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In many respects marketing by word of mouth can be said to be the “hidden statistic” for all programs, as it’s well near impossible to actually gauge the effectiveness of marketing done this way. However, it also should be noted that most every product in the digital age has used this method to enhance puclic and corporate awareness of the product.

A recent study proved that two thirds of online marketing will be done on this basis alone in the coming year, which when coupled with the advent of Web 2.0.0 social networking and social marketing sites point towards promoting your product by word of mouth may be both more cost effective, and have an increasingly better ROI than more “traditional” online advertising media.

Consider any of the current online social networking site's business model. There has yet to be a successful site of this type that charges monthly, relying instead as they do on ad generated income. It is difficult to measure the effectiveness of marketing by word of mouth, but it should be noted that there is a method of measuring if your campaign is working – increased sales.

A company should know from their output volume exactly the change between before a campaign, during a campaign and after a campaign. This gives businesses a measurable statistic to show effectiveness of this type of marketing. It is true that not all businesses need or desire this form of sales technique, but is also through that not one business turns away prospects garnered from the by word of mouth method either.

Whatever your area of expertise, a study completed by Hill and Knowlton this year showed that decision makers are highly influenced by personal experience’s (58%), with recommendations tied at 51%. Coming in lower than expected was direct marketing at 21% with internet advertising lat 17%. These figures might only reflect the buying habits of sole decision makers, but a woman in Oregon deciding to buy a specific car insurance or another IS the key decision maker for that type of purchase, and her friend Sue to deal with the same company will have a greater influence over Sue than an actor selling the product on TV.

Essentially, this statistic can reflect any industry, any segment, if each purchaser is the key decision maker. This makes the re-appearance of the world’s oldest method of marketing a no brainer – so get talking or tweeting, but tell everyone!

Technorati Tags: by word of mouth, Internet Marketing, referral marketing, viral marketing, word of mouth marketing

There are thousands of viral marketing products and tools available on the internet.  But, you might want to be careful which ones you choose.  You don’t want to be considered a spammer. Here is how you can avoid that.

First, you must determine if you have an amazing product or service to offer the public? Will customers be highly satisfied and refer your products or services to other people? If this is not the case, then viral marketing products will be of no use. 

The dynamic behind this kind of campaign is that when people have a good internet experience, they tell 12 other people.  That’s according to the Opinion Research Council. 
Now, if they have a bad experience, they will still tell 12 people about it. Certain people will also go further and even publish online reviews.  When people have a bad experience, they often want everyone else to know about it, especially if they are angry.

So first, you want to ensure that the majority of your customers or clients will be satisfied. You can never please everyone, but you must try to do your best at it. 
  Once a single person tries your product and tells those 12 friends, they will tell 12 other friends and so on and so forth.  That’s how the virus spreads. It has been suggested that without a great product or service, you cannot create the viral effect no matter what the campaign.  That may be true, but viral marketing products are still useful.

Your goal may be to increase your database and make people aware of the scope of services that you have to offer, as opposed to sending out thousands of email messages every week. That is an example of one of the services that some of the better businesses will provide. They make keeping in touch and top of mind with your current customers easier. They also encourage your clients to share this information with friends and associates. Effectively, they collect more email addresses and that’s what starts this type of virus.

Only people that receive these emails are those that have requested it or are those people whose friends have suggested it to them, so technically it’s not spam. The old saying is true, you get what you pay for, there are some free services on the web, but you can guess the value already. If the email is never going to make it into a person’s inbox, only a spam folder, there is no point in sending it? Unfortunately, if the service is no-charge, it may be a waste of your valuable time.

If you’re like most business owners, your time is money.  There are some viral marketing products that are worth the money and save you time.

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, viral marketing, viral marketing products

Not all people tell the truth, so it’s unlikely that everything you read on the web is going to be fact. To counter that, especially when in connection with something as ethereal as word of mouth information, listed here are a number of statistic’s and sources that you (if you so desire) can check for accuracy at your leisure.

1. Family and friend recommendations are more infuential when giving out word of mouth information (AdAge).

2. Traffic to a site that posts reviews will typically return to that site nine times, and are twice as likely to purchase from that website than others (source: McKinsey and Co.Jupiter Media Metrix).

3. Consumers trust friends more than experts or celebrity endorsements (65%, 27% and 8%, respectively; Yankelovich).

4. A Nielsen worldwide study of some 26,000 users in over 40 markets reported that consumer recommendations were the most credible form of word of mouth information advertising within the 70% plus of respondents.

