What is viral marketing?
Viral marketing is a solid marketing tool. The term was originally introduced by Steve Jurvetson in 1997 to describe Hotmail’s® free email service, in which attached ads were sent to all subscribers. Also referred to as “social media marketing," “Web marketing,” or “buzz marketing," viral marketing is reproducing and spreading itself through emails, videos or images that users share with their social network. Thus, firms attract more consumers and expand their customer base through word-of-mouth advertising or Web linking.
Defining viral marketing
Viral marketing is defined as the marketing strategy that encourages marketing campaigns through the use of pre-existing social networks aiming to exponentially raise customer awareness. Instead of using individuals to convey the message of a marketing campaign, viral marketing functions like a virus that spreads and influences an increasing number of consumers, exploiting rapid multiplication through self-replicating viral processes. If a viral ad reaches a “vulnerable” user, that user becomes “infected” by the advertised product or service and passes on the ad aiming to “infect” other users through word-of mouth recommendation or Web linking. If each “infected” user forwards the ad to more than one “vulnerable” user, the message will be forwarded more times than it was initially sent because it multiplies exponentially.
The principles of viral marketing
Successful viral marketing has to include several elements to produce the desired results. The principles of viral marketing are:
- Offering free products or services
Marketers offer free products or services to raise consumer interest quickly at a very low cost. Besides, by getting a free product or service, consumers are getting interested in other products or services of the same company, thus increasing advertising revenues, e-commerce sales opportunities and viral marketing effectiveness.
- Ensuring uncomplicated transfer of information
The advertising medium that replicates the marketing message should ensure uncomplicated transfer of information. One of the major advantages of the Internet is that it facilitates instant communication. Viral marketing takes advantage of how easy and economical it is to pass on a promotional message to millions of users. Moreover, the advertising messages need to be short and accurate.
- Building in scalability to the viral model
Successful viral marketing requires good infrastructure. If a viral marketing strategy is extremely successful, the host server must be upgraded to accommodate the boosted Web traffic generated. By building in scalability to the viral model, from small to very large, the rapid growth is accommodated successfully.
- Take advantage of common human motivations and behaviors
Human behavior is extremely important in marketing, but especially in viral marketing. When a particular promotional message is passed on aiming to influence purchasing decision-making, marketers take advantage of consumers’ common motivations and behaviors. For instance, if a promotional message involves a product or service that can make consumers popular, it is very likely to be passed on to billions of users because becoming popular is a common human motivation.
- Take advantage of additional resources
Affiliate marketing is often a part of viral marketing. By using graphic links on other websites or releasing free articles on other Web pages, promotional messages of viral marketing are communicated through someone else’s resources.
The value of viral marketing
Word-of-mouth advertising is a broadly used marketing technique that organizations implement to promote their products or services because it is based on personal recommendations. Similarly, viral marketing is based on word-of-mouth advertising where consumers recommend a product or service to their social network. The universal effectiveness of their recommendation is widely regarded as the best low-cost marketing strategy.
The value of viral marketing is measured by taking into account consumer reviews, consumer questions about particular products or services, consumer feedback on how the organization handles customer complaints, and sources of referrals. How customers think about a firm’s products is important because they can influence the purchasing decision-making of people in their social network. How effectively the organization handles customer complaints is important because it influences the feedback customers give to their social network. These factors are taken into consideration toward the improvement of viral marketing strategies to improve their performance and effectiveness.
Viral marketing challenges
Although it is one of the most popular marketing methods, viral marketing faces challenges. If a video is too large for a user to receive, the promotional message will never reach the recipient and will never spread to other users. If a viral message is sent out in a format that requires downloading software to be viewed, it is very likely to fail because users are generally reluctant to waste their time in viewing something that is not readily viewable. If a request for referral is a condition to access the viral message, users will probably delete the message without forwarding it. Finally, viral messages are often blocked by anti-spam and anti-virus software.
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