Viral marketing can be defined as any technique or a set of techniques that encourages persons to pass on marketing messages to others, which will produce exponential increase in the awareness of people towards a particular brand, enhancing the visibility and effect of the marketing message. It involves dispensing free products or services along with the advertisement, and in return, the recipients will pass the product along to other users.
This strategy is very attractive to businesses limited budget for marketing and advertising. It can deliver very desirable results with minimal cost in a short period of time. Of course, viral marketing also has its downside. There are times that messages related to viral marketing can resemble e-mail spam and this can create damage to the brand.
Some viral marketing strategies are more functional than the others. To help advertisers decide as to which ones are to be considered, here the elements of an effective marketing strategy:
1. Products and services are given away free of charge
2. Makes use of existing communication networks to the maximum
3. Takes advantage of common human behaviors and...