3 Reasons Why Viral Marketing Works
Author: David Bain

Webmasters and sellers who use viral marketing usually have
their different reasons for using it. Some swear by its
effectiveness and some like it because it gets them straight to
their target market. If you're still unsure about the benefits
of viral marketing, keep reading.

--- Getting Infected

Viral. The word alone has a negative connotation, bringing to
mind images of disease and harmful microbes. Do not be fooled
by the word for even though it carries a negative connotation
in the physical world, it means exactly the opposite in
cyberspace! Having this misconception could be disadvantageous
to you because it could spell the difference between being a
webpage lost in online obscurity to being the next new hot site
that everyone's Googling.

Viral marketing is called such because it's `infectious.' Viral
marketing has several advantages for you, and for good reasons,
too. It uses one of the most effective and inexpensive
marketing tools in history – the word of mouth. I bet you would
think twice about thinking badly of viral marketing if you
realize that the success of things like GoogleMail or GMail and
multilevel marketing – MLM or sometimes called `pyramiding' –
were brought about mostly by viral marketing. This example
shows any webmaster that the success can be duplicated on the
online market.

--- Ditch That Vaccine: Three Reasons why it Works:

It's free. It's like magic to anyone's ears. It's great
especially for startup businesses because it can quickly
generate interest for your product while minimizing marketing
capital at the same time. All it takes is a little hype here
and a good word there to get the chit chat ball rolling.

It works. It does so even on a massive scale. If you know your
history, some major religions and a lot of minor ones were
proliferated through word of mouth. This technique was
especially useful then because any written evidence of the new
religion meant death to whoever was holding it. This technique
is useful now because any written advertisement for a new
product means more costs for whoever's selling it.

The internet is perfect for it. With the advent of email,
messenger clients and online community forums, contacting even
your long-lost ex to request the return of your music CD is
rarely more than several clicks away. This new age of fast and
convenient communication is the best possible environment for a
marketing technique as dependent on human interaction as viral
marketing. Heck, people can talk to their friends even when
they're not online.

--- Precautions on Going Viral:

Viral marketing is a great technique because it's very
effective and extremely inexpensive. However, anyone attempting
to do it has to proceed with caution. From the very word itself,
going viral can easily make your company succumb to illness.
Going viral is a double edged sword, they say. In the same way
that positive words from peers could positively affect your
market's perception of you and your product, a bad rep could
bring everything toppling down. All it takes is one bad
interaction or a single bad deal with a customer to spell an
impending disaster for your company's reputation. In order to
fully optimize viral marketing, you have to be sure that your
customers really like your product and that they're happy with
the way you or your company deals with them.

About The Author: David Bain is founder of the internet
marketing training company
http://www.PurpleInternetMarketing.com. Purple Internet
Marketing helps marketing managers and business owners harness
the power of the Internet as a marketing tool.