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The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing | Advanced marketing and conversion methods for 2017
Published by Paul Bilek — 02-26-2017 12:02:49 PM
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The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing
MAY 10, 2012 • DR. RALPH F. WILSON
re-posted by permission.
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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Web Marketing Today. Practical Ecommerce acquired Web Marketing Today in 2012. In 2016, we merged the two sites, leaving Practical Ecommerce as the successor.
Editor’s Note: Dr. Wilson first published this article in 2000. He then updated it in 2005. We updated it a third time, in 2012.
I admit it. The term “viral marketing” is offensive. Call yourself a viral marketer and people will take two steps back. I would. “Do they have a vaccine for that yet?” you wonder. A sinister thing, the simple virus is fraught with doom, not quite dead yet not fully alive, it exists in that nether genre somewhere between disaster movies and horror flicks.
But you have to admire the virus. It has a way of living in secrecy until it is so numerous that it wins by sheer weight of numbers. It piggybacks on other hosts and uses their resources to increase its tribe. And in the right environment, it grows exponentially. A virus doesn’t even have to mate. It just replicates, again and again with geometrically increasing power, doubling with each iteration.
1
11
1111
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In a few short generations, a virus population can explode.
Viral Marketing Defined
What does a virus have to do with marketing? Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions.
Off the Internet, viral marketing has been referred to as “word-of-mouth,” “creating a buzz,” “leveraging the media,” “network marketing.” But on the Internet, for better or worse, it’s called “viral marketing.” While others smarter than I have attempted to rename it, to somehow domesticate and tame it, I won’t try. The term “viral marketing” has stuck.
The Classic Hotmail Example
The classic example of viral marketing is Hotmail.com, one of the first free web-based email services. The strategy is simple:
- Give away free email addresses and services;
- Attach a simple tag at the bottom of every free message sent out: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com”;
- Then stand back while people email to their own network of friends and associates;
- Who see the message;
- Sign up for their own free email service; and then
- Propel the message still wider to their own ever-increasing circles of friends and associates.
Like tiny waves spreading ever farther from a single pebble dropped into a pond, a carefully designed viral marketing strategy ripples outward extremely rapidly.
Elements of a Viral Marketing Strategy
Accept this fact. Some viral marketing strategies work better than others. Few work as well as the simple Hotmail.com strategy. But below are the six basic elements you hope to include in your strategy. A viral marketing strategy need not contain ALL these elements, but the more elements it embraces, the more powerful the results are likely to be. An effective viral marketing strategy:
- Gives away products or services;
- Provides for effortless transfer to others;
- Scales easily from small to very large;
- Exploits common motivations and behaviors;
- Utilizes existing communication networks;
- Takes advantage of others’ resources.
Let’s examine at each of these elements briefly.
1. Gives Away Valuable Products or Services
“Free” is the most powerful word in a marketer’s vocabulary. Most viral marketing programs give away valuable products or services to attract attention. Free email services, free information, free “cool” buttons, free software programs that perform powerful functions but not as much as you get in the “pro” version. Wilson’s Second Law of Web Marketing is “The Law of Giving and Selling”. “Cheap” or “inexpensive” may generate a wave of interest, but “free” will usually do it much faster. Viral marketers practice delayed gratification. They may not profit today, or tomorrow, but if they can generate a groundswell of interest from something free, they know they will profit “soon and for the rest of their lives” (with apologies to “Casablanca”). Patience, my friends. Free attracts eyeballs. Eyeballs then see other desirable things that you are selling, and, presto! you earn money. Eyeballs bring valuable email addresses, advertising revenue, and ecommerce sales opportunities. Give away something, sell something.
2. Provides for Effortless Transfer to Others
Public health nurses offer sage advice at flu season: Stay away from people who cough, wash your hands often, and don’t touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. Viruses only spread when they’re easy to transmit. The medium that carries your marketing message must be easy to transfer and replicate: email, website, graphic, software download. Viral marketing works famously on the Internet because instant communication is easy and inexpensive. The digital format makes copying simple. From a marketing standpoint, you must simplify your marketing message so it can be transmitted easily and without degradation. Short is better. The classic is: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com.” The message is compelling, compressed, and copied at the bottom of every free email message.
3. Scales Easily from Small to Very Large
To spread like wildfire, the transmission method must be rapidly scalable from small to very large. The weakness of the Hotmail model is that a free email service requires its own mail servers to transmit the message. If the strategy is wildly successful, mail servers must be added very quickly or the rapid growth will bog down and die. If the virus multiplies only to kill the host before spreading, nothing is accomplished. So long as you have planned ahead of time how you can add mail servers rapidly you’re okay. You must build in scalability to your viral model.
4. Exploits Common Motivations and Behaviors
Clever viral marketing plans take advantage of common human motivations. What proliferated “Netscape Now” buttons in the early days of the web? The desire to be cool. Greed drives people. So does the hunger to be popular, loved, and understood. The resulting urge to communicate produces millions of websites and billions of email messages. Design a marketing strategy that builds on common motivations and behaviors for its transmission, and you have a winner.
