Viral Marketing
What is Viral Marketing?
Viral Marketing is the term used to describe the method of
Online Marketing
which encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others.
This creates the potential for exponential growth in the message's
exposure and influence.
Viral Marketing has an offline equivalent, often referred to as ‘word-of-mouth marketing' or ‘network marketing'.
Viral Marketing is fast becoming a trend amongst marketers due to
developments and influence of social and technological factors.
Communicating online has become a highly popular method for staying in
touch with others. Due to the accessibility and convenience of the
internet and the communication vehicles it offers, such as email,
instant messenger and social networking, people are choosing to
communicate online as an alternative to face-to-face or telephone. The
online consumer is well connected. Hence how Viral Marketing has
surfaced. Viral Marketing depends on the natural propensity of an online
consumer to forward something they see of value on to their network of
contacts.
The theory of a successful Viral Marketing campaign is that the original
recipients of the message will in turn forward it on to their network
of contacts, who will in turn forward it on to their network of
contacts, and so forth. Each of these levels of recipients is commonly
referred to as a ‘layer. When a message is passed from one layer to
another, it is referred to as a ‘viral transmission'. When the message
is transmitted through enough layers, the exposure of a viral message
can become massive. This is often known as the ‘viral spread' of a
message.
Successful Viral Marketing
Why would a consumer pass on a viral message?
The key to successful Viral Marketing is to tweak your
Online Marketing
message to be one that has intrinsic value to the consumer. When one
consumer sees this value, research shows they are likely to forward it
on to their network of contacts. Online consumers tend to forward these
messages for a variety of reasons, but all of them stem back to the fact
that the consumer believes your
Viral Marketing message has an intrinsic value that they wish to share with others.
What constitutes value to an online consumer?
This is one of the key questions in Viral Marketing. Many
characteristics can represent value. Humorous, entertaining, good value
for money, educational, meaningful, and the list goes on. These are all
reasons an online consumer may forward a Viral Marketing message to
their network of contacts.
Often, there is a fine line between creating a successful Viral
Marketing campaign and a failed Viral Marketing campaign. Many Viral
Marketing campaigns fail because the value that is supposed to be drawn
from the message simply fails to inspire the consumer to pass it on.
Offering value in a viral message is a fine art. It takes an
understanding of not only online consumers and their needs, desires and
expectations, but also of available technologies, current trends,
competitor offerings and so on.
The difficulty of implementing a successful Viral Marketing message is
compounded by the fickle nature of consumers, particularly that of
online consumers. What is in fashion and creates huge hype one day can
just as quickly become boring the next. The expertise in Viral Marketing
comes from an ability to develop a viral message that will remain
valuable to a consumer long enough for that message to be virally
transmitted through enough layers to reach the desired number of
recipients.
How can viral transmission be encouraged?
There are several ways in which viral transmission can be encouraged.
The best is providing a message with intrinsic value, as discussed
above. However, this is not the only measure that should be taken. The
viral message must be passed through an appropriate ‘channel'. Channels
are basically the medium used to transmit the message. A few examples
might be
E-mail,
Instant Messaging Services, Mobile Phone Applications, Social Web 2.0
Networks and straight through a website. There are in fact several
potential channels through which a message can be virally transmitted.
The key to encouraging transmission through any of the above channels is
the ease at which the viral message can be transmitted. The less effort
that the online consumer needs to put into transmitting the viral
message, the more likely they are to do so. An online consumer requires
simple options built into the message to transmit it virally, a
hyperlink with “email to a friend” at the top of the page, for example,
would do the trick. Whether it's by email, through sharing on social
networks, or any of the aforementioned channels, the more options the
online consumer has the better.
What's an example of a successful Viral Marketing Campaign?
One of the best recent examples of a
Viral Marketing
campaign is “Will it Blend” by online blender seller, Blendtec. In this
campaign, the marketers have chosen to use YouTube as the channel
through which the viral message is transmitted. Popular consumer items
that are regularly searched for, such as iPod, iPhone, Golf Balls, and a
Chuck Norris figurine, etc, are utilised in the viral video messages.
The owner of the company proceeds to blend these items in his Blendtec
blender. Due to the unique, comedic nature of the message, the campaign
has gained a huge viral spread. Eleven of the “Will It Blend” videos
have been viewed by over 1,000,000 people, not to mention the hundreds
of thousands who have viewed other “Will It Blend” videos. The result
for Blendtec's online sales has been astronomical, with 750% growth over
the first few months of the Viral Marketing campaign.
The Key to the success of this campaign is three fold. Firstly, the
choice of YouTube as the viral channel allows for easy transmission, a
‘share' button easily allows viewers to pass on links and HTML to embed
on other pages allows for greater spread. YouTube is also a very popular
video hosting site, maximising the number of potential viewers. There
is also a subscribe feature and a feedback forum, also useful Viral
Marketing tools. The second key element is in the use of popular
consumer items. Such items are highly searched for on search engines,
and in YouTube itself. This again ensures maximum exposure for the viral
message. The third element that was paramount to this campaign is the
use of a unique and comedic event, i.e. blending consumer items, to show
the power of the Blendtec blenders. Such a message has an intrinsic
value to the consumer, a wow-factor that compels the consumer to
transmit the viral message to his or her network of contacts.
So what is the value of Viral Marketing to a business?
As is evident in the above Viral Marketing example, a successful Viral
Marketing campaign can be of huge impact to a business' bottom line.
Research shows that consumers believe the word of their associates above
and beyond that of a company's marketing message. Therefore, when a
consumer receives a viral message from their contact network, they are
more motivated to act upon it. As long as the invoked reaction to a
viral message is positive, this can have huge repercussions for your
business. If consumers find your viral message humorous, it will have a
positive spin off for your company's image as the message will bring a
smile to consumers, in turn putting them in a happy mood, the most
responsive of all brand associations. If the message recipient sees good
value for money in your offering, they are more likely to purchase and
tell their friends about it. The connotations are endless.
Well, how is a good Viral Marketing campaign undertaken?
From time to time, people come up with a great Viral Marketing campaign.
However, this is mostly an unsuccessful game. A Viral Marketing
campaign is best planned and implemented with the help of
Online Marketing professionals. Experienced
Online Marketing
professionals better understand what makes the online consumer tick,
have a stronger grasp on the types of technology available, and are able
to pool more resources on your behalf. Involving Online Marketing
specialists is the best way to maximise your chance of Viral Marketing
success.
source: exa
