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The term 'viral marketing' was originally referenced in Greek Athenian histories, to be finally coined in the late 1990s by venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson. The term 'viral marketing' is commonly defined as network-enhanced word-of-mouth.

Viral marketing is considered to be very similar to network marketing. It is proven that the typical Internet user is very vocal about their online experiences. So in this way, for each person you reach, you will be reaching a group of friends. Viral marketing is all based on their vocal online experiences. A typical example of viral marketing is a reputed firm sending out, say birthday greeting cards. At the bottom of the card will be the option of giving the card to the sender or to anyone else you might like. This is viral marketing in action! Or if perhaps you have a newsletter, or write articles for some newsletter, you could add a line at the bottom of the article saying,' Know someone who would be interested in this? Click here to email it to them!' the prospective client is sure to click on this icon.

Viral marketing is considered to be a virus that is carried over the Internet to various web hosts or people. This virus is stealthy, patient and cunning, and is a very cost-effective way to generate awareness of a product or service to the audience. Basically, a viral campaign is said to scale easily from small to very large. This means that the campaign starts with only about ten people knowing about the product to be marketed. These ten people then in turn tell another ten people each, making it a hundred people who know about the product. This is sure a cheap means of advertisement as no money is used for advertisement. There is no need of making a new form of communication network for viral marketing as it usually utilizes the existing communication networks existing for the product and the computer. Viral marketing is indeed a great means of giving away seemingly valuable products, series or content to the general audience. Not only that, the virus takes advantage of other's resources, without having to have any resource of their own.

Now learning about viral marketing, you may feel like creating your own virus for marketing. However to create your own virus, you have to understand what exactly constitutes a successful virus. To create a successful virus, you have to have creativity and originality to make the virus authentic. Now that the virus has been created, knowledge of how viruses are spread has to be learned. The most important thing to remember sit that if the email, website, application or video of the virus being shared is not unique and informative, it will never become viral. The virus has to originate from a credible entity otherwise it will be mistaken as blatant advertising and thus be immediately discredited. Finally, if the leave-behind message on the website does not resonate with the target audience, then it will be a waste of time.

Viral campaigns usually have three stages, seed, germination and growth. Just like plants need the seed to be of quality genetic material to thrive and then successfully get germinated and receive proper nutrients to grow, online viruses too need this same treatment. Viral marketing has to start with a great campaign that grows with its advertisement through word of mouth of the people. However, there are situations wherein viral marketing too fails. The reasons for failure are usually incompatibility with the brand, irrelevance to target audience, unrealistic expectations and lack of sustainability. So remember, if the campaign is inconsistent with core brand attributes, or doesn't map to existing marketing objectives, the viral marketing is sure to fail. If the message of the product does not resonate with the target audience, then there is sure to be some failure on the campaign here.

Then of course for all this, one can design an email newsletter for the marketing if needed. The newsletter has to, like other newsletters, have a detailed description of the product to be marketed. Then there can be graphics to enhance the look of the newsletter, but in reality, black text on a white background gives terrific response from the audience. There should also be a subscription link in the newsletter so that the prospective buyer can subscribe to the newsletter if interested. The contact information too is important for you as you can then send emails telling the customers abut any new product that you may have!