For many, the term viral marketing seems to have a negative connotation because of its identification with the word virus, something that many users and especially internet marketers tend to avoid altogether. However, viral marketing is one of the most prolific tools made available to internet marketers today. Viral marketing is an internet marketing tool which is made to be capable of being passed on from one person to another. It is called viral due to its ability to be passed on to a growing number of internet users through the email, pdf files, e-books, etc. Through viral marketing, an email message or a message intended only for marketing can reach thousands if not millions of people. To the layman, viral marketing can be compared with network marketing or word of mouth. The use of viral marketing can be likened to a small fire, which catches everybody’s attention from the spark that is created psychologically causing the reader to take immediate action.

To be successful, viral marketing makes use of a product that has a universal appeal and which is freely and readily available to most people. Aside from easy transmission, the product must also be easily accessible to the receivers, for it to become viral. Marketers who avail of viral marketing usually offer free products like e-book or e-videos, which cater to the needs and interests of their target niche market. The product is usually distributed by the targeted prospect to his or her own set of friends or clients, and the clients do the same until the product has reached millions of email users. Viral marketing techniques can be as easy as sending free email courses or free e-books to targeted clients via broadcast messages if a opt-in list of subscribers are involved. Wanting their friends to benefit from the same service, the original targeted prospect passes on the free email courses until it creates a multiplier effect. Another tools that can be utilized to benefit from this type of marking would be the use of email signatures, which can also increase traffic to your website.

This is easily done by adding your website address and maybe a few comments below your name in all outgoing emails. Most free email accounts like Yahoo and Hotmail allow you to add this feature by going to options after logging in then to signatures to enter your information. Furthermore, offering free screensavers to computer users is also one way of creating an email database since those who want to download free screensavers are required to register using their email addresses. Once the client has logged in his email address, the internet marketer can do his job by sending emails redirecting the recipients to his website. Setting up an affiliate program is also a viral marketing technique. This can be accomplished by allowing users to refer customers to your site, and giving them a certain percentage for each sale.

Affiliate programs can be easily searched on the internet as these sites are submitted to affiliate directories. Other website owners hire people to participate in discussion boards and forums and require them to use signatures that are linked to their websites. This method is quite effective because people from all walks of life participate in the forums and most often, they are redirected to the signature link. In order to intrigue forum posters to read your information once posted, make sure you use forums that are closely related to your website. To achieve the desired goals, you respond to questions affixing your signature link. The use of articles to boost targeted website traffic is one of the best viral techniques. Under this technique, numerous articles of different topics are created and are redistributed for reprint on other websites with a resource box that serves as a link to the original website. This way, the online marketer owner who lacks articles and materials for his website benefits from the free articles. On the other hand, the owner of the article gets to advertise his website link for free in exchange for the article. Among the most popular articles are do it yourself articles, how to articles, self employment articles, and usually articles about beauty, health and money.

People will always be drawn towards anything that will give them the most benefit at little cost. Starting a website is the easy part, but it’s not the end product of internet marketing. A website owner has to take advantage of email marketing tools to generate more traffic to his website. With the use of creativity and persistence, these marketing tools like the viral technique, doen’t cost much. Another method to increase website traffic is to exchange links with other website owners who have products that are different from your website. By agreeing to interlink your websites, both websites benefit from the exposure they will get from their own clients. No matter what viral technique you have chosen for your email and internet marketing, you have to make sure that you generate enough interest to increase traffic to your website.

These are the techniques you can use, and should use, to increase your presence online. Viral marketing is one of the smartest things you can do for your business, which will pay off for you in future years.

By: Ontarian Hawkins

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Viral marketing is based on how humans behave naturally . The easiest way to describe Viral Marketing is to compare it to word of mouth marketing. ‘Viral Marketing’ is a term that emerged in the late 1990s during the first great internet boom and while many of the buzzwords and wisdom’s to emerge from that age have cheerfully and gratefully been forgotten, the notion behind viral marketing is as relevant today as ever. 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. However, viral marketing is one of the easiest and cheapest things you can do to grow your online presence and turn your efforts into a money maker.

Viral marketing has definitely gained its popularity over the global network. More and more businesses are adopting this marketing strategy to gain their fair share in the market. The approach developed by Hotmail in increasing its number of subscribers is one classic example of viral marketing.

How Hotmail Did It

Hotmail is one of the first web-based email provider that gives away email addresses for free. Their marketing approach starts by giving free web-based email addresses and additional services. Each of the messages sent with a Hotmail address has an advertisement at the bottom that goes: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com.”

Then, of course, Hotmail subscribers will use the service to send messages to their friends and colleagues. These friends and colleagues will get the message and read it, and then clicks on the link at the bottom. They will also sign up and be a subscriber like what the sender did. Then these new subscribers will also email their own set of friends. The cycle goes on and on.

This is why viral marketing has the power of reaching thousands, even millions, of people in such a short time and with little effort from the one who initiates it.

Elements of Viral Marketing

Dr. Ralph Wilson, an e-commerce consultant, named six elements or basic principles of viral marketing. A viral marketing technique need not have all of these, but the more principles it follows, the more powerful the strategy will be.

1. Give away products or services. This is the first and most basic principle of viral marketing. When a person hears the word “free,” it elicits the interest in him and will avail of that free product or service, for sure. Having cheap or inexpensive products may also do the trick, but “free” will give much faster results.

Patience is important in viral marketing. Giving away products for free may not earn profit today but if the business gets to develop customer base by giving something for free, it will soon generate income for them.

2. Easy transfer to others. The medium used to carry the marketing message to other people should relatively be easy. Viral marketing has been powerful over the internet because of the ease of communication the technology offers. Email, web sites, software downloads are just some examples that can be used in viral marketing.

Also, it is better that the message be short for easy copying and transmission. Simple and short but straight to the point is best, just like Hotmail’s advertisement at the bottom of each email sent out.

3. Scalability from small to very large. When viral marketing is used as a marketing style, it is best that the business is prepared for rapid growth. In cases of increasing web traffic thru viral advertising, the web owner should make sure that the host server is prepared enough to handle the expected increase in traffic within a short period of time.

This should not be taken for granted; else, it will defeat the purpose of doing viral marketing. Once people notice that the site takes a long time to load, they will just leave and forget about it. That means an automatic loss of potential customers.

4. Exploit motivation and behaviors. A marketing strategy that builds on motivation and behaviors of people for its transmission is a definite plus. People love to be popular. This motivation will drive them to communicate to more and more people to be known.

5. Utilize existing networks. According to social scientists, an average person has about 8 to 12 members in their close network of family, friends and colleagues. Moreover, internet gives way to creating a bigger network circle. Learning to use these existing networks in viral marketing will yield better results.

6. Take advantage of other’s resources. Viral marketing need not consume all your resources away. Using other web sites in posting your articles, for example, will get them read by a large number of people without the need of creating your own web page.

It is best to learn these basic elements or principles of viral marketing first before actually doing it. Being to aggressive without doing your homework may just lead to damage instead of success. Try to adopt those that may be applicable to your product. Use all of the principles, if possible, for a more successful output.

By: John DeLellis

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