Viral Marketing: It is a Must

04/18/2002

viral marketing

It is too important of a concept not to be addressed by any serious online marketer.

Obtaining a qualified visitor to a website can be a very expensive task. Currently there are businesses that are paying over $14.00 for every visitor to their website. Not for every lead or sale but for every visitor. Try it out, type in the word conference call in www.overture.com and see what these businesses pay for each click.

This being said it is no wonder viral marketing is gaining so much momentum. The definition of viral marketing according to Wilson Web is as follows: 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. Basically it is the ability to spread your message, product or service through your visitors like a virus, infecting everyone they come into contact with.

It sounds a little scary, but when successfully implemented, it is a marketing executives best friend. Now you may be thinking, it sounds great, but how can you actually get your visitors to spread the word about your products and services? Well, here are 4 tips that were published by the eMarketing Association.

1. Incentives: An effective viral marketing campaign should offer something that is valuable and tangible to the receiver. Make sure the incentives are valuable and are desired.
2. Personalization: If you offer a refer-a-friend type module, which allows visitor to simply type in email addresses and it automatically creates a message and sends out the email, make sure that you personalize the message It Is very important that the recipient knows the message was sent from someone they know. To accomplish this either (a) make sure their email is what shows up in the “from” section or (b) add there name to the subject line.
3. Analyze your actions: As for any Internet marketing campaign, measure your results so you can maximize your ROI.
4. E-mail tenacity: Include a germane viral marketing offer in every e-mail message you send.

So what does viral marketing look like in practice? Go back to the message we just sent you, the eBusiness Advisor and scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on refer a colleague. Enter in one person that you think may benefit by receiving this newsletter, fill out your email address and add in any comments you wish to accompany the email, press send and your done. It is simple, and effective. When implemented properly viral marketing can greatly reduce your acquisition cost.

To learn more about viral marketing try visiting this web page, http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/issue70.htm. They have links to additional articles, books, and applications.

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