Viral Marketing: A Unique Method To Engage Customers

When I say "viral marketing," most listeners would assume I'm talking about something negative. A computer virus can be nasty and deadly to your computer and its contents - surely no one would want that, right? But these types of viruses don't have anything to do with viral marketing. Viral marketing is a positive, efficient business tool.

Viral marketing is an internet marketing tool which is made in such a way as to be capable of being passed on from on e person to another. It is called viral due to its ability to be passed on to a growing number of internet users through the email. Through viral marketing, an email message can reach thousands if not millions of people.

To most people familiar with the terms, network marketing or word of mouth is what best describes viral marketing. Viral marketing is like a fire in which smoke spreads in to every little crevice, eventually attracting everyone's attention.

For a viral marketing to be successful the product must have a universal appeal and must also be easily accessible to the receivers. The Product must also be readily and freely available to most people for the product to be called viral.

People out to do viral marketing typically offer free downloadable products, such as free videos or e-books, which will be of interest to their target market. The original download is usually passed to friends, and before you know it, the product downloaded by just one person has been uploaded onto the computers of millions of users all over the world.

Viral techniques can be as easy as sending free email courses to target clients. Wanting their friends to benefit from the said service, the original targets pass on the free email courses until it creates a multiplier effect. Using email signatures can also increase traffic to your website. This is easily done by adding your website address and some comments below your name. Offering free screensavers to computer users is also one way of creating an email database since those who want to download free screensavers are required to register using their email addresses. Once the client has logged in his email address, the internet marketer can do his job by sending emails redirecting the recipients to his website.

Setting up an affiliate program is also a viral marketing technique. This can b e accomplished by allowing users to refer customers to your site and giving them a certain percentage for each sale. Affiliate programs can be easily searched in the internet as these sites are submitted to affiliate directories.

Often website owners require those who are hired to participate in discussion boards and forums to use e-signatures that are linked back to their home websites. This method of collecting information is very effective as participants come from many different backgrounds and the link to the signature page provides the website owner with a trace back to their home sites.

Make note to only use forums that have something in common with your website in order to hold the attention of forum users. To meet the goals you've set, respond to questions and affix your signature link.

A favorite "viral" technique among developers is using articles to increase traffic to websites. This technique involves the creation of numerous articles that are redistributed and reprinted on other sites, however, these articles contain a "resource box" that links back to the creator's website. The owner of a website that is short on articles and content can benefit from the use of these freely distributed articles. The creator of the articles get free links back to his website in exchange for the articles use. Some of the most popular article topics are do-it-yourself, how-to, self-employment, and articles containing beauty, health or financial information. In general, users gravitate toward anything that benefits them with little-to-no cost.

Having a great product and a good website is not enough to be successful on the internet. To be competitive, a website owner must take advantage of the latest email marketing tools to draw customer traffic to their website. Viral marketing and other marketing tools are not expensive but require a commitment of time and creativity.

You can enlarge the number of visitors to your site by cross-linking. You and the owner of another site do this by posting links for each other's site. By cross-linking, the two sites derive the advantage of the added audience and their own customers' viewing. Obviously, you don't want to undertake this with a direct competitor.

No matter what viral technique you have chosen for your email marketing, you have to make sure that you generate enough interest to increase traffic to your website.

Alex Perez-Prat is the webmaster and owner of Resale Rights Kingdom Dot Com. To find out more e-marketing tips, resources and tools go to Resale Rights Kingdom (http://resalerightskingdom.com)

Enter your search terms Submit search form