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Spread the Virus

Word-of-mouth (WOM), or viral marketing, is catching on as a tactic to create demand for a product

By Justine P. Castellon


The vaccines for viral marketing's downside

Viral marketing should be useful particularly to start-up entrepreneurs because of its ability to obtain a large number of interested people at low cost and because of its extensive reach, high credibility, and high efficiency. However, vital marketing has several downsides: (1) the difficulty in measuring the reach of failed campaigns, (2) the lack of control, (3) the risk that the viral message might be perceived as spam, and (4) the limited possibility for segmentation. Since viral marketing depends on people not too familiar with your branding strategies, it is therefore very important to carefully develop a message that's strong enough to prevent misinterpretations of your brand.

Particularly on the Internet, you should avoid using purely money as an incentive for your viral marketing. This is to avoid the likelihood that your message would be spammed across the web. Says Aquilino: "When you offer money as incentive, most of the time your message would be perceived as ‘too-good-to-be-true', and you wouldn't get good results that way. So if you wish to offer incentives to prospective participants to get immediate results, use incentives like discounts or gifts for message recipients instead, or perhaps rewards for those who make referrals."

That way, you preserve the credibility of your message; in fact, the best viral campaigns work on the principle of value, not greed. And since the strength of viral marketing is its credibility, you must avoid being perceived as a spammer, and you must make an effort as well to find appropriate triggers to ensure that customers will function as advocates for the brand, rather than as spammers themselves.

The vital in viral marketing

While it has come under strong criticism from consumers and privacy advocates because of their concern over unsolicited messages, viral marketing remains a good alternative to expensive traditional marketing. Should you decide to use it, however, you can avoid negative reactions by making sure of using the principles of viral marketing very tactfully. This is because viral marketing is not only about getting someone to interact with a message; it also needs to be really viral—meaning that it needs to have a pass-along effect.

One good example of viral marketing is Sun Cellular's 24/7 promotion, which offers unlimited calls and SMS within the network for a flat monthly or weekly rate. The company takes advantage of a natural human motivation, using its own subscribers to create the buzz and recruit new customers. For their own benefit, the subscribers then work on autopilot to convince friends, relatives, and family members to subscribe to the same mobile phone service. By encouraging others to do so, they can fully maximize the potential of experiencing longer—if not unlimited—call time for themselves.

 

Sources:

  • The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth: How to Trigger Exponential Sales Through Runaway Word of Mouth by George Silverman
  • Marketing Management (International Edition) by Philip Kotler
  • The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

 

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How to build a successful wom campaign

  • Create the buzz. Create value-driven news using your best customers. Involve them in the process of making and delivering your products or services. This way, you can create positive feelings that can lead them to talk about your business.
  • Incentivize. WOM is very much about the "WIIFM" principle: "What's in it for me." Offer an incentive to someone to tell others about you.
  • Personalize. Response rates increase dramatically when users can see that a message is coming from a friend, giving instant credibility to your message. If you are using e-mail as courier of your message, insert the sender's name in the subject line, like, say, "Juan de la Cruz thinks you will like to avail the exclusive membership fee..."
  • Get ready for the takeoff. If your viral campaign shoots up towards success, your systems have to be ready to handle the bigger customer traffic and number of transactions.
  • Measure. To effectively measure the effectiveness of your viral marketing campaign, you may want to dissect what transpired that led to the satisfaction of your respondents.