What the Heck is Viral Marketing?

Tuesday March 25, 2008 

If you’ve been marketing online for some time, you should have heard of the term viral marketing. To learn how to make your traffic and sales explode read on and download this valuable but free to you ebook. You will find a download link at the bottom of this article.

It is often dubbed as the most effective form of marketing due to its viral and credible nature and not to forget that it often does not cost you much (in fact it can be free!). So the next question is, what exactly is viral marketing?

‘Viral marketing’ has been one of the big buzz phrases of the past few years. Many books have been written on the topic, but this phrase is probably coined by the owner of Hotmail around 1996. In the offline world, this is commonly known as ‘word of mouth’ advertising. It basically refers to letting people spread the word about your website/products to others when they come into contact with each other.

In other words, you create something that is so interesting or involving that others feel that their acquaintances must know about it too, and they pass it on without any direct involvement on your part.

Viral marketing therefore works on the basis of tapping into the resources of existing social networks that you are in, and the people with whom you already network. Therefore, as long as you can create something that is worth talking about, you will actively encourage people to pass the message along, and by doing so, create a buzz about your product that effectively takes on a life of its own.

It is called viral because as you can guess, it spreads like a virus. And just like a virus, viral marketing duplicates itself with everything it comes into contact with and has the ability to spread itself faster than anything.

Microsoft Hotmail is one of the best examples as when every Hotmail user sends a friend an email, the following ad appears:
——————————-
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at
http://www.hotmail.com
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In 12 short months, Hotmail built a multi-million dollar business using this simple viral marketing technique.

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Filed Under Viral Marketing

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