E-Mail to the Editor on Viral Marketing
"How is Viral Marketing different from 'word-of-mouth'? Word-of-mouth has been helped along for years by all the clever tricks described in your article... How many times have you had a salesman say, 'I'll let you have this for 10% over cost...just tell your friends.' So, am I dense, or just not foolish enough to buy into a new marketing theory that is just a rehash of the second oldest marketing ploy?" -- Bruce Golub, REBUS Interactive
Editor: There's nothing new under the sun. This IS a rehash of relationship marketing, referral networking, word-of-mouth advertising, etc. But when advertising media change, tried and true concepts can get lost in the shuffle. So-called Viral Marketing is important because it reminds us to devise ways of Internet marketing that capitalize on existing networks to zoom your message quickly before skadillions of people quickly and inexpensively, rather than just frontal assaults by dumping millions of dollars into straight advertising.
"Here's a viral marketing idea we're developing for one of our clients: An online contest where the top X people who visit the web site and send out the most e-cards (to valid email addresses, of course!) win prizes. The e-cards feature the company logo/URL, unique graphics of popular musical artists that are not available anywhere else and sound clips from the artists' latest albums. The e-card display page and notification email sent to the recipients also promote the contest to encourage the recipients to take part." -- Jeff Zweig, AeroScan Malaysia, www.aeroscanasia.com
"I have produced an E-book 'The SuperTips Book of Internet Marketing' which I give away for free at my site. I encourage visitors to also give it away free explaining a variety of ways in which they can benefit from offering a free gift. But I go even further. I show them examples, which they can copy or adapt, of exactly how to offer the book to their customers - what to put in their ads or sales letters, or at their web site, and even how other sites are offering it. As a result 70% of my visitors come from sites which have links to my book." -- Harvey Segal, www.supertips.com
"We run a Virtual Marketing Department on the web for growing companies. One of our services is a directory of Marketing Vendors. When you search for a vendor, they are ranked according to how many customer 'testimonials' have been posted to their profile. When a vendor lists, he/she is told this and given the option to easily send an e-mail to prospective reviewers asking them to come to GotMarketing.com to post their review. When they come to do so, they are exposed to our services, as many are prospective customers for us. Adding value to a vendor adds value to us and hopefully to them too. Win/Win/Win. -- Lynda Partner www.GotMarketing.com Ottawa, Canada
The most effective technique to date I would have to say are what companies such as NVision Designs are doing with their mini, cute, PC video game promotions such as Elf Bowl or Frogpult. These games are so cool that everyone just has to send one to their friends. Great marketing technique, probably the most effective! -- Spiro Georges Mandylor, www.ActFit.com Toronto, Canada.
"Ireland has a very competitive IT industry, and personnel are becoming more and more difficult to attract... Supposing John gets sent the URL for www.BoredSenseless.com and thinks 'Mary's a great designer, and she's really bored with her job. He fills in her details and e-mail address, the information is stored in a database, along with John's details. If Mary is hired, John gets money. Even if Mary isn't interested in being recruited herself, she can still suggest someone and the website address gets passed around... People who work in the industry and 'get' the net, respond really well to it: It's also been an incredibly successful device for raising Labyrinth's profile as an Irish web development company. The website is even being circulated by people who don't want to enter anyone but just want to show their friends something diverting and funny." -- Crona Barrett, Labyrinth, Dublin www.labyrinth.ie
"A viral marketing technique I have used is to place a 'Send this Page to a Friend' script at the bottom of each of the pages I designed to promote American Military University's degree/major programs. This sends an e-mail from the surfer with a pre-scripted subject line." -- Scott A. Cason, American Military University, www.amunet.edu/mh.asp
"I have my weekly column and cartoon hosted on several sites. I also offer the cartoon free to anyone who wishes to add it to his or her site. The code is easy to copy and the cartoon updates automatically: http://www.wahm.com/comic_code.html In my last log, I had hits from links on 5200 sites." -- Cheryl Demas, www.WAHM.com, the online magazine for work at home moms.
"I did not find the Recommend-It service to be particularly effective when I trialed it about 18 months ago, but articles on websites and e-mail lists IS very effective." -- Ian Traynor, Traynor Kitching & Associates, York, England www.tka.co.uk
"I tell people they can reproduce material within their organisation, providing they retain my details. This applies to handouts at external seminars for practitioners and to people printing out my webpages. I also have a general statement on my site saying that people can reproduce pages for non-profit purposes. My marketing aim is to gain a widespread reputation for being knowledgeable about (in particular) business information on the Internet. From that point of view people recommending my site on webpages, articles, word-of-mouth etc is achieving my marketing objective." -- Sheila Webber, University of Strathclyde, Scotland www.strath.ac.uk
