Blast Your Campaigns to the Moon - Great Viral Marketing Strategies
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What is online viral marketing? It is called a successful advertising campaign. The phrase was a creation of a business school graduate, popularized a media critic named Douglas Rushkoff. It simply refers to your ability to reach an unlimited number of people by starting out with a handful.
Anything I think is interesting, usually I will tell my friends about it. They will tell their friends as well if they like it. They probably know people that I do not know. So, the circle of growth is unlimited. It traditionally was called word of mouth advertising.
The biggest difference between word of mouth advertising and online viral marketing is the potential number of people that anyone at any given time communicates with daily. Using me as an example. In my “real” life, I talk to my close family members every day. I may speak to my family and friends once per week.
Some, I haven’t talked to in years, “live”. But, via e-mail and social networking sites, I communicate with all of them, every single day. If I find something that I think is interesting or something that makes me laugh out loud, I will send it to a minimum of 30 people.
Surveys say that the average person shares this kind of thing with only 12 people. So, I may be a little outside of the curve. The main feature is that the 30 people that I know will share with others. Effortless, information moves through this wave of people. Will the free ride eventually end?
If you have an effective online viral marketing strategy, you may be able to generate numerous waves; when one crashes, another forms. There are a number of different strategies, but all of the effective ones include one element. There is something “free” of value for people to share.
Often enough, it is simply a great commercial. Sony had one a while back. It was posted on YouTube and people got it out there to people they knew. Up to date, it has been viewed thousands of times. How many people made a purchase? Who knows?
The point is this. To reach hundreds of thousands or millions of people in the not so distant past, TV advertising would have been the only option. As well, you would have had to purchase space between the most popular shows, the costs would have been extremely expensive. With online viral marketing, you can reach that many people for next to nothing.