There is no doubt that the lifeline of any business is how well their marketing strategy plays out. Successful marketing techniques yield to positive consumer responses, hence eventually leading to sales, which in turn produces profit for the company. Even a company as known and as big as a beverage giant spends billions of dollars for their marketing and advertising content. A study shows that most international companies have invested on TV and print advertisements.However, with the advent of internet and the social media, more and more companies are looking to advertise online. In a study conducted by IBM, the number of people spending their time online is quickly catching up to the number of people spending the same amount of time watching the television. 60% of the surveyed people from the US, UK, Germany, Japan and Australia spend 1-4 hours surfing the internet and 66% spend the same number of hours watching the TV. What does this mean for companies and marketing strategists? It simply means that there is also a broader horizon for marketing online as there is for TV or print advertising.
The target of business nowadays, therefore, should aim for flourishing web presence. There are many ways to do this, and one is setting up a viral marketing online. What is viral marketing anyway? The term "viral marketing" was first coined by Harvard Business School graduate Tim Draper and faculty member Jeffrey Rayport that simply refers to the techniques of using pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses. It also describes a strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence.
Dr. Ralph Wilson illustrates this classic example of viral marketing online with Hotmail.com, one of the first web-based email services. The strategy is simple, he says:
1. Give away free e-mail addresses and services,2. Attach a simple tag at the bottom of every free message sent out: "Get your private, free email at " and,3. Then stand back while people e-mail to their own network of friends and associates,4. Who see the message,5. Sign up for their own free e-mail service, and then6. Propel the message still wider to their own ever-increasing circles of friends and associates.
The ultimate goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to create viral messages that appeal to individuals with high social networking potential (SNP) and that have a high probability of being presented and spread by these individuals and their competitors in their communications with others in a short period of time.With this kind of marketing, the amount of money businesses shell out for advertising is significantly cut. In March of this year, the beverage giant announced that they are cutting 6.6% off from their annual marketing budget. Instead, they are investing in the internet. A spokeswoman at for this beverage giant said that while TV is still an important medium from promoting their brands, "many of our recent advertising campaigns and promotions have also utilized online facilities such as Facebook and YouTube more".This is a testament to the very big potential of online marketing. If you have a start-up business and don't want to spend too much on advertising and marketing, go to the world wide web and boost your brand name via viral marketing. It is also a major plus if you employ SEO (search engine optimization) professionals to increase your online presence, like the ones from .
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