With viral marketing, the main goal is to increase awareness of a product, service, or concept through word of mouth behaviors. To put it in context, where spam relies on the mass distribution of unsolicited emails, viral emails use popular aspects of social media to achieve their goal of reaching the masses.
Developing a viral email is pretty straightforward. An individual will receive a message that can be of any nature really (something with a humorous tone is almost always effective, but try not to be insulting), which they then pass on to their friends using “forward to a friend” or “share”. on a social network”, strategically placed in the email campaign. Secondary recipients can clearly see and trust where the email is coming from and therefore the chance of it being opened is greatly increased. They in turn do the same. itself, and so on. The concept is similar to that of an email chain letter, except, of course, there is no explicit requirement to forward it. A viral email spreads because the content it contains is relevant and (this is important), there is real value in passing it on.
A viral email is very similar to a real virus, and is in fact where the name comes from. Think of it this way: a virus starts out as a single entity, with the potential to grow exponentially to the point where it dominates. It uses a host and its resources to grow, replicate, and double with each interaction. Smart little organisms really, the hard work is already done for them, they just have to find the right host to get started, just like choosing the right recipients for their first viral email campaign.
There have been great examples of highly successful viral email marketing campaigns recently. One you may be familiar with is Threshers, the UK’s unlicensed retail chain. They emailed coupons to staff and vendors, which were then redistributed by them. This proved so successful that many branches ran out of stock when people went to collect the deal. On top of this, the story made headlines across Europe and the internet was abuzz with news about this ‘viral campaign’. However, according to Threshers, it was not an intentional viral email campaign, although due to its phenomenal success, they started a similar campaign the following year, with similar levels of success.
Hotmail.com is another prime example of a viral email campaign that resulted in the number of people signing up for a free Hotmail account quickly amounting to millions, literally in a few days. The strategy was incredibly simple; every email that was sent from an existing Hotmail account had a tag at the end that read, “Get your free private email at hotmail.com.”
To give you a better idea of the potential success of a viral email, I compiled these statistics, courtesy of EmailStatCenter:
- 20% of Facebook, MySpace and/or Twitter users have posted or shared something from the permission email to their social account(s) via a “share” option.
- 32% of marketers say they would share email promotional offers with members within a social network and open emails from others.
Based on these healthy examples and statistics, you may very well be thinking at this stage that this is something you would be interested in trying. And so you should. I’ve outlined some of the best practices you should follow to help ensure your viral email campaign goes out smoothly (and potentially makes headlines).
1. Make it unique
Think about what makes you respond to an email and take action. It’s probably because it contains something unique, something that makes you laugh and something that shocks you, something that excites you, or maybe even something that makes you reconsider your perspective on an important issue. You want your campaign to have a similar effect, so think very carefully about your content and the information you’re about to send to potentially thousands of people. Think outside the box and don’t be too quick to resort to ideas that ‘usually work’. Your new angle could take you to new heights of success.
2. Offer a reward of substantial value
3. Send to a selected target audience
You don’t want to come across as a spammer, so your initial email should be sent to a select audience. It is also the reason why you will tell your recipients not to forward the message in any way to any older person. If you are going to pass it on, it is important that you use the special ‘forward to a friend’ or ‘share’ button in the body of your email. This will allow you to easily track it and get the statistics you need, as opposed to if they simply forwarded the email regularly, in which case you won’t be able to track it from then on. A viral email may start small, like a real virus, but it grows and spreads extremely quickly. Remember that offering forwarding incentives can increase the number of forwards, but it can also increase the chances that recipients will spam your entire mailing list, which could certainly have negative effects on your company’s brand. Therefore, it is vital that you make it clear to your readers that they, too, need to be very selective about who they choose to share email with.
4. Check and optimize the format of your message
Have you checked the format of your message? Do you have a plain text and HTML message and have you optimized your message for recipients who open and share emails on mobile devices? According to an article on Econsultany.com, 20% of emails sent by retailers are opened on a mobile device. Use this to your advantage and plan strategically.
5. Bold branding and logo placement
How clear is your brand, logo, website and contact details, are they immediately visible? Without this, no matter how big your campaign is, if it can’t be attributed to you, what’s the point?
6. As always, don’t forget a call to action
As always, be sure to tell your recipients exactly what to do and how. Including a strong call to action in your email may be advice that rings in your ears all the time, but it’s for good reason. If you don’t tell someone what to do, they won’t do it. Simple. In the case of a viral email, your call to action might be something like “share to your social networks” or “forward this to a friend now.” Make sure this feature is also immediately visible.
7. Your follow-up campaign
Based on the statistics and feedback you receive regarding your first campaign, you might consider sending a follow-up, targeting those who responded positively to your efforts the first time around. This could be in the form of a survey of campaign results; people are often interested in seeing how their actions affect the overall results of a project. If you’ve previously submitted a video, you might consider submitting the raw version, especially if it has humorous images. This will also help you appear more “human” to your customers. Another idea would be to let them know if you have any more promotions or specials going on or remind them where they can redeem their vouchers or coupons if you included one in your first campaign as a reward for forwarding your message.
While coming up with a viral email campaign can be considered ‘fun’, if only to see how far it goes, it’s vital that you still follow best practices to help ensure you comply with anti-spam laws and reach the inbox of your target audience. The purpose of your campaign remains the same as a traditional email campaign, in that you’re there to inform your subscribers, make an offer, share important (or humorous) news, build awareness about your brand, and ultimately instance, develop lasting relationships with your customers. .