Viral
Marketing exploits existing social networks to rapidly
spread a message. Done well, viral marketing is an inexpensive marketing
method with a rapid and widespread response. The term viral marketing
became popular in 1997, when used to describe Hotmail and their viral
marketing campaign. They attached (and still do) an advertisement for
their service to each e-mail sent from their service. Therefore the
very use of the service promotes further use. Viral marketing means
customers spread the word just by using the service. Burger King is
one company that has used viral marketing very effectively. In 2004,
they created the Subservient Chicken website and then used viral marketing
principles to get traffic to the site. They told just 20 people about
the site. Word spread quickly (with the help of a tell a friend link)
and the site received 20 million hits in the first week alone. Viral
marketing succeeded by bringing in high traffic as well as widespread
media coverage worth far more than the cost of the viral marketing campaign. |
VT ViralTraffic.com