems.

2) Don't consider the referral as already in
When a customer refers a friend, the referral should not be considerd an opt-in. A name and email address provided by a person's friend does not automatically make the referral a customer. That individual should be asked if he or she is willing to receive any future viral marketing mailings. Only after winning the consent of the relevant individual can they be counted as an opt-in.

3) Personalize Your Viral Marketing Email
Response rates increase considerably when users can see that a message is coming from a friend, therefore it is best to tone your viral marketing email message to show that it's coming from a familiar source. The subject line is the main component in a viral marketing email, because this is what helps identify the email as friendly. A good subject line may read: "ADV: Hi John, thought You'd Like 20% Off at ABC.com," thereby identifying it as a message sent by a friend about a special offer in an advertisement.

4) Track and Analyze the Results
As with any marketing campaign, tracking the results and constant performance improvements over time are an absolute necessity in viral marketing. Viral marketers now have access to insightful and helpful data that can be used to evaluate performance. Important figures to keep track of are pass-along, click-through, and conversion rates. Marketers should split the click-through and conversion rates of original customers from referrals and evaluate their performances individually. These figures will alert a marketer to which offers and customers drive the highest ROI.

5) Continuous Promotion of Friendly Referrals
Viral Marketers who need frequent forwarding of their message should place an enticing offer in every relevant outgoing email message. Viral marketing, though ideal as a one-off campaign, can also be effectively used to continuously expand the reach of your marketing message over time.

Though there is no sure-fire way to halt negative customer reactions, the following five concepts will help marketers make their viral marketing campaigns highly effective.

[emma2007]

That was a great read, its true that "refer-a-friend," email campaigns have attracted a lot of attention from the media recently, new viral techniques offer a world of opportunity for branding in the tell-a-friend landscape. Recent campaigns prove the strategy is alive and well and has practical uses.