6 Keys of Viral Marketing

Posted by John

November 7, 2007

Web Site Promotion For The Small Business v2
November 7, 2007

Viral Marketing is a relatively new term, but the principles behind it have been around since the concept of selling things has been around. Wikipedia defines Viral Marketing as “…a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily.” If you have ever heard the statement that if a customer is satisfied, they will tell 3 people about their experience and if a customer is NOT satisfied, they will tell 7 people about their experience, THAT is Viral Marketing.

The basics of Viral Marketing are:

Gives away products or services
Exploits common motivations and behaviors
Provides for effortless transfer to others
Utilizes existing communication networks
Scales easily from small to very large
Takes advantage of others' resources

One world-class example of Viral Marketing is Hotmail because they:

Give away free e-mail 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” and,
Then stand back while people e-mail to their own network of friends and associates,
Sign up for their own free e-mail service, and then
Propel the message still wider to their own ever-increasing circles of friends and associates.

*** Article Copied from Web Marketing TODAY. To read the entire article, click here.

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