So Just What is Viral Marketing?
You may not have yet encountered this recent and highly cost efficient development in Marketing, now made possible by exploiting the Internet. It does what is says - spreads your own company messages just like a biological virus would through others. Sounds sinister? No! Let us explain by the way of two recent case histories.
A small company in South Suffolk who specialised in Ranger Rover spare parts had just updated their website and added in a photo of the owner’s Dog sitting in the cab of a Range Rover, just for a bit of fun. This dog became an instant hit and customers would email in to ask for more pictures. Eventually there became a page dedicated to the Dog but carrying with it a message about the inherent friendliness of the Company. These customers would often send on these pages to other dog owning friends and over the course of just a few months the dog had built up a real fan base! So, in effect, these photos with their attendant messages about the company, helped to improve both brand recognition and enhanced its personality. The cost? Nothing, apart from the use of a digital camera!
In another example a company in Brighton who specialised in the Loyalty and Rewards programmes began to publish a whole series of copyright free “White Papers” on the their Website. These pages gave out very useful hints and tips over a range of marketing techniques that could be used to great advantage by lay people. Within a matter of 24 hours other Marketing Companies, related specialist Newsfeeds and Bloggers began to usefully plagiarize this “open” content and so added it to their sites to enhance their own awareness and customer support. In each case these hints and tips pages carried a message or a “Link” referring to the originating Company. The cost? Virtually nothing, other than some executive time applied to writing the original content.
Any company with a Web presence can exploit Viral Marketing.
editorial contributed by Edward Huggins FCIM
