Viral Marketing Deserves More Exposure
What is good about it is the cost incurred could be nonexistent, however, anything that will spread through VM has to be good. It also has to be executed well so that it will be an attention grabber from the inception and people will love to spread it around, and at times they have no choice. Because people always like talking about interesting things and exchange information that being one of the reasons why they socialize. In addition, if they had been enticed about something new they encountered recently they will definitely pass it around.
The reason why VM has become popular is because of the Internet that has made the spreading process very simple. Email is one great way of undertaking such a marketing campaign and it will be exempted from being considered a spam, because the recipients are, more or less, known and it is not going to raise such an awe where the recipients will threaten to report it as a spam. All it takes is mentioning the affinity if aimed at a bigger group like a network or members of an entity where the sender is a member. When it comes to family members and friends there is no need because it could even be done through word-of-mouth.
What is interesting about VM is if 10 people come to know about the existence of a given marketing scheme that the originator wants to spread around and if each one of them tell another 10 individuals casually, because family members and a few close friends can make up that number, the effect could be phenomenal, which means it does not even have to be an organized effort. Each individual could at least have an immediate interaction between 10 to 12 individuals in a normal situation that are easily accessible to be informed about something that might be of interest to them. Moreover, depending on the number of people that will know about the marketing scheme the number could go very high.
What is interesting is even businesses could do it in a large scale email campaigning and all they have to do is request the recipients to pass it along to their friends. Most sites facilitate the process by including a button to click, where all that is required is to fill in the name and email address of the recipients, and the system itself will do the rest. When those at the other end receive the message they know how the marketer found out about them, because who the sender is will be mentioned. The same email will ask them to send it to their friends, and that is how the single humble viral could become an epidemic.
One good thing about VM is it easy to integrate it into the everyday marketing strategies marketers are using on a daily basis. There are sites that provide free service and the payoff for the most part is they could get the email address of those who are using their free service and could target them for future marketing campaign, to send them a sales pitch. They might ask them to put a text ad or a banner on their web site voluntarily or they could make it compulsory. Taking the interaction one more step and asking users to tell their friends about the free service will make the users to remember or if there is a button to do it in real time it is possible that they could do it at the spot, because they want their friends to know about the free service. They might even use word-of-mouth after that simply because the free service could good to pass up.
If an email marketing campaign is underway, those who were willing to open the email might find the marketing interesting. If there is a notice that will tell them to pass it along to their friends they could happily comply, because they might have seen something good in the marketing that they want their friends want to know. If the email facilitates it with a button they might do it at the spot, and this could makeup for the big number of email that will be deleted as junk mail when they are received unsolicited, which will happen when emails are automatically generated for mass marketing using software.
If there is a newsletter that is in circulation the same could be applied and the recipients who are opt-ins for the most part could be asked to tell their friends about it, and the subscribers base could be augmented easily. Those who are submitting newsletters to ezines could also ask the recipients to pass it along to friends, because there is always a box provided at the bottom to do a limited amount of marketing, and many recipients might be willing to do it.
If there is a web site that is producing content on a regular basis it could put a button asking visitors if they want to send it to their friends. Anyone who is reading articles on the online publication, it could be news items or columns, there is always a button asking the readers to send it to their friends. Which means, VM is in use quietly, but not many sites talk about it, and that might have to change. Because it could be unmatched in a brand awareness campaign.
At times it might require some kind of creativity where the marketer might have to apply some gimmicks like jokes for example, and if successful it could spread like a flu epidemic. Starting blogs that are witty and interesting and asking people to tell their friends about the blog could do wonders for a marketing campaign, because along with the wittiness a subtle marketing campaign could take place in the background, and no one will mind it. In fact, depending on what the marketer is doing, either there is a high rate of brand awareness that could be generated, or some of the bloggers could become prospects that will visit the web site to do business eventually.
