The main threat of online marketing is the credibility factor. When you go to the local shopping mall you can see the product and touch it and there is also someone to attend to your needs. So on the one hand you have a feel of the product, and on the other your fears are addressed by the people at the store. But this is not possible over the Internet. You cannot touch the item on display and you can never know whether it is worth the money or not.
The concept of 'Viral Marketing' took its birth from here. In other words, it is a kind of 'word-of-mouth' marketing, at least the kind of it that is possible over the electronic medium. Marketers believe that the most effective campaign is the one that people pass on to each other, that is, you are likely to believe something that your fried tells you from his own experience, and not something that the Hollywood celebrity endorses. Similarly a website can claim that it indeed offers the best product, but is there any proof of that, other than the owners saying it?
When individuals work in a network and pass on messages, such as user experiences (a customer who is satisfied tells others that he is extremely happy with the product), this becomes part of viral marketing. Bogs are often used in viral marketing and there is another reason for this apart from the fact that blogs feature user experiences. Since content in a blog is updated on a regular basis, search engine robots tend to visit the blog pages over and over again. And the resultant spidering means that blogs get good search engine ranks. So many businesses now are actively carrying out blog marketing.
Viral Marketing and the Power of Emails
Messages distributed even through emails form a part of viral marketing. But normally why should someone send a mail to shout about the features of your product or service (no matter how happy he is), unless there is something in it for him. So when carrying out viral marketing many businesses ask their customers to send out emails and in the end there is a reward for doing this. Usually there is a link and when someone clicks on it from the body of the link, the website is able to track the source of the traffic. And when the traffic converts and becomes a customer, the sender of the email gets a handsome commission. Email viral marketing is often carried out in this way.
The fact is, there are many programs that send emails automatically to thousands. But the problem is, emails sent through them often get blocked by the server and get into the spam list. And even when they manage to get in to the Inbox, the open rate in abysmally low.
But viral marketing is able to beat this. Since the email is sent from a person who is known to the receiver, and thus the email will never get blocked or be treated as spam. And since the sender is known, the open rate will also be extremely high. Thus, emails are an extremely effective viral marketing option. |
