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THE BUSINESS COLUMN
Viral marketing
‘Viral marketing’ is a term coined in the 1990s by a Harvard Business School professor, Jeffrey Rayport, to describe a marketing technique that uses social networking to increase brand awareness through self-replicating processes very similar to the medical viruses we all dread.
Like word of mouth, viral marketing is based on the irrational human behaviour of telling other people about a product or service you like – or don’t like. Basically, viral marketing is a phenomenon that encourages us to pass along subconscious sales messages. They can take the form of video clips, interactive games, advergames, images, emails or text messages.
Let me explain further by giving you an example. It is an early example, too. Hotmail.com offered a free email service that worked on this simple strategy:
Give away free email addresses and services.
Attach a simple tag to every free message offering free email on Hotmail.
Wait for people to email their own network of friends and colleagues.
Recipients sign up – and pass on the message to their own business and social circles.
Not surprisingly, business rivals were quick to follow. So, what is the secret of a successful viral-marketing campaign? Here are some basic strategies:
Give something away. ‘Free’ is still the most powerful word in the marketer’s vocabulary.
Make the virus easy to catch. Viruses only spread when they are easy to transmit; so the medium that carries your marketing message must be easy to transfer and replicate – email, website, graphic, software download and so forth.
Stay adaptable. To spread like wild fire, the viral transmission method must be rapidly scalable from small to large.
Exploit human behaviour. Clever viral-marketing plans take advantage of common human motivations: greed, for instance, or fear.
Use existing communication networks. Social scientists tell us that each person has a close network of eight to twelve friends, family and associates but a person’s broader network may consist of hundreds, and even thousands, of people.
Take advantage of all resources. The most effective viral-marketing strategies use other people’s resources to get the word out. Affiliate programs, for example, place text or graphic links on other websites.
Making advertising work
When producing advertising – whether printed or online – less is definitely more. What do I mean? The temptation is always to fill ads full of different elements, but the truth is that this can actually kill their chances of success. Every advertising environment is cluttered with ads screaming for attention. Today’s cheek-by-jowl marketing environment mandates a clean, clear approach to contents. Here are three things to avoid:
Competing visuals. These can make a small magazine or Internet ad confusing and cluttered and fail to communicate a central message.
Too much information. This will turn readers off. Don’t expect them to slog through paragraphs of copy.
Busy designs and fancy fonts. This makes ads hard to read. Keep it simple yet eye-catching by using attention-grabbing colours or employing contrast.
So what makes an ad succeed where others fail? Ads that produce results have at least three elements in common:
They are benefit-led. Make sure that the headline, in particular, is benefit-laden. Readers of any advertisement have only one question in their mind: “What’s in it for me?” So an effective headline must state a compelling benefit. Identify what your customers want most from your product or service – such as softer skin, whiter smile or to save money on their taxes – and find a creative way to put that promise front and centre in your headline.
Use a strong visual focal point. A great eye-catching visual provides the focus essential for a successful advertisement.
Make sure that the advertisement and the medium work together. One of the make-or-break elements of an advertisement is whether it meets the visual and editorial requirements of the media in which it will run. A friend of mine is always talking about this particular subject. He cites the example of someone selling fresh eggs and someone selling helicopter lessons. If you saw a sign by the side of the road in scrawled white paint on a bit of old board offering “Helicopter Lessons £600”, you would probably think it was a joke. The point is that, to achieve maximum results, you must fit your designs and copy style to the needs of the users and media you choose.