E-Commerce Trends: Viral Marketing
For years businesses have understood the power of word-of-mouth advertising; both positive and negative. Enough negative comments spread by unhappy customers can have a devastating impact, and it is obviously desirable to have people spreading the word about the positive attributes of a business's product or service. Yet until recently, although companies certainly have paid attention to popular buzz, marketing campaigns have not been planned based mostly, or entirely, on getting people to "spread the word." E-commerce has changed this. A form of word-of-mouth marketing known as viral marketing has proven to be an effective strategy in electronic commerce. The term "viral marketing" describes any tactic designed to encourage people to pass the word in ever-widening circles. This paper will explore this trend through the @ of an internet article entitled "The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing" (Wilson, 2000); and a look at how these principles were applied in a successful viral marketing plan by Hotmail.com.
The Six Principles
The six principles as outlined by Wilson (2001) are: "1) gives away products or services, 2) provides for effortless transfer, 3) scales easily from small to large, 4) exploits common motivations and behaviors, 5) utilizes existing communication networks and 6) takes advantage of others' resources." Hotmail.com utilized all of these and managed to establish itself as the largest independent e-mail provider on the Internet. One wondering what the point is may consider the large (seemingly unending) number of advertisements seen at the Hotmail.com website. The value of ad space grows with each new e-mail account Hotmail.com provides. As stated by Perreault and McC...
... middle of paper ...
...omputers already owned and used by the account holders. All Hotmail.com had to do was supply the mail servers and initiate the viral process by means of a small push to several thousand Internet users. After that it was simply a matter of waiting for the campaign to do its job.
Conclusion
Viral marketing is a strategy that can be used by almost all e-commerce businesses. They do not necessarily have to be an Internet based service such as Hotmail.com. Any website offering a free product or service, along with the caveat that the user must be willing accept a link or offer a recommendation, is likely to increase its site traffic manifold. This is comparable to what Perreault and McCarthy (1999) describe as pulling, which is using a promotion to get customers to ask for a product. An increase in traffic, and potential customers, would be beneficial to any business.
Viral marketing is a form of word-of-mouth marketing that aims to result in a message spreading exponentially and campaigns work when a message is spread exponentially and it results in a desired outcome for a brand (Stokes, R., 2010). Viral marketing uses the internet to disclose and spread the company’s products or services. It harnesses the electronic connectivity of individuals to ensure marketing messages are referred from one person to another (Stokes, R., 2010). There are two types of viral marketing. Organic viral campaigns spread with no input from the company who wants to advertise. The message or product/ service being sold by the merchant are passed around in a viral nature without any intention from the marketer (Stokes, R., 2010). In organic viral marketing, no planning was done on how to broadcast the products or services and those who expose the products or services made a choice just to pass it around by word of mouth in the internet. Amplified viral marketing on the other hand have been strategically planned, have defined goals for the brand being marketed, and usually have a distinct method of passing on the message (that can be tracked and quantified by the marketer) (Stokes , R.,2010). To go viral, sellers or services provider have to define the aims of the campaign. Sellers or service providers have to decide if the company wants brand awareness, drive traffic or make sure customers avail of the products or services. Secondly, the company should plan the message it wants to go viral. The message has to be unique and easily noticeable by consumers. Third, the message you want to convey must be passed on to others efficiently. The company has to provide incentives for sharing. The greatest ince...
Internet advertising is at an all time high, and consumers are attracted to products that they can get more information on over the Internet. Also, "buzz" promotion can be created efficiently via Internet.
Blazevic, V., Hammedi, W., Garnefeld, I., Rust, R.T., Keiningham, T., Andreassen, T. W., Donthu, N., and Carl, W. (2013) 'Beyond traditional word-of-mouth', Journal of Service Management , 24(3 ), pp. 294-313 [Online]. Available at: www.emeraldinsight.com/1757-5818.htm (Accessed: 10 May 2014).
No doubt, email marketing has a long way to go because it is vibrant, highly efficient, powerful, and inexpensive way to target new customers and sustain existing ones. This marketing technique strengthens the relationship between brand and customers, and also encourages customers to repeat business.
This paper will explore the e-Marketing strategy used by Dell Computer Company, evaluate the appropriateness of the Internet as a medium to market their products, and examine advertising and public relations alternatives.
Highly engaged customers make frequent purchases, which increases the customer value over time and in the same time decreases the cost of acquiring new customers. They also play an important role in giving valuable feedback to manufacturers and distributers, which is reflected on improving the quality of products or services. In addition, they are less likely to make public complains about unsatisfactory experiences and they tend to resolve any complaints directly with the company. Through their recommendations to friends or family members especially when it comes to viral marketing campaigns, they help encouraging new customers to be regular purchasers as they promote trust in brands, products, services or even organizations acting like unofficial brand advocates. Therefore, they also play a fundamental
The appropriate use of e-commerce tools to connect and communicate with customers can make difference to the business’s success. In terms of communication, the use of Instant Messages (IM) would help customers to clarify doubts, register complaints and address many other subject. The use of an email is still important because the time zone difference. And finally, it is recommended to use a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that will allow to increase the amount of visitors to a web site by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page.
Scott, D. M. (2010). The new rules of marketing and PR: How to use social media, blogs, news releases, online video, & viral marketing to reach buyers directly (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
· Use of social media for promotion- word of mouth and social media help to get the message across and promote the product efficiently
Influencer Marketing, also known as "word of mouth", is the process of brands getting their message out through people who are influential to their target market.
Businesses can benefit from social media through cost reduction by reducing staff working hours and increasing revenue. Social media marketing is the fastest means of getting words out about a business or product, that is why eventually all businesses are buying the initiative. Most marketers who are already established in the new social media initiative are beginning to implement their own tactics, which has brought social media to a greater height than it was before. These popular websites could be a great approach for companies and customers to improve their communications by applying them to computers and mobile devices. Social media marketing is a term not really known by many people.
Technologies are increasing rapidly and shaping not only the traditional marketing but internet marketing as well. That is why marketers are facing a great global competition in terms of modern marketing. Marketers should know this thing that new technologies can help them by making their work simple, so they should shift to latest technologies and some new things. Business gets success when it comes with something new and interesting. That is why marketers must change their strategies as the tradition, trend, and environment changes. When we talk about changes and technologies, we can’t forget viral marketing, which is a form of fresh marketing. Many advertisers and companies are moving towards it. (H.B Klopper, 2002)
Nowadays many well-built huge companies such as IKEA link their Internet approaches to their more traditional marketing efforts, whereas some relatively new launched businesses as Amazon and Egg have selected for e-marketing approaches more or less exclusively, using all new tech tools as for instance ATMs, retail kiosks, e-mail and iTV, countless organizations and institutions are turning to e-marketing strategies throughout the globe.
...but not the least, social marketing can help to spread information to increase visibility. All businesses aim to increase their audience. Social marketing has now taken over as the online version of word of mouth. Harnessing it in the right way results in more customers, more sales, and a higher level of visibility online than ever before.
Email (electronic mail) was one of the biggest breakthroughs in communication when the internet was commercialized. With email, it became possible to send messages and letters across the world in a matter of seconds to the recipients address. Email was used as an alternative to conventional mail or snail' mail, as the term was introduced to describe its speed. As technology improved, it became possible to attach' documents, photographs and even sound clips or songs to emails which made mail by post redundant. Emails used packet switching software whereby the email was broken down into packets' and sent via the internet to the recipient.