Viral Web Marketing
By Heidi Kelley, Campagne
Associates
February 2, 2004
You've starting using e-mail in your fundraising efforts and you've created
a web site for your organization. You've begun to feel confident in using
technology to promote your organization and its mission. The next step is
to plan your marketing strategy, part of this should include 'viral web marketing'
techniques. What is Viral Web Marketing? Viral web marketing is any marketing
initiative that encourages people to pass along your message. This approach
creates the potential for the number of people exposed to your message to
grow greatly and rapidly. For example:
You send an e-mail to 10 people = 10
Each of them forward it to 10 people = 100
Those recipients each forward it to 10 people = 1,000
Total so far =1,110 impressions from your original list of 10
Viral marketing techniques reach more people than with traditional marketing efforts. It gives your organization exposure in many new markets to potentially grow your supporter base. Many believe that 'word of mouth' advertising has always traditionally been the most effective. On the Internet 'viral marketing' is a very similar approach.
A very successful example of viral web marketing is the hotmail.com campaign. MSN Hotmail offers a free e-mail service. They simply put a tagline at the bottom of all e-mail messages that reads 'Get your private, free e-mail at http://www.hotmail.com.' As subscribers e-mail their friends and colleagues hotmail.com's message spreads like a 'virus.' Note: They are currently the #1 free e-mail service on the web with more than 65 million people using MSN Hotmail.
Recommend It
Another form of viral web marketing that is becoming more and more popular is
'Recommend It' buttons. You may have seen these on web sites. It may appear
as a graphic on a web page, a picture with the words 'recommend it' or 'tell
a friend'. When you click on the link you can input the e-mail address of a
friend who will then receive an e-mail message including a web link of the page
or site you are currently on. This allows your site visitors to let their friends
and peers know they like what they see and they should check it. By providing
the link it makes it quick and easy to recommend your site to their friends
who now have the web link which makes it simple for them to use.
Part II: What makes an effective viral web marketing strategy?
In order for your organization to create a unique, yet effective, web marketing
strategy, such as the 'Hotmail.com' and 'Recommend It' strategies outlined above,
there are guidelines that you should keep in mind. The strategy that you design
does not need to incorporate all of these criteria. However, the more you include,
the better your chances of experiencing the success you desire.
The six guidelines are:
1. Offer a 'free' product or service as an incentive to take action.
The word 'free' always attracts attention and generates interest! Everyone enjoys
receiving something for free whether it is a free gift, free information or
a free service. By making a free offer, you will grab the attention of your
prospects and are able to then further communicate your message. A common approach
is to offer a free incentive. This gives the prospect an opportunity to provide
you their name and contact information. You can offer to communicate current
happenings and attempt to build their level of connection to your organization.
In addition, you are able to educate the prospect about your organization, your
mission and current needs. In many cases, people will give a donation to your
organization in exchange for your free incentive.
2. Provide a quick and easy way for people to spread your message to others.
The example where you sent an e-mail to just 10 people and quickly over 1,110
people saw your message because those original 10 people forwarded it to their
friends exemplifies this concept. To ensure that your web marketing strategy
will be successful you must include an easy way for your message to spread 'like
a cold virus during the winter season'. The Internet and e-mail make this extremely
easy and inexpensive. Note: the number of people and companies communicating
via the Internet is increasing and by keeping your message condensed and concise
the odds of it being read will increase dramatically.
3. Be able to accommodate both the small and large response rates. If you
use the 'free' approach you must be able to fulfill the requests for the item,
service or information you offer. Careful planning is essential since it will
be important to have an appropriate stock on hand to accommodate both a large
volume of requests. The best way to handle this is to make an educated guess
on the number of requests within a certain time period you expect and stock
accordingly with a contingent plan in place if you are even more successful
than expected. Or even better, offer an intangible product or service!
4. Make effective use of human motivations and emotions. Determine the
common thread of motivations that are within your constituents or the emotions
that your organization fosters, and then use these elements in your web marketing
strategy. Everyone has the desire to help a worthy cause or to do something
that makes themselves feel good. Plan a strategy that effectively uses your
prospect's concern areas and begin to build a connection with them.
5. Word of mouth via the Internet. Each constituent in your database
probably has 8 to 10 people who are close family, friends and colleagues. They
also have dozens to hundreds of people who are within a less personal social
network. use your constituent base to reach out to those social circles they
have created (your supporters are your best marketers). This strategy is much
more effective and uses a more cost efficient resource to spread your message
than an ordinary mailing list.
6. Reap the benefits of outside resources. There are many ways that outside
vendors and resources can add value to your marketing mix. Whether your organization
agrees to host outside articles and links that may be of value to your constituents,
or its content that you provide to other sites that greatly increases the visibility
for your cause. By issuing a press release to news wires or local media outlets
that print your submission, your organization receives the benefits and exposure
from those resources. There are many creative ways to partner with outside vendors
that can be very effective in spreading your message at virtually no expense
to your organization.
Put your thinking caps on! The possibilities are endless for your organization to creatively use viral web marketing techniques to promote your mission, your web site and your needs.
Heidi Kelley is a marketing coordinator for Campagne Associates, which offers
fundraising software solutions to assist nonprofit organizations in becoming
more effective fundraisers. She can be reached at info@campagne.com.