5. Over 116 million user generated comments were made in the U.S. in 2008 alone, with an additional creators of content totaling 82 million. With the extended reach and influence of Web 2.0 and social networking, these figures are sure to climb (source: eMarketer.com).

6. Social network users are three times more likely to purchase a product on the strength of recommendation from a peer rather than any form of advertising. (the source: Jupiter Research).

7. 86% of people asked said they trust a friend’s recommendation over the experts, with 83% saying they trust user generated comments over a critic’s (Marketing Sherpa).

8. 66% of social networkers are more inclined to purchase due to a recommendation, compared to 52% that aren’t social networkers (Royal Mail home shipping tracker).

9. 81% of holiday shoppers read through user reviews prior to purchasing (Nielsen Online).

10. Consumers totaling 86% read reviews on businesses before buying, with over 90% saying that they trust those reviews (Kudzu.com).

11. 49% of shoppers stated that they have made many of their purchases based solely on the strength of consumer reviews. Of this total 53% bought on the strength of user reviews;48% due to comparison charts;41% due to editorial reviews and comments;58% due to shared shopping lists.

12. Almost two thirds (62%) of home consumers read on line user generated product reviews before purchasing (Deloitte and Touche) with the same percentage stating that they would consult sites with user reviews in order to make entertainment purchases (Marketing Sherpa).

13. 7 out of 10 people who browse consumer generated reviews are more likely to share the information, which amplifies their impact (Deloitte and Touche).

14. 74% of those surveyed state they base purchasing solely on user generated reviews of their customer service experiences for a product or company (Society of New Communication Research).

As you can see, word of mouth information coming from trusted sources such as friends, consumers, etc. is the most powerful form of advertising.

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, referral marketing, viral marketing, word of mouth information, word of mouth marketing

If you do a web search for free viral marketing, you will see the system at work. Offering something “free” is part of the strategy. No business would actually offer free advertising. They may offer free information. It could be just enough to make you interested and want to get more information.

Reports, trials, test-runs and lead generation are things that they offer. Of course, if you want lots more, you must pay. That’s how this method of advertising campaign works. It is what you decide to do with your company, too.

No matter what you are selling, you need to identify something that you can give away for free. Perhaps you are an expert carpenter. You might provide do it yourself tips and publish the information on your website or online magazine or even create a newsletter specifically for people that are interested in carpentry. Then find a way to let people in on your information offering.

The only way to do free viral marketing is to do it on your own. You would need to build a list of e-mail addresses. Join online clubs or social networks. Post on forums. You can buy a long list of e-mail addresses and of course some companies offer a “taste” for free. Again, we know that giving something away often generates customers.

Success of any campaign depends on reaching a big group of people and offering a free item. But, your success depends on the quality of the item or service that you have to offer. A product can only reaches virus proportions if people really dig it or they think that they must get it, in order to be “in”. The excitement aspect wears off. Valuable items stick around.

Actually, I’m giving you free viral marketing advice right now. Do some companies charge for this kind of advice? There are classes that you have to pay for and what they teach is what I have just informed you of. Usually, they go into great detail to make you feel that what you paid for the seminar was worth every penny. But, there is not much to learn.

Do companies charge to do the marketing for you? Yes. These kinds of advertising campaigns are especially time-consuming, so you might not want to attempt them. Your website might not even be ready for the kind of business that an effective campaign can generate. If you read some more about free viral marketing, you’ll see what I mean.

Technorati Tags: buzz marketing, free viral marketing, Internet Marketing, referral marketing, viral marketing, word of mouth marketing

What is online viral marketing? It is basically a successful advertising campaign. The phrase was a creation of a business school graduate, popularized a media critic named Douglas Rushkoff. This simply refers to the potential to reach an thousands of people by starting out with only a small amount.

If you tell me something that I think is interesting, I will tell my friends about it. If they, too, think it is interesting, they will tell their friends. They probably know people that I do not know. So, the circle of growth is unlimited. In the old days, we called it word of mouth advertising.

The difference between word of mouth advertising and online viral marketing has to do with the number of people that someone talks to every day. Let’s use me as an example. In my “real” life, I talk to my close family members every day. I might talk to my extended family members and my friends at least once a week.

Some of them I haven’t talked to in years, “live”. Through e-mail and social networking websites, I never fail to communicate with all of them, every day. If I find something that I believe in…something that moves me, I will share it with at least 30 people.

