Viral Marketing by Rami Flefel

What is viral marketing? Well based on what I have learned throughout my education, viral marketing is the online version of the concept of “word-of-mouth”; some people may call it the concept of “word-of-mouse”. Viral marketing has the characteristics of spreading like a flu virus, to create an online marketing buzz. It tries to encourage people to pass along a marketing message.

“Producing a message with a quality offer or an incentive for pass-along is what viral marketing is all about” (What makes it viral? 2000)

Viral marketing has six elements or characteristics in which they are not all necessarily found in every viral marketing campaign but the more of these elements are involved, the more influential the results are likely to be. The first element of a viral marketing strategy is to “give away valuable products or services”. For example, have you ever met anyone that heard the word “free” and was not interested? Giving away valuables creates attention, and if the product or service is valuable enough to the customer, they will definitely tell someone else. The second element is to be able to “provide for effortless transfer to others”. For example, viruses only spread when they are easy to transmit; the same applies to viral marketing. You need to make sure your message is easy to transfer. The third element “scales easily from small to very large” which means simply to plan your strategy to be able to control and deliver according to your viral market. The fourth element is to “exploit common motivations and behaviors”. This element suggests that in order for the campaign to be more influential on customers it should meet their motivation and behavior. For example, if you are trying to send out a message that is not common to your target market it is more likely they will not spread the message around. The fifth element “utilize existing communications network” suggests that most people are social and use different types of social networks, therefore using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, (etc…) would be a winner. The sixth element “take advantage of others’ resources” recommends placing text or graphic links on other websites. For example, a news website attracts hundreds of views which would make it wise for marketers to post their message.

(Six simple principles of viral marketing 2005)

The reasons for the wide popularity of viral marketing are:

• Socializing and networking has made people closer to their friends and relatives, which makes them highly accessible over the net.

• Viral marketing is one of the cost-free methods for promoting a business transaction.

• In this type of marketing, one person contacts his friends and relatives, they contact more people which creates a chain that goes on.

(Advantages and Disadvantages of viral marketing 2007)

The Main Disadvantages of Viral Marketing are:

• Losing control is very easy which may lead to a negative buzz.

• Greater awareness of your business can lead to spam threats.

• Brand dilution.

In conclusion, Marketers may ask why should we use a viral marketing strategy? Well viral marketing advantages are high credibility, low costs, great reach, and high efficiency. However, like any other strategy because of its disadvantages, such as spam threats and brand dilution, marketers should do their research on their market and decide which type of strategy they should implement in order to reach their maximum profits at lowest cost possible with great brand reputation.

Reference List:

• What Makes it Viral 2000, Click Z, Available from:
. [20 February 2011]

• Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing 2005, Web Marketing Today, Available from:
. [20 February 2011]

• Advantages and Disadvantages of Viral Marketing 2007, Outsource Strategies International, Available from:
. [20 February 2011]