Effective Advertising Strategies on the Internet: Viral Marketing

Nowadays, it is extremely important for a company to have a strong presence on the internet. This means effective advertisement, mastering social media, and building a brand community.We have studied in class how effective e-mail marketing, easy-to-use web design, and targeting a specific demographic are all important in internet marketing.

Even more importantly for the internet, it is providing a service that is useful to the consumer.

However, today I want to talk about something we haven’t talked much in class about: creating a “buzz” and “viral marketing”.

When a company already has a strong brand and name recognition, creating a successful website is not particularly difficult. Companies without brand recognition outside of the internet, including companies based solely on the internet, find it very difficult to build a consumer-base.

(Credit: Jonathon Mendez,OptimizeandProphesize.com)


Viral marketing, instead, allows companies to maximize reach while minimizing profits. The trick is to create a campaign which spreads itself, much like a virus. Once something "goes viral", the  marketer doesn't need to put in any more effort. However, creating something that has "viral" potential is a tricky and difficult task. 

Here are some basic features of viral marketing: 

-There is a strong emphasis on “newness”. 

- The marketing must evoke a strong emotion in the viewer. This is a key feature of viral videos, and it does not matter whether that emotion is positive or negative.
- It must be memorable.
- It must be easy to view and share. 




These basic features show the similarities and differences between viral marketing and traditional marketing. As you can see, viral marketing has to be more bold and leave a strong impression on the viewer than more traditional advertising because it relies on the viewer to replicate.