Surveys say that the average person shares this kind of thing with only 12 people. So, I may be a little outside of the curve. The point is that the 30 people that I know will share with others. Effortless, this information ripples through this wave of people. Will the wave eventually crash?

If you have an effective online viral marketing strategy, you may be able to generate numerous waves; when one crashes, another forms. There are a number of different strategies, but all of the effective ones include one element. There is something “free” of value for people to share.

Often enough, it is simply a great commercial. Sony had one a while back. It was posted on YouTube and people got it out there to people they knew. Up to date, it has been viewed thousands of times. How many people bought something? Who knows?

The point is this. If you wanted to reach thousands or millions of people not so many years ago, your olny option would have been via television advertising. Of course, you would have to buy space on the highly watched shows and the costs are astronomical. With online viral marketing, you can reach that many people for next to nothing.

Technorati Tags: buzz marketing, Internet Marketing, online viral marketing, referral marketing, viral marketing, word of mouth marketing

The viral marketing business model was first described by Tim Draper and popularized in 1997 to describe Hotmail’s practice of adding advertising to the outgoing mail of their users. In different terms, viral marketing has been around for as long as people have had items to sell. In so many words, it is word-of-mouth advertising.

It relies on the average person’s tendency to “tell their friends”. The terminology, or what we refer to this as, is new. Surveys tell us that the average person has at least six close friends. If they have a good experience with a product or a service provider, they will tell those six people about it.

Those same surveys tell us that when an internet user finds something valuable, informative, funny, interesting or free on the internet, they will share that with 12 of their “online friends”. Thus the internet is the backdrop for the most successful viral marketing business model.

We have also been told by the pros that in order to sell something, you need to give something away. I recently read a free e-book about dieting. It made a lot of sense. It was written by the head of a supplement manufacturing company. He suggested that you share the book with all of your friends. His goal, of course, was to sell supplements.

He could have sold the book. It contained as much information as many of the diet books that line bookstore shelves, but he realized the value of giving something away, in order to get something. Not only do people love free stuff, they have a tendency to “trust” people or companies that give them something with no strings attached, especially when that something has value.

There are numerous software programs online that offer a free version and a “platinum” version. This is another example of a viral marketing business model. When one person sees this free software program, they will tell, on average, 12 of their online buddies about it.

Social networking is becoming increasingly popular. People on MySpace and Facebook literally have hundreds of online friends and they “share” things with them on a daily basis. If you can provide something that they want to share, then you may have a viral campaign waiting to happen.

There are other elements of a successful viral marketing business model. But, coming up with something free that people can share with others is the most important element.

Technorati Tags: buzz marketing, Internet Marketing, referral marketing, viral marketing, viral marketing business model, word of mouth marketing

The internet offers literally hundreds of viral marketing tools.Choosing a service can be difficult and a bit tricky.If the methods that the company uses are ineffective, then you have spent your money with little hope of return on investment.Research what benefits the company offers and what fees they collect.  Read the fine print in any agreement that you sign.  Those are the basics.This is what you can expect from a great company.

They can generate unlimited referrals for you business.It is your job convert those referrals into buyers.  Sometimes ad campaigns fail, not because there was not enough traffic driven to a website, but because the website failed to sell the product or service.Before you spend money on a service to encourage traffic to your site, be sure that your website effectively sells your company.

Effective word of mouth advertising ensures that consumers are frequently reminded of your company brand and the services you can offer.That can be easily accomplished with regular broadcast e-mails that include your company’s lname and logo.Most of the better companies generate those e-mails for you, conserving you time and money.

Before you invest in viral marketing tools, be sure that the company will provide a measurable return on your investment.They must provide detailed reports listing the number of referrals generated, the click-thru rates and the percentage of conversions to sales, using the links that they create. 

They should also be able to help you retain customers by continuously keeping in contact with them.  This also generates new customers.  When one of your current customers recommends your products or services to a friend, you will often make a sale.People almost always value and are influenced by their friends’ opinions.They are often wary of advertising campaigns.

If you would like to make your company more “green”, choose some good internet viral marketing tools, rather than direct mailers.E-mails are paperless and they are more likely to be cost effective.  It has been estimated that more than 40% of direct mail offers end up in the trash.An excellent e-mail campaign can generate a 50% referral rate, without wasting paper and creating garbage to do it.

If you choose a good company, you can generate another stream of income by referring other businesses to their services.It could be as easy as including a link to the company’s website on your pages.  The bottom line is that effective viral marketing tools can help you earn in several ways, as long as you choose the right company.

