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Articles and news | Viral Marketing under the Microscope

Created by   |  December 01, 2008 14:27

Viral marketing – online promotional campaigns that (hopefully) spread “like a virus”—sounds like a great idea, and most of us would love our products to be caught up in such a marketing epidemic, but where do we start? MarketingSherpa.com to the rescue with valuable insights into Viral Marketing Tips & Tactics:

The heart of a viral ad campaign is the content. People don’t spread the ad because they love your brand, they spread it because they can’t help but adore your content. They’re not evangelists serving you, they are self-serving. So, all successful viral ad promos appeal to any one (or all three) of these basic human motivators:

Appeal #1. Entertainment
Fun, humour, games, quizzes, videos, songs… anything to pass the time not working.

Appeal #2. Greed
Sweeps entries and other free offers.

Appeal #3. Charity (and/or fear)
You can help save the world. Ask all your friends to sign this online petition/buy this item/visit this Web page daily… etc.

It’s not about you

Instead of being the central message of the campaign, the brand becomes the sponsor of the viral ad campaign. Why would you want to invest in an ad campaign where your brand isn’t the central message? Three reasons:

Reason #1. Because, as we’ve already noted, consumers are fed up with (irrelevant) advertising

Reason #2. Standing out in a cluttered world Uniqueness catches the eye, but is your product really truly unique enough to stand out?

Reason #3. The possibility of outrageous reach If your campaign is a viral hit, you’ll reach far more people than you ever dreamed possible on a fairly moderate budget. As the word “viral” indicates, your campaign can “go viral” ... exploding to hundreds of thousands or even millions of viewers. However – and many marketers find this scary – you have almost no control over how many people your campaign will reach or what demographic they’ll be in.

Plenty of viral ad campaigns:

  • Never really take off.
  • Take off at an unexpected velocity (too fast, too slow, too lingering) causing havoc with related hopes, offers and systems.
  • Take off in unexpected directions such as other countries or outside your target demographic.

It all depends on the quality of your creative, the expertise behind your seeding campaign, and a walloping dose of luck.

Viral Best Practices

When used responsibly, viral marketing can be a powerful community-building, brand-building, and list-building tool. Gone wrong, it can result in legitimate campaigns being perceived as spam, reflecting poorly on your company and your brand. However, there are things you can do to reduce the likelihood of being labeled a spammer and, at the same time, get better results from your viral email marketing campaigns. Here are thirteen Viral Marketing Best Practices prepared by GotMarketing.com that are good homework in preparation for any viral campaign:

#1 — Make sure it’s appropriate to add a forward message.
The first step is to consider whether you should even mention forwarding at all! Some campaigns are designed for communicating private information to a specific group of people and are just not suitable for sharing.

#2 — Make the ‘call-to-forward’ appropriate to your campaign objective.
If forwarding will help you achieve your primary goal, make your forward message strong and visible within your layout. If forwarding is less important, consider making your call-to-forward subtle. Don’t distract readers from your main message unnecessarily.

#3 — Remind readers to forward appropriately.
Recipients who forward may not stop to consider that someone else might not want to receive the email. If they send it anyway, your email campaign will be perceived as unsolicited, the receiver will be annoyed, and it will reflect poorly on you. Be sure to remind readers to only send your email to people they know will want to receive it.

#4 — Be wary when offering rewards for forwarding.
While offering incentives for forwarding can be highly rewarding—for both you and the forwarder—it may inadvertently encourage inappropriate forwarding. If this happens, the backlash could affect your current subscribers as well as potential new subscribers. As with any marketing campaign, it’s a good idea to test your incentive on a small group of people first.

#5 — Think about what you want new recipients to do.
Think back to your campaign objective. Forwarding alone helps increase awareness, but if you want new subscribers or more sales, make sure there’s a call-to-action for new readers (e.g., include a link to your sign-up page or online store).

#6 — Think about how you want new recipients to feel.
Read your own email as though you had received it from a friend. Is there enough context provided? Does it make sense? Review your message to address the needs of any new recipients, not just the people on your original list with whom you already have a relationship.

#7 — Remember your brand.
Always include your company name, logo and website address in each and every email that you send. You might know who you are, and your regular readers will recognize an email from you, but don’t assume that new recipients will have the same knowledge (see #6).

#8 — Choose the right email format.
Although rich media is the format we most often associate with viral marketing, it’s not the only way to accomplish your objectives. Your email campaign will be most successful if you choose an email format preferred by your audience—because first, you have to get your email opened and read. After that, it’s the content—and a reader’s ability to relate to it—that will get your email forwarded.

#9 — Use email marketing software that measures viral activity.
Email marketing software often allows you to embed a ‘forward’ link in your campaign that measures: how many people forwarded your email, how many times each person forwarded it, the number of additional click-throughs gained by forwarding, and which people became new subscribers as a result. Measuring success is a critical part of email marketing, and forwarding success is no exception.

#10 — Make it clear that readers should use the forward link in your email message, not the forward button in their email client.
Measuring viral activity is only possible if your readers click on the forward link you embed in your email message. If they use the forward button on their email client, all tracking ability is lost. Since email was around way before email marketing software (old habits die hard), you’ll need to make your forward link obvious and your call-to-forward clear.

#11 — Craft your call-to-forward carefully.
Your forward link is like any other trackable link — it appears as a clickable word or phrase. If you want people to click on your forward link instead of their forward button, say more than just “Forward to a Friend”. Spell it out for readers with words like “Click here to send this email to others you think would enjoy it” or “Click here to share this valuable information with colleagues”.

#12 — Vary the placement, size, or color of your forward link.
If you send a regularly scheduled mailing, text that appears in the same place in each email can become “invisible” to the regular reader. Instead of always putting your forward link in mouse type at the bottom, move it to the top, or use a bigger font or different color for a while to get your link noticed.

#13 — Learn from someone else’s mistake.
Do your research. Read success stories. Learn from the mistakes and successes of other email marketers.

Du kan lære mere om viral marketing på kurset Viral marketing der lykkes som afholdes d. 26. februar 2009.

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