Put this powerful techno-marketing technique to work for you.
In a recent poll among our opt-in list subscribers we asked, “Is viral e-mail marketing something that your company is considering doing this year?”
Not surprisingly, a whopping 76% replied, “Yes.”
WHAT IS VIRAL MARKETING?
Although the term “viral” might have a negative connotation, the phrase “viral marketing” is positive in nature. Originally penned in a newsletter by venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Venture Partners, viral marketing is defined as “network-enhanced word of mouth.” The bottom line is that the e-mail medium lets you spread your message to a lot more people — a lot faster.
One of the key measurements of an effective viral marketing campaign is how fast and how often it’s being forwarded. Viral marketing is exponential in nature, depending on both the number of e-mails forwarded per recipient and the rate at which they’re forwarded. A high forwarding rate usually means that your content is extremely compelling and effective at getting recipients to forward it to others. The higher the forwarding rate, the greater the exposure of your message, the higher the success rate for your campaign — and the more immediate the results. With this in mind, the survey of our readers provided some other interesting statistics.
We asked our readers, “How, if at all, have your marketing plans changed given the recent economic downturn? If you’re cutting back, what’s been hit the hardest?” Almost 60% were reducing spending on marketing, but where they were cutting back was most interesting to us. Unsurprisingly, e-mail marketing was unscathed. E-mail marketing is unaffected because it’s a proven, affordable means of promoting business. But learning about your e-mail campaign’s viral marketing success rate (knowing what kind of e-mails get forwarded and how often they’re passed along) will help you make all your e-mail campaigns even more effective — by sending more of them more often.
“On average, how often do you forward e-mail messages to friends or colleagues?” One third of respondents forward e-mails daily.
“What type of e-mail content are you most likely to forward?” As marketers, this helps us determine what type of campaign content will achieve the highest viral marketing success rate And the winners are: Competitive/industry information, jokes/humor, and news articles. This means that people are more likely to share “valuable information” that aids in the success of their business — and jokes, which can relieve the stress that hinders the success of a business!
Once a campaign is sent, you can determine its effectiveness by tracking the clicks on individual links inside the e-mail, including the “Forward to a Friend” link. Measuring this link will give you the campaign’s viral marketing success rate. If you’re using the right software to create, send, and measure e-mail, you’ll be able to get viral marketing statistics on the first, second, and third generations of recipients. The higher the viral marketing success rate, the better (more effective) the e-mail campaign.
Simply put, viral marketing is a measure of just how “viral” your e-mail campaign really is. It’s important to know the benefits of viral marketing:
- Greater awareness/exposure
- Larger opt-in contact lists
- Increased revenues
- Stronger one-to-one relationships
To make your viral marketing even faster and more effective than ever, I’d advise you to follow these guidelines:
- Do your research. Read success stories. Learn from the mistakes of other e-mail marketers (this article is a great start).
- Ask for feedback directly within your e-mail content. This can be a simple link to a recipient’s e-mail program, or a link to your Web site with a more detailed survey. Know what your subscribers want to know about.
- Include a “forward” link in every e-mail message, and make it highly visible in the content.
- Don’t forget to include your company branding and identity in the campaign.
- Use e-mail marketing software that adds the “forward” link and compiles reports for you automatically.
- Read all your reports and take the necessary steps to improve your next campaign. Viral marketing reports can’t help you if you don’t read them!