Spreading the Virus

(making the most out of your viral marketing)

 

 

By JUSTINE P. CASTELLON

 

When a trusted friend, officemate, relative, or acquaintance recommends a product or service to us, we normally won’t hesitate to try that product or service at the first opportunity. And when someone has had a very good experience with your product or service, he or she would most likely turn around and tell as many as 10 people about that good experience. Conversely, however, they would likely tell as many people if their experience with your product or service had been bad or negative.

 

The phenomenon involved in situations like these is called word-of-mouth (WOM) or viral marketing, which has been described as a promotional method “of customers, by customers, and for customers.” When it brings positive results, such as when your loyal and satisfied customers actually brag about how good your business is, viral marketing is the ultimate dream of every entrepreneur.

 

THE VIRAL SPOTS

There are several ways of doing viral marketing, with each variation operating for different reasons by using different methods to bring in different outcomes. Whatever the variation, however, they largely have the same mechanism at their core—a means for providing customers with quality experiences and for encouraging people to pass the message along.

 

The entrepreneur can consider using any of the five most common types of viral marketing, namely pass-along, buzz marketing, incentive viral, undercover marketing, and a user-managed database.

 

Pass-along. This is the type often used by users who do their business on the Internet. It consists of a short note that’s automatically attached to the footer of every electronic message when it is sent out to its recipient. A good example of this pass-along viral spot is the one being used by Hotmail.com. It comes in the form of a tag line at the bottom of every outgoing email that reads “Get your free, private email at www.hotmail.com…” The promotion operates on autopilot, with the message automatically spread out by all Hotmail.com users when they use the mail server to send their mail. Through this simple expedient, Hotmail.com was able to rapidly grow a huge subscriber base.

 

Buzz marketing. This viral type involves getting mass media celebrities to discuss their experience with your product or service, preferably on a provocative but always positive note. The idea is to deliberately create noise and buzz about the product or service among the readers, viewers, or listeners. For instance, Oprah and her choice of Wacoal created buzz on how to alter a woman’s figure minus the expensive surgery.

 

Incentive viral. This scheme gives people an incentive to pass a viral message or viral object along. To get the reward, the passer of the message must get the user to take the desired action. This type of viral marketing is the primary tool of multi-level marketing companies, some of which have grown from nothing to multibillion-dollar businesses because of some astute use of an incentive viral. Incentivizing viral messages latches onto a force that’s even more effective than broadcast television, yet one that’s far less expensive.

 

Undercover marketing. This is the most interesting type of viral marketing. It occurs when people don’t know they are being marketed to. Such a campaign needs to be camouflaged as a piece of news, without obvious incitements to link or pass along. 

 

undercover marketing is perhaps the most difficult type of viral spot. It has to be made to appear simply trendy or curious, it should not seem to be asking an individual to forward them, and it should create the impression that nothing in particular is being promoted. This, for instance, is exactly what Canon Inc. did when it sent out couples to the field to pretend to be Japanese tourists politely requesting passersby to take their photos. They would hand a target passerby the newest Canon camera, and this target passerby in the process would subconsciously learn how easy, smart, and fun it is to use the camera.

 

User-managed database. This refers to a database of prospects that a user generates with the help of online service providers. By inviting other people to join and participate in the user’s group, the user creates a viral, self-propagating chain of contacts that grows naturally, thus encouraging others to sign up as well. Two good examples of this self-propagating type of viral chain are online dating services and the highly popular site Friendster.com.

 

THE VACCINES FOR VIRAL MARKETING’S DOWNSIDE

Viral marketing should be useful particularly to start-up entrepreneurs because of its ability to obtain a large number of interested people at low cost and because of its extensive reach, high credibility, and high efficiency.  However, vital marketing has several downsides: the difficulty in measuring the reach of failed campaigns, the lack of control, the risk that the viral message might be perceived as spam, and the limited possibility for segmentation. Since viral marketing depends on people not too familiar with your branding strategies, it is very important to carefully develop a message that’s strong enough to prevent misinterpretations of your brand.

 

Particularly on the Internet, you should avoid using purely money as an incentive for your viral marketing. This is to avoid the likelihood that your message would be spammed across the web. When you offer money as incentive, most of the time your message would be perceived as ‘too-good-to-be-true’, and you wouldn’t get good results that way. So if you wish to offer incentives to prospective participants to get immediate results, use incentives like discounts or gifts for message recipients instead, or perhaps rewards for those who make referrals.

