BNET Business Dictionary
Business Definition for: Viral Marketing
- the rapid spread of a message about a new product or service, in a similar way to the spread of a virus. Viral marketing can be by word of mouth, but it is particularly common on the Internet, where messages can be spread easily and quickly to reach millions of people. Products can become household names in this way with very little advertising expenditure.
Viral marketing works well in the following circumstances: when a product is genuinely new and different, and it is something that opinion leaders want to associate with; when the benefits of the product are real; when the product is relevant to a large number of people, and the benefits are easy to communicate.
Some viral marketing campaigns use an incentive-based approach, rewarding people if, for example, they inform their friends and a percentage of these friends make a purchase. Because the Internet is perceived as an information resource, it is also useful to publish on a Web site information that users are allowed to quote and redistribute, perhaps by means of an "e-mail-to-a-friend" button. Linking is also an effective viral marketing tool, as is the provision of free products or services. The Hotmailâ„¢ free e-mail service, for example, grew quickly with little marketing investment.
Additional Resources
- Making Use of Viral Marketing on the Internet
- Viral marketing is another name for word of mouth or, on the Internet, word of e-mail. It can work in mysterious ways, but the Internet offers significant potential for viral marketing, particularly with the growing popularity of blogs. Yahoo did little or no advertising in its early years; instead, people...
- Articles 2007-08-13
- Viral Marketing, Email Style
- Referral marketing is the art of getting people, who may not even be the customers, to refer a product or service to other people, typically their friends or acquaintances. Viral marketing, simply put, is referral marketing over the Internet. This article defines viral marketing and tells that why it should...
- White papers 2002-10-08
- Using Viral Marketing Without Causing An Outbreak
- Over the years, ‘viral marketing' has gained momentum in the corporate world. Most companies use viral marketing to boost their online sales. Viral marketing is a process where company's managers ask their friends and colleagues to sign up for an offer posted on their Web site. Viral marketing is an...
- White papers 2001-01-01
- Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing
- Viral marketing is more than a buzzword. It's a powerful way of levering ones marketing efforts. It's an essential marketing technique. Article comes up with showing that some viral marketing strategies work better than others, and few works as well as the simple strategy. Article displays the six basic elements...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Goodbye Viral Marketing, Hello Social Marketing
- It's crucial to understand the differences between a viral and a social marketing campaign, where participants are both willing and eager to participate. It's interesting how some terms are used in general speech to describe the exact opposite of what they really mean. Take 'Viral marketing' as an example. The...
- White papers 2007-11-20
- Viral Marketing for the Masses
- Viral marketing is growing up. The term, coined in the mid-1990s to describe how Hotmail got users by letting people invite their friends to join, as if they were passing a virus, is now branching out into different forms. David Meerman Scott is coming out with a book on why...
- Blog posts 2009-01-20
- Viral Marketing Succeeds 15% of the Time
- Why does viral marketing seem like such a successful tactic? Perhaps because we're only aware of the successes. JupiterResearch's Emily Riley finds that only 15% of viral messages are passed from peer to peer. When a message hits, though, it really hits. Consider Dove's...
- Blog posts 2007-10-18
- Are You Sick of Viral Marketing?
- Beyond transmittance, viral marketing resembles the common cold virus in experts' inability to understand and manage it with any great degree of certainty. And much like the ultimately-fruitless myriad laboratory hours spent examining the common cold, thousands of column inches and seminar hours have brought marketers no firm control over...
- White papers 2004-04-05
- Secrets to Successful Viral Marketing | Useful Commute Podcast
- With viral marketing, you spend nothing and let your fans do the work for you. In this podcast, online marketing expert David Meerman Scott explains how to use the Internet to spread your ideas virally and get greater impact than you would from traditional advertisements. For more...
- Blog posts 2008-03-31
- Turning Viral Marketing Into A Main Stream Proposition
- Viral marketing is a clever idea. A virus attacks the immune system and many people believe that consumers are now ‘immune' to advertising (being bombarded by as many as 1500 commercial messages per day). Hence, we need viral marketing to break down the body's defenses, and allow brands to form...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Making Use of Viral Marketing on the Internet
- Making Use of Viral Marketing on the InternetJust Word of MouthWord of mouth is word of mouth, renaming it viral marketing for the sake of coming up with a new term for marketers is confusing. My students now think that there is another new dimension in marketing that they have...
- Discussion threads 2007-08-22
- Spreading the Word: The Viral Marketing of SXSW
- American Marketing Association Presents the Successful Viral Marketing Techniques of SXSW SAN ANTONIO -- The San Antonio Chapter of the American Marketing Association will host a networking luncheon and presentation on viral marketing techniques of SXSW Interactive, focusing on new media and emerging trends. Because of the growth...
- Research articles 2008-04-02
- E-Talking: Viral Marketing to Spread Brand Messages
- While the process of viral marketing is often perceived as a random phenomenon with marketers having little or no control over the process, getting the customers to spread the brand messages throughout a widespread network of buyers makes good business and marketing sense. This paper uses case study examples to...
- White papers 2005-11-15
- HBR IdeaCast: Viral Marketing for the Real World
- HBR's Cathy Olofson sits down with Columbia University professor Duncan Watts to discuss his new article in the May 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review, "Viral Marketing for the Real World." Watts explains that while marketing messages may not exactly spread like disease, viral marketing, if used correctly, can be...
- Blog posts 2007-12-26
- The Power Of Viral Marketing Online For Business Branding
- When it comes to getting the word out about your business and creating a professional image, nothing works better than viral marketing online. This method of marketing gives you a huge sales force that is constantly spreading the word about your business and its effect grows constantly. Viral marketing online...
- White papers 2008-01-01
- JupiterResearch Finds Viral Marketing Missteps Reach Epidemic Proportions
- NEW YORK -- JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, reports viral marketing efforts have failed to effectively reach the mass audiences advertisers had anticipated. Despite the growing popularity of such social media sites as MySpace and You Tube, viral marketing...
- Research articles 2007-09-04
- VeriSign's "Cart Whisperer" Rolls Into the MarketingSherpa Viral Marketing Hall of Fame
- Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition 2008 -- A creative marketing campaign that started with a reality TV-inspired video of a man who can "talk" to abandoned shopping carts has rolled into the MarketingSherpa Viral Marketing Hall of Fame for 2008. Called "The Cart Whisperer," the series of viral...
- Research articles 2008-06-10
- Viral Marketing: It's Infectious!
- Is your brand contagious? Some brands promote through viral marketing and let their customers do the talking. The reason why viral campaigns like Hotmail and Bullfighter take off after initial introduction through the media or email is that they are of interest or use to the audience. For more insight...
- White papers 2003-08-25
- E-Fluentials Expand Viral Marketing
- Marketing is typically understood as an organized effort that influences people's behavior through skillfully constructed messages. The industry has considered ‘buzz marketing' as an almost coincidental reaction from consumers. Marketing to and with e-fluentials is path companies should tread carefully. E-fluentials' negative experiences with products and services will travel 62%...
- White papers 2002-10-28
- William Hill viral marketing campaign a success.
- M2 PRESSWIRE-17 October 2001-Green Cathedral: William Hill viral marketing campaign a success C1994-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD RDATE:15102001 A virtual football team joined the line up of viral marketeers at Green Cathedral to promote the `Scorecast` bet for William Hill. ...
- Research articles 2001-10-17
