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Viral Marketing: Plant a Promotional Seed that
will Spread Like Wildfire
The Dangers
 While
viral strategies can be highly effective and supremely cost-effective,
the concept is no magic bullet. There are potential pitfalls that
can cause it to backfire. Sandeep Krishnamurthy [5], a marketing Professor
at the University of Washington, says there are four big issues to
worry about:
Brand Control: You don't know who an individual is going to
contact, so your messages may end up outside the target audience.
In some cases, individuals may modify the message, leading to variability
in how your brand is perceived, something you don't want.
Uncharted Growth: Viral marketing can lead to unanticipated
growth paths. Such growth paths may lead to abrupt changes in strategic
direction, which can be problematic.
Lack of Measurement: You can't always track who received the
e-mails and what they did with them. In many cases, it may not be
possible to tell if people who adopted your service did so because
of your viral marketing technique, or otherwise. So it's difficult
to track and measure.
Spam Threats: If done poorly, viral marketing can lead to large-scale
spam issues. Companies planning to implement viral marketing programs
must carefully consider these problems and devise plans to overcome
them.
Kim Brooks [2] gives specific examples of the potential pitfalls and
their solutions (see sidebar). But, above all, it's important to remember
that the viral process will disseminate an unfortunate blunder just
as efficiently as your intended message: "The downside is that they
can do the same thing regarding bad experiences with the same efficiency
and speed. Research has shown that people share bad experiences up
to five times more often than they tell about good ones. Before you
post a site to your server and invite people to visit it, everything
should be quality tested and in perfect order." [8]
One of the most obvious threats is that your viral message will be
perceived as spam, especially since it already has some of the outward
character of a chain letter or pyramid-marketing scheme. To this,
Brady Brewer [1] comments:
"At the heart of the issue are concerns over sending unsolicited e-mail,
but by using viral marketing tactics carefully, marketers may avoid
negative reactions and gain an excellent return on investment (ROI)
as they increase the reach of a marketing message to a targeted group
far beyond their original audience." He offers five strategies for
executing a viral marketing campaign effectively and also safely:
Offer an incentive. Viral marketing works best when a valuable
and tangible incentive is offered, encouraging individuals to forward
an e-mail message to their friends. However, marketers should cap
the incentive to a specific quantity to avoid spam-like distribution
of the message.
Don't consider the referral an opt-in. A name and e-mail address
volunteered by a person's friend does not constitute an opt-in by
the individual, so the data should be deleted immediately after
the referral e-mail is sent.
Personalize the referral e-mail. Response rates increase dramatically
when users can see that a message is coming from a friend, so it
is best to personalize the e-mail message to show that it's coming
from a recognizable source.
Track and analyze the results. As with any marketing campaign,
tracking the results and optimizing performance over time is absolutely
necessary.
Continually promote friendly referrals. Marketers who want to
have their messages frequently forwarded should place a viral marketing
offer in every relevant outgoing e-mail message.
As attractive as the viral marketing strategy is, it is not a be-all
and end-all, and certainly not an end in itself. As strategic planner
Adam Posman notes: "Viral marketing is not an objective: it is an
integral part of a campaign strategy that is used to achieve objectives."
[7] Do make a viral element a key part of your marketing mix--and
let it go out and make money for you.
Part
1: A Viral Market
Part 2: The
Process
Part 4: Sources,
Resources & Credits
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