Viral Marketing

Exploits common motivations and behaviorsA clever viral marketing plan will take advantage of common human motivations. For instance, what proliferated "Netscape Now" buttons and "Microsoft Bob" T-shirts in the early days of the Web? It was the desire to be cool and be part of a trend. Another factor that always drives people is the desire to strike it rich, or put simply: Greed. A hunger to be popular, to be loved, and to be understood also stand out as driving human factors. The resulting urge to communicate based on these basic human needs can produce millions of websites and billions of e-mail messages. When you can design a marketing strategy that builds on these common motivations and behaviors for its transmission, you have a winner.Utilizes existing communication networksIt is a fact that most people are social. Nerdy, basement-dwelling computer science grad students may be jokingly referred to as the exceptions, but even they have friends and family with whom …

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No matter what methods you use to start a campaign, the following insights can help you maintain control and are ways to be certain that the message your campaign is sending is the one that you wish to send. Using methods like these to steer your campaign and keep it on track are just as vital to successful campaigns, as is following up with existing members/customers in a regular and valued manner to ensure you have neither lost their interest nor inadvertently annoyed them.* Offer incentives in exchange for traceable actions that help positively promote your campaign. For instance, offering twenty percent discounts for every five leads that followed a link from their web site to your home page. Be sure to cap and clearly detail such offerings so that you do not cripple yourself or spend too much for the value received!* Utilize public sympathy whenever possible. The classic e-mail hoax about the bottle caps and the little boy in England is a clear example of how drawing …

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Some StrategiesSome strategies are obviously going to work better than others. The Hotmail campaign in which "free" services are utilized with no apparent cost to the end-user, are no-brainers. Approaches where some initial up-front costs are charged to credit cards or where "future" charges will be incurred are much less likely to generate active involvement. Few promotions will work as well as Hotmail's strategy because most products and services don't generate revenue via their day to day use. Hotmail users spread the word and generated new business simply by using the service itself. You can increase your campaign's likelihood success and its ability to generate new business traffic by including one or more of the following proven "viral" elements: Gives away products or services Provides for effortless transfer to others Scales easily from small to very largeLet's examine each of these success elements briefly.Gives away valuable products or …

[Read more...] about Some Viral Marketing Success Strategies

There are several proven Viral Marketing methods that work well, provided there is value in the offering. Those include:WINNING A PRIZESo long as we're talking true value and not a tee-shirt or novelty item, setting up a giveaway, competition or sweepstakes always generates excitement. Especially if you can arrange some type of ongoing or interactive event such as lotteries, or if some portion of the proceeds is being given to charity events that are near to your focus group's hearts.One viral campaign that was reasonably successful dealt with a "ticket" to win a new motorcycle being given away with every $100 worth of purchases from a store. Additional chances were sold for $1 a chance directly to the public in addition to the campaign.Flyers and e-mail notices for this event were spread so far and traveled so well, that a yearly giveaway has been done every since. Business for that company has increased tremendously. Had the grand prize been just a jacket or a …

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Understanding PeopleIt's a simple fact that no matter how hard you try, you can't please of all the people all of the time. But if you are smart, you can implement policies and use techniques that will help you, and any employees you have, to please most of the people most of time. This skill will translate to good word of mouth and customer experiences that will allow your viral marketing campaigns to be successful.WHY PLEASE YOUR CUSTOMERS?Some people will ask why they should try so hard to please every customer. Why not say that resolving their issues or solving their problems is enough, and leave it at that? Well to answer that, here are a few facts that you should keep in mind both pro and con for pleasing customers at any cost:CON:68% of the customers who quit doing business with a company do so because they don't feel cared about. Compare this to the 14% who just don't like the product or service. Of the customers who use your product, four out of …

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