How effective is viral marketing?

[Admin]

One of the most successful ways to market is by using viral marketing. Viral marketing is termed because the word about your business gets spread around like a virus - very quickly! Word of mouth or the spreading of news to other people is the quickest way to see traffic, and everyone knows that targetted traffic means more business.

Internet Marketers use viral marketing a lot, but so do the brick and mortor businesses. Matter of fact, viral marketing started long before the internet came about. They may not have called it viral marketing back then, but in essence it is the same thing. Word of mouth about your business can be very deadly to your competiters if they are not doing the same. This is why you used to see (and still do) the infamous "burger wars" between McDs, BK, and the like.

To be successful at viral marketing though you need a good size gimick or army to get it started. Not a large army mind you, but at least 20-50 people that can put what you are offering out in front of the masses, that will eventually pass it on to the people they know, and they will pass on to the people they know, and so forth.

It's kind of like this forum. If we concentrated our efforts on telling everyone we know about this forum, and what the forum can offer them all at once, we could probably start a good viral effect that will bring in more registered users.

One of the other things to think about is getting someone that has some pulling power with large groups of people to back you. So it is sometimes about who you know, and what they will do for you. To get people that are in a higher place to help is all about "what you can do for them" in the end, so be quick to put that up front if you every ask business owners.

Bring something to the table that is worth double of what you are asking of them, and nine cases out of ten, they will help. You can even contact the brick and mortor places like the burger joints supermarkets, etc ... so they can hand out things like flyers, etc ...

More to come ...

[Slaurain]

I think viral marketing is very effective. In fact I think I pay more attention to items that are advertised in this manner then an average product. I think it is a very intelligent plan, and I see this happening more in the days to come.

Scott

[computex]

Viral Marketing is still one of the recommended ways of Marketing without a doubt.

Many Stores in my country pay so much money for Ads ,but many small stores are very popular just by using viral marketing, sometimes I thing viral marketing is the most powerful way.

Best Wishes

[heathcole]

I think, especially in today's age of technology, that viral marketing is THE best way to advertise. You can often do so for free! You can also "hire" people for next to nothing to post ads for you on their blogs, social networking accounts, etc. Via cellphones, blogs, social networking sites like FaceBook, etc., you can set up business accounts and allow your customers to "friend" you and then ALL of their friends will see you and so on!

[mignarde20]

Viral marketing is one of the tried-and-true marketing tactics, and is one of the most effective, in my opinion. Just look at the viral marketing campaign for movies such as The Dark Knight: their methods are subtle, never obstructive, and they stick in your mind. The Dark Knight pulled in one of the best figures for an opening weekend in the box office, too.

heathcole also made some good points about social networking sites - companies that use MySpace and Facebook have been very successful in their advertising.

This is an interesting topic, hopefully more people will contribute.

[mixedmedia]

As a student, I agree that social networking sites are one of the most effective way to utilize viral marketing to maximize the audience reached. On sites like Facebook, word spreads quickly when an idea is solid and it is easy to see when everyone latches onto an idea with the “Friends View” and status updates. It is just a matter of making sure the branding is relevant to the populations that use these sites.

[lophophoro]

I do not think viral marketing is effective anymore at all, except when it includes some tongue-in-cheek reference to the institution of viral marketing, and even that is getting a little old.

Almost every technique is recognized immediately by average people, and the potential for resentment is now high as the prevalence of virals has now caused many people at least once or twice to feel foolish, or to get their hopes up about something which turned out not to exist.

The first example that comes to mind is the phony "crypto-zoology" sites which were used to promote the game Shadow of the Colossus with phony discoveries of skeletons & fossils which seemed to have been left by enormous monsters. These were awesome for the day or two that no one understood them, then when the prank was revealed it was pure disappointment for all but the people who were already looking forward to the game.

[manmohan_02]

hi friends,

i think it is very efficient marketing. i want to know more about viral marketing. i searched many siets on google, but i did not get any result. today marketing needs a better way of advertisement. and i think viral marketing is best for all purpose in marketing. its very good working plan for advertising for marketing and to rise up ur buissness i marketing firm. i hope you people join it.

[Karsten]

viral marketing campaign for movies such as The Dark Knight: their methods are subtle

I wouldnt exactly say that the death of Heath Ledger was subtle but came indeed handy for the marketing guys...

most of the so called viral marketing campains fail and most of those we recognize as a success were not planned at all (I am referring here to an article here I read a while back)

[Admin]

Originally Posted by Karsten

I wouldnt exactly say that the death of Heath Ledger was subtle but came indeed handy for the marketing guys...

most of the so called viral marketing campains fail and most of those we recognize as a success were not planned at all (I am referring here to an article here I read a while back)

Hey Karsten,

Good to see you.

I wouldn't go so far as to say most viral marketing campaines fail, but I would be willing to meet you half way and say it is tough to get a good campain going when it is staged. The outcome usually depends on who you know, and getting the information in front of the right people at the right time. Then they will determine if it is worthy to spread by word of mouth.

Also, the best way to get a good viral thing going is by making the site, service, product, or whatever appealing enough for people to want to say, "I think I'll tell my friends about this so they can benefit as well!"

Btw, are you sure you read an article on here about that? Just wondering because I haven't seen it yet, and it would be interesting to read.

[buffalo]

I was just reading Randy Brown's blog and his latest post is about viral marketing. I was going to come over here and start a new thread about it, but I think it's better off posted in this thread.

Have you seen the new Jack In The Box viral marketing campaign? Looks to me like they are doing a great job of it. I wonder how much more of this we'll see from big businesses.

(Not an aff link. I'm not affiliated with Randy Brown or GrownUpGeek. I'm just a big fan. )

[Admin]

Hey Buffy,

That's a great article. He includes all the steps to take, or that Jack in the Box took to kick off their viral campaign. Good going!

Lol I wish I had that kind of money to put into advertising. It would make life so much easier. The good news though is that advertising has gone done price wise this year because of the recession, so that will help.

[shanec]

Thanks for the example Buffy Its interesting to see how this viral campaign was executed.

The Best Blogging Job Ever campaign was another cost effective way to advertise Australian tourism. I heard about that blogging job from a number of sources including tv, word of mouth and forums. Most of this was free advertising. I think somewhere in the region of a million people applied, and grabbed the attention of many millions more.

[Karsten]

Have you seen the new Jack In The Box viral marketing campaign?

buff I already hate you - now I am stuck with this picture of a super delicious supersized oreo cookie milkshake in my head and in the country I live in there are no milkshakes available not even at MC
thanks a lot....