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, viral marketing, viral marketing tools

Viral marketing is one of the most simple and certainly one of the most highly effective ways to increase brand awareness increase product sales. The term viral refers to the nature of this marketing technique – the message is passed on from one person to another with minimal effort and whoever comes into contact with the message starts spreading it as well. Just like a virus, the marketing message spreads very quickly and reaches a massive number of people.

If you want to increase your brand’s popularity or if you want to increase your product or service’s sales, you should definitely consider running a viral marketing campaign. If you have never done it before, it is about time you considered doing it. The results will really surprise you.

Some great advantages of this marketing technique include:

1.To run a great viral campaign, the cost is very low. The USP of these types of campaigns is that they use existing communication networks and reach large numbers of people in a very short time period. The marketing message is usually communicated through emails, articles, blogs, and social networks – all of which are no cost to use.

2.   These campaigns usually have an incentive for the user. The campaign is most always created in such a way that the client who gets the message most likely has an incentive to pass it on to his friends. Many items would work well, from free wallpapers, to free email services to free buttons, and much more. So, the user gets rewarded for their effort to spread the word. This will prompt them to do it over and over – thus widening the scope of the campaign.

3.It is so very easy to share your marketing message through a viral marketing campaign. To restate, these campaigns use social networks and free email services to reach out to end users. It is so very important that the end user finds it easy to share messages with their friends.

4.Utilizing other people’s resources is the heart of viral marketing. For example, if you give a free article away to someone and ask him to place it on his website, he will be happy to do this. After all, he gets fresh content to his site which is good for him. The important thing is – you get to place a text link or an image link at the bottom of your article. This way, each person who reads that article will be tempted to click on that link and visit your site – especially when your article has great content. This gives you free, targeted traffic without spending a dollar.

As you can see from what I have explained above, a viral internet marketing campaign is probably the best way to put your business on the map. You can create your own campaign if you have the time it will take to launch it and the creativity to make it interesting. If you do not, you can engage a good marketing company which will handle it all and run a successful viral campaign. So, take it all in and make the right decision today.

Technorati Tags: email marketing, Internet Marketing, viral marketing

Here you will see some viral marketing examples that are considered effective by Business Week and other experts.The several techniques used are unique and they were effective for many different reasons.  Some simply inspired curiosity. 

Business Week in 2001 cited the advertising for the Blair Witch Project as a perfect example of viral marketing.The advertising campaign suggested that the footage was “real”, filmed by a group of college students that had gone missing, presumably leaving only their video camera behind as proof.

Teasers were first seen on TV and then posted on the internet.Viewers were enlisted to share the footage with friends.The film grossed over $248 million and cost only $35,000 for the production.  Who wouldn’t want to see profits like that?

Burger King’s “Subservient Chicken” was commented on in Wired as a successful campaign example.Although it is quite difficult to assess the amount of new customers that Burger King has attracted with this specific campaign, it is a popular website.

Some more “down to earth” viral marketing examples for those of you that may be trying to grow your own business are newsletters and automated e-mails.With minimal software, you can encourage people to visit your website sign up for your newsletter.  That gives you their e-mail address.  

As part of your weekly newsletter, you may ask for the email addresses of customer's friends that would also be interested in your products or services.You can imagine how this could increase your contact base most quickly.  You don’t have to worry about being called a spammer, because the customer requested the newsletter. 

One of the most effective viral marketing examples, according to many experts, is the single line method used by “Hotmail”.They offer people to sign up for free e-mail.At the very bottom of every complimentary email a person sends, there is a single message that reads “Get your private, complimentary email at http://www.hotmail.com”.  The website address is also a link. 

All that they had to do was sit back and wait for thousands upon thousands of people to sign up.  People love free stuff.  The most effective campaigns always offer something free, whether it be playing with a virtual chicken or reading a newsletter relevant to their interests.

When you are able to get people to tell their friends about your product or services, the ripple effect spreads like a virus, which is why the phrase was originally coined.There are many viral marketing examples.Anyone that is not at least attempting to do it is not growing their business as much as they could.

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, viral marketing, viral marketing examples

Viral marketing is a term used to describe advertising and marketing campaigns that start out small and grow exponentially as the customer base builds and grows.It’s really a form of word of mouth advertising, only it is much more effective today than it was in times past, made popular because of the internet.