 

That way, you preserve the credibility of your message, for the best viral campaigns work on the principle of value, not greed. And since the strength of viral marketing is its credibility, you must avoid being perceived as a spammer, and you must make an effort as well to find appropriate triggers to ensure that customers will function as advocates for the brand, rather than as spammers themselves.

 

The vital in viral marketing

While it has come under strong criticism from consumers and privacy advocates because of their concern over unsolicited messages, viral marketing remains a good alternative to expensive traditional marketing. Should you decide to use it, you can avoid negative reactions by making sure of using the principles of viral marketing very tactfully. This is because viral marketing is not only about getting someone to interact with a message; it also needs to be really viral—meaning that it needs to have a pass-along effect. 

 

One good example of viral marketing is Sun Cellular’s 24/7 promotion, which offers unlimited calls and SMS within the network for a flat monthly or weekly rate. It takes advantage of a natural human motivation, using its own subscribers to create the buzz and recruit new customers. For their own benefit, the subscribers work autopilot to convince friends, relatives, and family members to subscribe to the same mobile phone service. By encouraging others to do so, they can fully maximize the potential of experiencing longer—if not unlimited—call time for themselves.

 

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How to build a successful WOM Campaign

·         Create the Buzz. Create value-driven news using your best customers. Involve them in the process of making and delivering your products or services. This way, it creates positive feelings that lead them to talk about your business.

·         Incentivize. WOM is very much about the “WIIFM” principle: “What’s in it for me.” Offer an incentive to someone to tell others about you.

·         Personalize. Response rates increase dramatically when users can see that a message is coming from a friend, and it brings instant credibility to your message. If you’re using e-mail as courier of your message, insert the sender’s name in the subject line, like “Juan de la Cruz thinks you will like to avail the exclusive membership fee…”

·         Get ready for the takeoff. If your viral campaign shoots up towards success, your systems have to be ready to handle the traffic and transactions.

·         Measure. If you want to be able to measure the effectiveness of your viral marketing campaign, you may want to dissect what transpired that led to the success of your respondents.

 

Sources:

 

• The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth: How to Trigger Exponential Sales Through Runaway Word of Mouth by George Silverman
• Marketing Management (International Edition) by Philip Kotler
• The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

 

HOW YOU CAN ECONOMIZE THE GUERRILLA WAY?

The Guerrilla Entrepreneur’s philosophy of frugality and thrift.

 

 

By: Justine P. Castellon

 

 

 

One of the most important decisions that an entrepreneur has to make is how much money to spend on a marketing and operational budget. Though the answer varies by business and industry size, the most important thing to consider is how much you want to grow and how fast in terms of profitability and not sales revenues alone. Most entrepreneurs under-spend their budget thinking this will give them savings. You’re wrong – your business have to spend money to make money. The trick however is to spend your money wisely on a tailored marketing plan aimed at fulfilling your business goals.

 

Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerrilla Marketing talks about the principles of guerrilla entrepreneur attacks in his recent visit in Manila. Levinson says, “when you don’t have a lot of money to spend on your marketing, invest your time, energy, knowledge and imagination to the business.”

 

Here’s the solutions on how you can economize the guerrilla way.

 

Show that you care for your customers.

Recognize that your customers have needs and expectations. You’ve got to meet those needs and exceed those expectations, always.  According to Levinson, it’s very easy to care about your customers, “but unless you take steps to show them that you care, they might be wooed away by a competitor. Your marketing can say all the right words and tell customers how important they are to you. But you’ve got to prove your dedication to customers — and prospects — by taking concrete steps beyond mere words”

 

For some marketers, delighting your customers is the first act in winning trust.  Focus on customer experience and interaction to fast-track market penetration — your customers value attention, reliability, promptness and competence. In earning their loyalty, customers rate their quality of interactions as equally important to the quality of your products. Similar to Levinson’s, highlight on the process on how you deliver excellent customer experience.  Well-trained and customer-centric employees are the top attribute of companies that provide consistently excellent experiences. Continuously improve the quality of your service.  Use feedback forms and encourage customers to share their views on how you conduct their relationship-building and fix the trouble areas revealed.

 

Market your marketing.

