Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable.
The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being passed along.
The term "viral marketing" is also sometimes used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns - the use of varied kinds of astroturfing both online and offline to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.
Viral marketing depends on a high pass-along rate from person to person. If a large percentage of recipients forward something to a large number of friends, the overall growth snowballs very quickly. If the pass-along numbers get too low, the overall growth quickly fizzles.
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Viral marketing tips
Viral marketing increases online sales! That concept seems to pop up everywhere on Internet marketing resources. So what exactly is viral marketing?
The simplest way to explain viral marketing is to think in terms of mainstream networking. Your contacts know about you and your site and you hope to that they pass that information on to someone else. But hoping is not a good way to approach web marketing, you need to be pro-active in promotion.
By implementing viral marketing strategies, you provide an incentive for web site visitors to carry a sales message. This incentive is usually a free "carrier" tool for that marketing message or a means by which it is easier for people to spread the word about your products and services. The idea is not to push your visitors into delivering your sales message to others, but as a side effect of them gaining benefit from a utility or service that you offer.
On the Internet, viral marketing is any marketing technique that induces Web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users, creating a potentially exponential growth in the message's visibility and effect. One example of successful viral marketing is Hotmail, a company, now owned by Microsoft, that promotes its service and its own advertisers' messages in every user's e-mail notes.
Some marketing people prefer terms other than viral marketing. In his popular e-mail newsletter about selling on the Web, John Audette asked readers to suggest alternatives, including other terms in current use. Among those suggested have been:
Viral marketing depends on a high pass-along rate from person to person. If a large percentage of recipients forward something to a large number of friends, the overall growth snowballs very quickly. If the pass-along numbers get too low, the overall growth quickly fizzles.
This is a film from a series we did for a company as an in house Viral. They were a small company within a much larger group and wanted to get more people using them. Unfortunately they had no budget so only had access to a rather basic camera that they wanted us to use. This is what we came up with for them. The results of the viral were immediate. They emailed the link to everyone in the group, after which point a large percentage replied about the video. They were then able to follow up these replies with conversations that led to extra work. Also they got calls as a direct result of the extension number in the film.
The buzzwords viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.[1] Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages.
The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being taken by another competitor.
The term "viral marketing" has also been used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns—the unscrupulous use of astroturfing on-line combined with undermarket advertising in shopping centers to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.
Viral adverts can be more successful than a TV advert, on a much smaller budget. But a video you upload to YouTube to reach 5,000 people is a waste of your time. It is better to maximise your exposure with a professional advertising agency. Time is money and the more you waste not being noticed, the more you loose.
Its amazing how many posts on this board are stolen from other chat forums, I have read, word for word so many of your comments already! The number one rule of viral is, Be original. You should try it.