You can make use of email, Facebook, and video websites like You Tube or message boards.The best systems are automated, so as not to require you to spend any time surfing the net or posting links to your site. 

Here is an example, your company may sell a program that offers its members discounts on cruises.  When you get one customer, you try to get all of their friends, by offering incentives for passing along e-mails.You may offer a free e-book, DVD or other incentive, if the customer sends an e-mail to a group friends.

If this is to be effective, you need to identify your “target” group.With the cruise example, your largest target would be people that love to travel or retirees.If you were selling something connected to NASCAR, your target group should be racing fans.  Get the idea?

Viral marketing makes the assumption that people will buy things based upon their friends’ recommendations.That assumption is correct.  Word of mouth advertising is often more effective than any other type.It allows you to grow your customer base exponentially because a person might have five friends to introduce.Those five customers might each have another five friends, which means you have now grown from one contact to 25.If each of those 100 suggested your product to just four friends, you would now have 400 contacts.The numbers can grow with no end in sight.

Conceptually, one initial consumer would need to be sold on your product or services in order to attract millions through viral marketing.Non-profit and special interest groups are deploying this technique to get signatures on petitions and donations.Movie makers and television shows are employing it to attract more viewers.Bands are using it to excite fans.That highlights how extremely effective this tool can be for nearly any kind of business.

If you don’t use of all of the tools that are available, your business will not grow exponentially.  Viral marketing is one of the most effective tools available.

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, viral marketing

Define viral marketing?It is an especially effective advertising technique that uses a pre-existing network to enhance public awareness of a brand or service.  It is comparable to word of mouth of advertising, although, in this day of electronic communication, it allows you to reach people all over the world, in a relatively short period of time, for a minimal investment.

It can be combined with other forms of advertising, such as a television ad campaign or a direct mailer.  Technically, any media can be used.  On the internet, a campaign may consist of e-mails, video clips, interactive games, static images, graphics, text messages and banner ads.  Newsletters are used by many companies and charitable organizations as a way to “get the word out”.

Now that you know the answer to what is viral marketing, you might want to know what makes it work.  Traditionally, it would work because one person told their friend about a great product they just tried, something interesting that they saw or a new company that was providing “awesome” service.  Through word of mouth recommendations, the company would attract business to their front door.

Today, surveys have shown that when a single person finds something interesting on the web, they share it with an average of 12 other people, who share it with 12 of their friends and so it goes.  The company name spreads in a way that a real virus spreads, via contact with others.   

So, that covers what is viral marketing and what makes it work.  Now, how can you take advantage of this?How is it possible to go about creating a virus?  There are several things that you can do.

To isolate your "niche" is a great place to start.  Who are the people that would be interested in your products or services?Are there professional meetings or clubs where you could find customers?  You might consider joining a professional group.  The members of the group could one day be your customers and they could refer your services to their customers.

You could publish your own online newsletter or invite people to sign up for one on your site.You can buy a pre-surveyed list of e-mails and commence right away.  There are even some e-mail plans that are free.  Try several different things.  There may be one that fits better with your business.

What is viral marketing?  It is a simple solution that can help you grow your business, whatever that may be.

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, viral marketing, what is viral marketing

Getting referrals is the saving grace of any successful company especially if you are running your business on a very tight ad budget. If you’re not getting referrals, then you had better have an absolutely gigantic advertising budget the likes of which few business owners have, and which those who do wish they did not need to spend.

Why do you need to get referrals? Referrals are free targeted leads, well, almost free. Each referral you get costs you very little in either money or time, because they are actually part of your compensation for giving your existing clients excellent products and/or excellent service. The true cost of all of your referrals is then just the money and time you invest selling to your existing customers. If your product or service is exceedingly wonderful and you make your clients feel like kings and queens, they will give you referrals.

Every referral you get is a new lead you did not have to pay for, did not have to cold-call, is pre -qualified, and did not have to pay advertising for. Each referral you receive has essentially been pre-sold on your service, the cost to you is zero, and you know your clients are satisfied.

It is not hard to figure out that by getting referrals, you are virally growing your business. Remember that old TV commercial about the shampoo that was talked about to two friends, and so on and so on, this is how it works

A referral is someone who is interested in you. It would be a person who is set on purchasing from you, or could at least be contemplating it. It is not an individual who finds your approaching them disturbing. Its not a person you have to spend a lot of time trying to pre-qualify.

So, what are some of the ways that you can use to start getting referrals?