You’re not really promoting unless you’re cross-promoting. “Your trade show booth will be far more valuable to you if you promote it in trade magazines and with fliers put under the doors of hotels near the trade show,” shares Levinson.

 

The changing nature of markets, particularly the increase in competition and development of both local and availability of global brands make us more dependent on several media to motivate a purchase. It is no longer enough to design an attractive promotion. Marketing your promotion becomes a necessity. Make a big-bang announcement when you present value offers, sampling or even freebies.

 

It doesn’t mean that you will allot additional budget on promotional announcements. Maximize your existing communication vehicles.  When you develop a brochures or flyers, make sure to include your hotline number and website address to access on more clarified information. Use your business card as marketing tools or promotional bulletin board by posting your services or promotions at the back of your card. Never forget your exit strategy.  Bounce-Back coupons are excellent way to engage customer to come back on limited period time by offering certain discounts on the next purchase. This way, you’re motivating them to return using the same promotional materials. 

 

 

Explore fusion marketing.

“The guerrilla entrepreneur is dependent upon many people. He knows that the age of the lone wolf entrepreneur, independent and proud of it, has passed — he is very dependent upon his fusion business partners,” says Levinson.  Identify potential partners for fusion marketing (also called co-marketing promotions). Fusion marketing takes your brand to a new audience by associating with other brand. It will strengthen preference or purchase intention.

 

Because of too many choices and similar offerings, you have to spend extra for differentiating your brand. With this, several businesses share the same customers and by combining their efforts into one synergistic move are more economical and bring better results. Combine your marketing efforts, concept and production skills, customer information and anything else to increase your marketing reach while reducing the cost. Take Pizza Hut and Pepsi for instance, or Krispy Kreme and Hersheys.  These companies merge their forces to create a single campaign targeting one segmented audience carrying both their brands.

 

Collaboration happens not only with similar branding activities but partnership and alignment with your suppliers and employees as well. Building your brand is similar to building a cathedral or making a movie, it takes hundreds of collaborators. Always remember, when you join fusion marketing, you have to be ready to collaborate with your partners. “You’ll scratch my back and I will scratch yours”, says Levinson.

 

Nurture the ones you already have.

The most common method of economizing is also one of the most overlooked — marketing to existing customers. Customer acquisition will cost you six times more that customer retention. Levinson points out that the price of discovering and convincing likely customers is astronomical when compared with the price of doing the same with current customers. Most entrepreneurs believe that customer relationship management is expensive.  This is a common misconception; you can simply develop database marketing. Update and maintain your list of customers’ information accurately.  This information is handy for prospecting purposes, customer segmentation, forecasting sales or determines who your real customers are and their buying habits.  That way, you can communicate with them frequently, more effectively.

 

Customer-nurturing programs cannot be measured on how your membership cards look or the rewards that you give. It is by how well you know them on a personal basis. Always remember their names (and important dates such as birthdays and anniversaries).  Surprise them, by giving small token on unexpected dates. Finding cost-effective and fast communication vehicles will also strengthen the relationship-building process with your customers. Use email and SMS message blasts.  Develop a simple HTML catalogue-type email (avoid using attachments), and send them to all customers who uses internet.  Also, get advantage of the Telco’s offers of unlimited text to broadcast your new products and services.

 

Understand conversion rates of prospects to leads, to qualified opportunities, and to winning the customer loyalty.  Create pipelines that fill target accounts, nurtures, appointment and sales. Understand what works, what doesn’t, continuously improve the streamline processes, and prepare to pilot another tailor-fit program.

 

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A common problem for all businesses today is not only about not having enough money to work on all the possible marketing ideas, but putting the right plan. Squeezing the maximum results from your marketing activities is the best way to economize.  A one-time radio ad, or a 7-seconder TV commercial will not necessarily translate to increased sales.  Your target customers need to hear your marketing messages at least 7 times to influence a buying decision.   Use low-budget marketing to get your message out to your customers on a regular basis.

 

The philosophy of frugality and thrift is not about cutting and limiting your marketing expenditures. It is the concept of “stretching your marketing budget” to reach your target market in multiple channels, thus, bringing higher impact to your marketing message. And for Levinson, guerrilla entrepreneur’s attacks do not suffer from lack of resources, “but instead prosper because lack of capital makes them more willing to try new and innovative ideas.”

[NOTE:  From the actual one-on-one interview with Jay COnrad Levinson in Manila]