Some Strategies
Some strategies are obviously going to work better than others. The Hotmail campaign in which "free" services are utilized with no apparent cost to the end-user, are no-brainers. Approaches where some initial up-front costs are charged to credit cards or where "future" charges will be incurred are much less likely to generate active involvement.
Few promotions will work as well as Hotmail's strategy because most products and services don't generate revenue via their day to day use. Hotmail users spread the word and generated new business simply by using the service itself. You can increase your campaign's likelihood success and its ability to generate new business traffic by including one or more of the following proven "viral" elements:
> Gives away products or services
> Provides for effortless transfer to others
>Scales easily from small to very large
Let's examine each of these success elements briefly.
Gives away valuable products or services
There is no question that "Free" is one of the most powerful words in marketing. It's not surprising, then, that most viral marketing campaigns and programs include some method of giving away products or services of varying values to attract attention and draw customers. From free e-mail services or free information to free "cool" giveaway items such as buttons, posters and pens to trial software programs that perform powerful functions hinting at the full-fledged capabilities available in the "pro" versions, the list of potential products and services to give away for free is practically endless. Part of the reasoning behind this is the Second Law of Web Marketing known as Wilson's "Law of Giving and Selling" which in part stipulates that while words like Cheap or inexpensive may generate interest they won't do so as fast as simply saying "FREE!"
One of the keys to the success of modern viral marketers is that they 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 eventually and hopefully for a long time afterwards. Investing up front by providing goods for "free" to the end-user attracts attention that can then be redirected to other desirable things you are selling that will and eventually earn money.
Provides for effortless transfer to others
With real-life viruses, you find that public health nurses offer sage advice during flu seasons and high risk locations: "simply stay away from anyone who coughs, wash your hands often, and don't touch your eyes, nose, or mouth and you are much less likely to catch a virus or get ill." This is because a virus only spreads when it's allowed to transmit from one person to another. In the real world, the medium that carries the virus is normally mucus or other bodily fluids. Likewise, your marketing message must rely on existing mechanisms through which the message is just as easy to transfer and replicate: e-mail, websites, graphics, software downloads, etc.
Viral marketing works so famously on the Internet, in part, because of the ease of near-instant and inexpensive communication and because people like to share things they see and hear. Digital formats make copying music and images simple. Most software interacts with other programs in some form or another, despite AOL's noted exceptions! From a marketing standpoint, your goal is to simplify your message so it can be transmitted easily and without degradation: shorter is best. As with the Hotmail campaign; saying "get it free", then listing the location is about as simple as it gets.
Scales easily from small to very large
If you expect your message to spread like wildfire, then the transmission method needs to be rapidly scalable from small to very large. This was one of the few weaknesses of the Hotmail model. As a free e-mail service, it required its own mail servers for transmitting messages. When the strategy turned out to be wildly successful, more mail servers had to be added very quickly to support the rapid growth. Otherwise, the service would have bogged down and people would have deemed it unreliable.
Just as in real life, if the virus multiplies but kills the host before spreading, then nothing worthwhile is accomplished. Having an idea in advance of the potential for growth and for building any necessary scalability into your viral model is vital to a successful viral marketing campaign.
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