5. Utilizes Existing Communication Networks
Most people are social. Nerdy, basement-dwelling computer science graduate students are the exception. Social scientists tell us that each person has a network of 8 to 12 people in his or her network of friends, family, and associates. A person’s broader network may consist of scores, hundreds, or thousands of people, depending upon his or her position in society. A waitress, for example, may communicate regularly with hundreds of customers in a given week. Network marketers have long understood the power of these human networks, both the strong, close networks as well as the weaker networked relationships. People on the Internet develop networks of relationships, too. They collect email addresses and favorite website URLs. Affiliate programs exploit such networks, as do permission email lists. Learn to place your message into existing communications between people, and you rapidly multiply its dispersion.
6. Takes Advantage of Others’ Resources
The most creative viral marketing plans use others’ resources to get the word out. Affiliate programs, for example, place text or graphic links on others’ websites. Authors who give away free articles, seek to position their articles on others’ webpages. A news release can be picked up by hundreds of periodicals and form the basis of articles seen by hundreds of thousands of readers. Now someone else’s newsprint or webpage is relaying your marketing message. Someone else’s resources are depleted rather than your own.
Put Into Practice
I grant permission for every reader to reproduce on your website the article you are now reading — “The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing” — see http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/viral-principles/ for an HTML version you can copy. But copy this article only, without any alteration whatsoever. Include the copyright statement, too, please. If you have a marketing or small business website, it’ll provide great content and help your visitors learn important strategies. (NOTE: I am giving permission to host on your website this article AND NO OTHERS. Reprinting or hosting my articles without express written permission is illegal, immoral, and a violation of my copyright.)
When I first offered this to my readers in February 2000, many took me up on it. Six months later a received a phone call.
“I want to speak to the King of Viral Marketing.”
“Well, I’m not the King,” I demurred. “I wrote an article about viral marketing a few months ago, but that’s all.”
“I’ve searched all over the Internet about viral marketing,” he said, “and your name keeps showing up. You must be the King!.”
It worked. Even five years later this webpage is ranked #1 for “viral marketing.”
Summary
To one degree or another, all successful viral marketing strategies use most of the six principles outlined above. In the next article in this series, “Viral Marketing Techniques the Typical Business Website Can Deploy Now,” I’ll move from theory to practice. But first learn these six foundational principles of viral marketing. Master them and prosperity could flow your direction.
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Comments ( 33 )
Jamie MontoyaJune 26, 2012Reply
The hotmail example is classic. Nowadays, we see the “Premium” business models leveraging similar viral strategies.
Very nicely written! I believe that viral marketing could greatly benefit those who know how to use it properly.
Ed
Hey,
Very cool aticle. Many small business owners still don’t understand the value of social media. Here’s a small article I wrote on viral marketing: http://geteasyup.com/the-advantages-of-viral-marketing/Free Test PrepAugust 3, 2012Reply
Thank you for the very helpful suggestions!
Truth be told: It’s incredibly difficult to actually “plan” a viral marketing campaign. Most of the time it’s just impossible to predict what “the crowd” likes and will spread automatically.
Great article with some valuable points! I think now a days viral marketing is a key factor in online business to increase ROI on every business. So proper utilization of viral marketing can be very effective for every business owner.
Thanks for sharing!
FedobeAlexDecember 26, 2012Reply
A great article with helpful insights. I particularly agree with the notion that with viral marketing, you are taking advantage of others resources, for instance Facebook Marketing – information spreads like wildfire… Check out
http://facebookmarketing.infordel.com/Tony - Think VideoMarch 16, 2013Reply
I always get requests from many small business about how to get their video ‘viral’. Sometimes, viral marketing is not the right approach. Targeted marketing is key. I think Viral Marketing is key for e-commerce, and to an extent, a brand. But local should focus on targets based on geography. Thanks for letting me rant :) Great post by the way!!
OmoloJune 19, 2013Reply
Very helpful article. Thanks
Joe HaffeyJune 29, 2013Reply
I just read this article for the first time. Out of curiosity, guess what came up second in the serp? This article. I guess Dr. Wilson is the king of viral marketing
FJTMay 27, 2014Reply
Viral marketing is very important nowadays.
jason buiMay 29, 2014Reply
very good. thanks for sharing
John AllenNovember 20, 2014Reply
Really nice & helpful article. Thanks.
Ayesha KaukabApril 25, 2016Reply
Hi, I enjoyed reading your article. It’s a very informative one.
IT consultingJune 13, 2016Reply
Viral marketing is otherwise termed as Social media marketing or online marketing. Passing one message from one user to another and that will spread to many others socially and this can be forward virally.. This method is very much useful for online marketers. This helps to increase brand awarness of your product or services. Great post. Thanks for sharing the article.
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