The notion of ‘Viral’
The Oxford Dictionary (2015) defines viral as the nature of, caused by, or relating to a virus. Viruses are usually characterized by negative connotations however Wilson (2012) sees the potential:
“But you have to admire the virus. It has a way of living in secrecy until it is so numerous that it wins by sheer weight of numbers. It piggybacks on other hosts and uses their resources to increase its tribe. And in the right environment, it grows exponentially. A virus doesn’t even have to mate. It just replicates, again and again with geometrically increasing power, doubling with each iteration.”
How are viruses related to marketing?
Wilson (2012) explains Viral marketing as 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.Away from the internet, some more familiar definitions of viral marketing are “word-of-mouth,” or “creating a buzz”.
Viral marketing is currently the biggest marketing trend of the decade. We now see companies of all sizes, posting promotional videos on Youtube, creating flash-mobs, and employing the services of celebrities and comedians to capture the consumer’s interest (Ferguson, 2008). Viral marketing has since extended into the field of email marketing, which has created a new tool for marketer to reach consumers.
Viral Email Marketing
When the viral marketing and email marketing cross what do you get? … Viral email marketing. In many ways, viral email marketing is closely similar with email marketing, except that viral emails are sent out with the intention to be forwarded to friends and other contacts. Whilst viral email marketing is not the most conventional form of marketing,I agree with VT (2013) who says that it can be a profitable method of increasing your brand awareness if you devise a plan which focuses on the interest of your customers.
If you are considering using this form of marketing, this blog will tell you how. Taking some lessons from the President of EZ Publishing, Dan Forootan, Here are 4 things to remember for your viral email campaign:
1. Quality not quantity
The content of your email needs to make the customers feel touched. Whether it is helpful, entertaining or inspirational, the customers will forward your message depending on how it makes them feel. You will benefit trying to play on warm and fuzzy feeling as these are more relatable with the customers. Beware with sending emails that could slightly controversial, as although more customers will be inclined to share it, it could actually destroy your brand instead. It is probably best to capitalize on using humor to win your audience’s heart. So try to include funny videos in your targeted emails in order to increase the chance of it being passed on.
Another point to take on board is the quality of the presentation, think of the colors, font style, page layout. Try to keep it minimal, yet informative and ensure that you emphasize the information that you want the customers to see.
2. Offer people something free
I’m sure that we’re all familiar with the power of free! If an item was one cent, we’d be wary of it but the moment we see it’s free we go crazy for it. The champions of viral email marketing are Hotmail.com who were one of the firsts to make use of this type of email marketing,
The Classic Hotmail Example
(adapted from Wilson, (2012): The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing)
The strategy is simple:
Give away free email addresses and services
Attach a simple tag at the bottom of every free message sent out: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com”
Then stand back while people email to their own network of friends and associates who see the message
Sign up for their own free email service; and then propel the message still wider to their own ever-increasing circles of friends and associates.
Like tiny waves spreading ever farther from a single pebble dropped into a pond, a carefully designed viral marketing strategy ripples outward extremely rapidly.
Sales, discounts and product giveaways can be very alluring, and if the information is well presented then customers will recognise it, save it and pass it along to their friends. Furthermore, coupled the social proof of their friends sending it, it is bound to be an advantage.
3. Know your target market
You need to know what drives a person to make a purchase with you, as this will most likely be representative of their demographic group. This is to say that, your email be relatively ‘personalized’ for your customers that have the same interest. If you are a shoe company for example, it may not be in your best interest to advertise comfy loafers to 18-25 year olds, because it’s not likely that they will buy them. It’s possible that they will buy for an older family member, however they’re likely to have more people in their age range to share with. so emailing them this deal is waste of time and resources.
4. Consistently promote your service
In every e-mail remember to promote your service, as this is a form of advertising it is essential that you continue to sell yourself. You should market your brand in every way, remember consumers needs information about deals to provide a context for their buying decisions. However, this does not that you need bombard your audience with daily emails, instead you should constrict the amount of emails you send per week a certain amount, perhaps 3 times a week.
So there you have it, if you were planning on using viral email marketing to market your product/service this blog has given you four tips which can help to make your campaign a success. As long as your plan is carefully thought out and followed through, there is no reason why you cannot become a master of viral email advertising.
References
Active Campaign. (2009). Viral Email Marketing Strategies. Available: http://www.activecampaign.com/blog/viral-email-marketing-strategies/. Last accessed 10th May 2015.
ChristiaNet. (2015). Viral Email Marketing. Available: http://www.christianet.com/internetmarketingservices/viralemailmarketing.htm. Last accessed 10th May 2015.
Ferguson, R. (2008). Word of mouth and viral marketing: Measuring the ROI. Journal of Consumer Marketing. 25(3),p1-p4.
Forootan, D. (2014). Email news and strategy. Available: http://www.streamsend.com/articles-viral-email-marketing.html. Last accessed 10th May 2015.
Wilson, R. (2012). The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing.Available: http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/viral-principles/. Last accessed 10th May 2015.
VT (2013). Creating Successful Email Marketing Campaign. London: VT Publisher. p5.