Viral Marketing

Hi,

Today I'd like to talk about Viral marketing. You've heard about it, right? If yes, consider it a refreshment, otherwise be prepared for a real treat.

Once you finished reading the pattern description, can I ask you a favor? Please, go to my site to a quick poll and answer one simple question: what kind of viral network, in your opinion, are you in?

Don't worry, if you have no clue about the technical terms used, just answer what you feel is the best description of your situation. Anyway, a detailed article comes next week.

Thank you!
--Ely

Summary:

Viral marketing is a marketing, where prospective customers pass your marketing message from each other with a very little or no control from your side (and little or no expenses either).

Name of the pattern:

Viral marketing, viral advertising

When to use the pattern:

To significantly boost sales when you have a large potential audience to sell, and it is interconnected well enough to carry your marketing message by the word-of-mouth.

How to use the pattern:

Shape your marketing message and your product image in a way that tempts prospects and customers to pass it from each other without your intervention.

In a most simple form it may be as simple as asking your customers to send a message about your product to their friends on a thank-you-for-your-order page. In a certain sense, MLM and affiliate marketing may be considered a kind of viral marketing, although the classic definition does not involve a monetary reward.

Similarly, certain forms of viral marketing may be easier implemented with modern communication technologies like social networks, and, especially, microblogging, like Twitter.

Attribution:

By itself, viral marketing is very old. First historical references point probably to Ancient Rome when some merchants were executed for spreading rumors of food shortage and charging higher prices based on it. The term "viral marketing" came to life somewhere between 1994 (Douglas Rushkoff's book "Media Virus!) and 1996 (Harvard Business School and Jeffrey Rayport's article 'The Virus of Marketing').

Related patterns:

MLM, Affiliate marketing

Related anti-patterns:

Ponzi scheme, Chain letters

Details and comments:

While the term "viral marketing" was not originally intended to be considered literally and rather was based on a sort of poetic license, lately, it's more and more considered a practical application of memetics and practical use of the viruses of the mind. Consider these books if you did not heard of these terms: