Viral Marketing – Cutting Through the Commercial Clutter
Posted on 17. Jul, 2010 by SNS Research in Digest
Today’s consumers are deluged bymercials and advertising, and increasingly, they’re finding ways to tune it all out. The Do Not Call List prevents unwanted telemarketing, spam filters block junk email, DVRs allow television viewers to skipmercials, and satellite radio foregoes advertising altogether. Clearly, reaching the modern consumer with your marketing message is more difficult than ever, but the reward for doing so is also unprecedented. Viral marketing is a technique that not only penetrates consumers′ self-erectedmercial barriers, but goes a step further – enlisting consumers as part of your sales and marketing staff.
Viral Marketing – What Is It?
Viral marketing spreads amercial message from person-to-person. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on traditional advertising through print or broadcast media, viral marketing campaigns are typically web-based. The basic idea is to send an email message to a core list of consumers and hope that they then forward the message to their friends, who in turn forward it to their friends, and so on. Viral marketing is thus a “social networking” form ofmercial advertising.
For example, a popular jobs web site developed a traditional TV ad to air during the Super Bowl. The ad featured monkeys running around an office. In order to build additional buzz, the web site allowed visitors to login and construct silly video email messages using the monkeys. A toll free number could be used to record a personal message, and other things such as the monkey’s clothes could be customized. Five months later, the emails are still circulating – 44 million have been sent by more than 6. 5 million unique visitors through July, 2006.
No Monkeys on Your Staff? No Problem
The “Monk-email″ project, as it was known, cost its creators in excess of $100,000. By contrast, their 30 second Super Bowl ad cost about $1 million to produce, and $4 million to air. While these numbers are well beyond the means of all but the most wildly successful home-based businesses, the point is clear – viral marketing is much less expensive and yet much more effective than traditional advertising.
You don’t need a six-figure budget to construct a viral marketing campaign. All you need is a mailing list of your core demographic, and an idea of what they might like to pass along. A good viral marketing message has a 30 percent pass-along rate, which means that a successful message sent to a base list of 5,000 would reach approximately 7,140 people. Of the first 5,000; 1,500 would pass it along; and of that 1,500; 450 more would pass it along, as so on. What’s more, each time your message is passed along from one consumer to his or her friends, it is like a personal endorsement of your product or service.
What you should use the viral marketing campaign? For traditional broad-based market, the mood seems to work better. Jokes yes it is unlikely that the degree, so that investment in the creation of video ads is essential. Fortunately, the costs and difficulties in obtaining this material has collapsed in recent years, and there are many independent Web that can be hired for a fee acceptable.
If your target is more of a niche market, then worthwhile content is probably a better bet. For example, if you provide a financial service, then a short, enticing e-book on stock selection may do more for you than a humorous video clip – provided you have a good list of people who are interested in stocks.
Creating a successful viral marketing campaign isn’t easy. But for the creative home-based business owner, the public’s aversion to traditional marketing can be a great asset. After all, it levels the playing field. There’s no way you canpete with big businesses on TV or in magazines, but you canpete in viral marketing. Of course, having a pet monkey wouldn’t hurt!
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