Viral Marketing: Word-of-Mouth via Internet
Viral Marketing: Word-of-Mouth via Internet
Viral marketing is a technique that is used by companies to influence individuals to pass marketing messages onto others. A message or a file can be passed on the Internet via peer-to-peer networks, which is what makes viral marketing so effective. Word-of-mouth is the most effective way to advertise a brand or a company’s products or services. Viral marketing is the word-of-mouth advertising for the Internet. One of the reasons that viral marketing is used widely by marketers is because viral marketing methods can be easily measured. According to IMC 613’s lesson six; “viral marketing firm Digital Media Communications has worked with companies like Apple and Microsoft to create online monitoring software that measures consumer awareness by tracking how wide a viral video clip as spread” (Perley, Lesson 6, 2009).
According to IMC 613 Lesson six, “there are six basic elements that all marketers should think about including in their viral marketing strategy” (Perley, Lesson 6, 2009). These elements include;
- Giving away products or services
- Providing effortless transfer to others
- Scaling easily from small to very large
- Exploiting common motivations and behaviors
- Utilizing existing communication networks
- Taking advantage of others’ resources
(Perley, Lesson 6, 2009)
Microsoft’s Hotmail is one of the first companies known to utilize viral marketing. The company offered a simple exchange: a free e-mail service for users as long as the company could put a one line promotion at the end of every e-mail. According to Carol Waugh, author of the article “Viral Marketing” on Xcellent Marketing.com, “The promotion line encouraged the recipient of the email message to go to hotmail.com and sign up for their own free email service” (Waugh, 2000).
Amazon.com is another example of a company that utilizes viral marketing. According to Carol Waugh’s article, Amazon lets users send books to friends, which in turn gives Amazon potential buyers and allows the company to insert promotional materials into the products that are being sent to the friend. Geocities is a site that allows users to make their own Web pages and invite friends to look at these pages. When a user visits one of these web pages they are prompted with an option that allows them to create their own Web site (Waugh, 2000).
Viral marketing is an easy and inexpensive way to draw traffic to a Web Site. Companies can offer users prizes for inviting a certain amount of people to the site or for referring a friend. Also, like Hotmail, companies can insert a promotion at the bottom of an e-mail or companies can give visitors the option to create their own Web site like Geocities does. This type of viral marketing can increase Web site traffic dramatically and can allow companies the option to connect with more users.
References:
Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism, West Virginia University (2009). Lesson 6: Pass along media I: Viral, Buzz, Word-of-Mouse/Mouth, and Word of Blog. Retrieved December 21, from the WVU eCampus Web site: http://ecampus.wvu.edu/
Waugh, C. A. (2000). Viral Marketing. Retrieved December 21, 2009, from http://www.xcellentmarketing.com/html/articles/viral2000.html
