Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is so powerful that it makes the search engines look small and insignificant in comparison. Even link exchanges, as powerful as they can be, wilt into oblivion in comparison. Viral marketing is ’self-perpetuating’ advertising which compels people to share it via e-mail or word of mouth. This allows the message to spread (like a virus). Viral marketing is not related to computer viruses which infect computers automatically and cause problems; instead the point of viral marketing is that computer users who are exposed to it choose to pass it on. In some ways, viral marketing can be thought of as the online equivalent of ‘word-of-mouth’.

Viral marketing is beneficial in that it has the potential to reach large audiences very quickly meaning businesses will potentially get their message to their target audience and beyond in hours. If people find content or an offer useful, they will tell others. In my opinion it is the most powerful FREE technique on the Internet.

Viral marketing is a great way to reach a wide audience and get them looking at, talking about and interacting with your products and brand. It’s an ideal way to communicate a message, increase your brand awareness, drive traffic to your site or just to make people smile.

Viral campaigns can come in any shape or form, but they must all use existing social networks to spread whatever message they are trying to get across. It is most often used for email & internet based campaigns but can include blogs and seemingly amateur web sites. All these techniques are aimed at creating and developing word of mouth ‘credibility’, consumer interest and demand for a product or service.

A prime example of this, and one which is often sited as the first viral marketing campaign, is the huge growth of the free email provider Hotmail.
Hotmail was originally launched in 1996 and it grew faster than any other company in the history of the world. Within the first eighteen months of its launch it had already signed up over 12 million subscribers and continues to gain more than 100,000 subscribers every day.

Kenneth Koh, the best known internet lead generator, recommends viral marketing. Click here to read his article.