| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 15/05/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 18 |
| Copyright: Other |
the net result
Every fortnight, Karen Gee from eDreams.com helps agents and operators to get the most out of the Internet
If someone mentions the word virus, it’s enough to have you opening a window and running out of the room with a hanky over your mouth.
In the world of new media, Internet viruses are no more welcome. After the infamous Melissa virus last week, the words I love you take on a sinister new meaning as a highly destructive new virus caused havoc in many organisations across the world. So why do I still want to talk to you about viruses within a marketing context and get you to include them in your marketing campaigns? Three reasons – they’re simple, cheap and very effective.
What exactly is viral marketing? It’s all about referrals and knowledge proliferation. It’s a campaign that’s so strong and so cool that customers can’t help talking to others about it. Like a snowball, viral activities gather pace and spread like the common cold, increasing their audience as they progress. It’s the marketing department’s idea of heaven.
So what kind of things can you do that’s worth talking about? Take a long, hard look at your business and see what makes you special. For example, a tour operator message that all the properties you feature have been visited by your reservations team is extremely powerful. Specialist tour operators and travel agents could think about producing newsletters on their key destinations advising what developments are taking place hotel wise, any special offers, news, views and opinions.
One tourist board composed a list of all the daft questions they had ever been asked by customers and they were hilarious. They weren’t attacking their customers, just teasing them in the way that insurance companies do by publishing details of what customers say caused their car accident. The old story about how ‘the tree come towards me out of nowhere’ may be an urban myth but it still works because we can relate to it.
Beenz.com is a very interesting company that offers a points-based system similar to Air Miles where customers can earn and redeem against a wide range of products and services. It’s interesting that most Web-savvy people have heard of beenz and yet the company has not spent any money on advertising. Their innovative approach and attractive positioning created huge interest amongst the Internet user population.
Just adding a tagline with a unique message to your e-mail is a very effective viral marketing technique. Indeed that’s how Hotmail began its life when free, Web-based e-mail was in its infancy. Every e-mail sent out by every customer sported an end tagline from Hotmail about its services. This was one of the tools they deployed to promote their site and encourage others to sign up. Today the company has over 40m users worldwide. Moral of the story? Ensure your Web site address is published in every single communications opportunity. It will undoubtedly pay dividends.
What about Web sites that are so great you can’t help telling others about them? It might be because they have a compelling consumer proposition or business model, because of the brand personality or because it’s beautifully designed. This is based on an instinctive reaction to a site and is not linked to a specific campaign. My point here is that if you do something well, customers may be so hooked that there’s a buzz and an instant viral marketing campaign.
In summary, viral marketing is a great way to spread the word. Because it’s generally based on e-mail marketing, its speed means it’s more attractive and cheaper than traditional mailouts. Above all, think about the relevance of your campaigns to your customer base. The greater the match, the higher the conversion will be.
But whatever you decided to do, ensure you plan in mechanics to enable you to measure the success right through to booking conversion so that you have a performance target for future campaigns.
this week: viral marketing
Something to shout about: a novel, funny approach is the best way to spread the word about your product
Viral Marketing Creation
nBE funny: humour is a great way to get people talking. Think of the e-mail you’ve received with a story that was so funny you forwarded it to your nearest and dearest. That’s perfect viral marketing. However, just bear in mind that people have very different ideas of what’s funny and it can backfire.