1. Simply make it a rule to ask for them. Make it a mandate at your company to ask for a referral each and every time you are in contact them, either to service them or showing them a new product. If you send them e-newsletters, have a section in there every time where you unobtrusively ask them to think of anyone they know who could use what you offer, and to contact you with their information.

2. Exceed your cusotmers expectations when they buy from you, even go as far as to send a note of appreciation.

3. Keep personal relationships, just like a friendship, going with your clients. Acknowledge their Birthdays and think of ways to reward them for remaining clients such as by giving them client-only discounts off new products, and anything else that you think of to prove your appreciation.

4. Exchange website links with any of your clients who also run businesses.

Keep in mind that getting lots of referrals is the best method to get your business booming and make tons of cash.

Technorati Tags: getting referrals, Internet Marketing, referral marketing, referrals, viral marketing, word of mouth marketing

The definition of viral marketing depends on who you ask.Some may say that it is an unethical and close to spam.  But, truthfully, there is nothing unethical about it.  Companies that take advantage of it are relying on word of mouth advertising to sell their business, and word of mouth works.

Do not forget Mary Kay.They are overly expensive cosmetics that are no better than anything else out there on the market.But the company has continued to be highly successful for one reason.Women purchase them and then recommend that their friends buy them. 

In order to be a successful Mary Kay representative, you would believe that the product is better.You would then tell all of your friends that the product is superior.Next step, you would ask your friends to offer the cosmetics.Then, they would tell their friends, and so on.

That's real definition of viral marketing.  It is word of mouth advertising.  You tell your friends.They tell their friends and the process increases exponentially until you, the business owner, have generated higher sales than you might have ever dreamed of.

It is commonly called a virus, because it multiplies, easily and readily throughout the population.  Any advertising strategy that encourages individuals to pass along your message to others is a viral marketing strategy. 

There are many classic examples of this strategy.“Hotmail” is the one.They broadcast a free service and every time that an individual takes advantage of that service, by sending an e-mail, they also send an advertising message to the recipient, offering them to sign up for the free e-mail service provided.

People always love free stuff.That’s the guts of the definition of viral marketing.  You offer something free, in order to generate sales at a later date.You must be patient.It may take time to see the sales figures increase, but they will eventually.

he free tokens keep your company’s name and brand top of mind of the consumer.It is similar to the free pens that banks, insurance companies, air conditioning companies and the like offered, before the internet became popular.  All year long, every customer saw that company’s name and anyone that came to their house saw it too.

Now, you can reach thousands and thousands of customers with a single regular e-mail.  What’s the real definition of viral marketing?It is getting your name out there, where everyone and anyone can see it.

Technorati Tags: definition of viral marketing, Internet Marketing, viral marketing

Although viral email marketing may sound like a “bad” thing, it is not spam.You are not shelling out cash for a list of random e-mail addresses, accumulated by another company.You are specifically encouraging your existing customers to tell their friends about your products or services. 

It is no different from word of mouth advertising, very similar to multi-level marketing and it is highly effective.The correct campaign for your company depends on what your business sells or the services that you offer.  But there are six basic elements that make up an effective strategy.First, you would have to give some item away.

Yes, you are in business to sell your product, but people always love free items.What you can offer as a give away depends on your business.  It may simply be information, like a free newsletter, delivered via e-mail.You might offer a unique item, like a doormat, but in order to get the “special” doormat, the customer might have to buy it. 

The candidates over the course of the recent presidential campaign used this method to get donations.When an individual signed up to receive their free doormat, they were asked to tell some of their friends about it.They gave the e-mail addresses of many of their friends and a viral email marketing strategy was born.

The second element is the ability to transfer the information effortless from one person to the next.E-mails are the best for this.  With a little software or a good marketing company, the whole system can be automated to the point that you never need to do anything. 

The next element is to be able to handle any increase in business.  What if the virus spreads and you become inundated with new orders that you are unable to fill.  That’s one of the things to think about before you partake in a viral email marketing campaign.

Two more elements are to take advantage of highly common motivations and existing communication networks.Common human motivations would include greed, the need to be loved, as well as popular and understood. 

The existing communication networks are those e-mail addresses that nearly everyone has.Sociologists say individuals have a network of at least 8-12 people with whom they communicate with often.Your main goal is to enable each of your customers to provide you with those e-mail addresses or, send your message along to others. 

That’s how viral email marketing works and is the last element of the campaign; taking advantage of the resources of others.

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, viral email marketing, viral marketing