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The Power of Viral Marketing
When I first heard of the term Viral Marketing I thought immediately
of a virus. No, not the flu, a computer virus. I avoided viral
marketing like the plaque. I’m sure many of you are
doing the same thing. Every email labeled viral marketing
got trashed and I immediately run an anti virus check on my
computer.
I actually took me long time and the convincing words of a
dear friend of mine to change my attitude towards viral marketing.
Call it ignorance, but I just didn’t have the confidence
in something that sounds like it wants to harm me.
Today my whole world changed and now I’m an active advocate
to promote viral marketing. The concept is not new and it
was created by the brightest minds in the business.
Viral marketing capitalizes in the sharing habits of the human
beings. It’s quite extraordinary. We all tent to share
with friends and family the bargains or freebies we were able
to get. If we can copy the freebie we will do it and give
it to our friends and family. Take the music industry as an
example.
Ok, we established that viral marketing is giving out free
stuff and that this free stuff will be passed around. So how
do you capitalize on something everybody expects to get for
free? You don’t. You just use the freebie as an advertising
vehicle. See, once you started giving out software or a book
for free, it will snowball from there. Granted that the software
is any good and the book provides some value. There is no
telling on how many copies of your software or book will float
through the internet. The only thing you now for sure, it
takes some time to gain momentum.
Take Hotmail as an example. Hotmail build its empire solely
on viral marketing. Every email you send had a little line
at the end advertising free email from Hotmail. That’s
it. No expensive marketing strategy, no TV ads, nothing but
a little advertising line at the end of every email. It took
years of building momentum, but today Hotmail is a giant pulling
in billions of dollars every year.
I’m not expecting to repeat Hotmail’s success
with my little viral marketing project, but I’m convinced
that sooner or later the profits will come. It is simply a
matter of time. All you need is a good product that you control
and be able to give out for free. Make sure that you will
be able to place your advertising on the front page of the
product.
You can advertise your newsletter, your web site, products
you’re selling, anything you will make a profit if somebody
clicks through the advertising on the freebie. I spare you
with the details why the same ad advertised through viral
marketing is so much more effective than regular advertising.
Just one thought. Would you click on a single ad embedded
in a software or book send to you by a friend you trust? Of
course you would. There is nothing suspicious about this.
It’s your friend who recommended this in the first place.
On the other hand nobody actually clicks on advertising popping
up on strange web sites you never heard of before.
Now you see why I like viral marketing so much. Quite frankly
I believe in the future it is the only marketing that works.
SPAM filters and popup blockers already make it almost impossible
to get through to our prospects and it will not get any better.
Prepare your self for the future and implement viral marketing
today. You will be glad you did.
Peter Dobler Copyright © 2005
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