Viral Email Marketing: Its Importance to your Online Business
June 11, 2009 by Dean
Viral email marketing defines as a viral (spread-the-word) seeding technique that allows you to use the power of email technology to proliferate your marketing campaign online. Let’s say, your business is not online. Try thinking of ways on how you can integrate the various email marketing tools to your business transactions.
In fact, making money online is easier using this technique. There’s no need to use white envelopes or spend a dime for Mr. Post Man.
Try rewinding the history. You will discover that the very first successful email campaign is the Hotmail. This was the time when Hotmail offered a free email account to anyone who wants their services.
Techniques in Viral Email Marketing
Your number one goal in email marketing is to spread the word. You need to give your customers the big reason why they are forwarding your message to their friends. You should know how to encourage them by any means. If they want comedy, send them links to many funny videos and jokes. If they seek for straight-forward information, let them know the procedures.
According to Claudia Trusty, there are four basic written scripts you can include in your email messages.
1 “Got this great coupon and thought you could use it too”
2 “Heard about this—want to go with me?”
3 “This is so cool…thought you might like it.”
4 “Great information. You might need it for your project.”
Whatever written script you will use, you must remember that your only goal is to increase readership and make sure you will use the correct script in every viral message you have created.
Before the written script, focus your attention on the Subject Line. The subject line is what the readers will read first the moment they click on their inbox and if they find it interesting and unique, they will click in it.
The “Open Me, Read Me” subject line is no longer an effective viral message and should be stopped immediately. An ideal subject line is composed of one to five words only. The shorter your subject line, the more catchy it is and when it’s catchy, the chances of clicks is high.
For instance, if your message is about introducing someone who is your marketing consultant and her name is Britney Sheers. You can write “You Must Love Britney!” in your subject line and when people read your message, they can think of “Britney Spears” or someone they can associate with the name.
Another consideration is your email content. Viral email messages can be written in various ways: sales letter, product reviews or newsletters. Whatever is the format, your email content should have an introduction, body and conclusion. Long contents will not work and will never be read. For this, you need to follow the K–I-S-S formula.
If your message is too long but is important in every angle, send it in parts. Readers will like it more if they receive messages with cliff hanger end points. Anyway, the goal of your writing emails is how well you are in circulating your viral ads (links).
Offering something can also increase the chance of getting clicked. Jeremy Long Chia Teik wrote in his article,
“It is senseless to offer ten dollars discount for every ten people recommended. This may cause privacy issues that may affect the marketer’s reputation. If such an offer really gets emailed, consequences would be drastic. We can only imagine the message will be sent like a spam, possibly overloading servers. Therefore, the best solution would be a tangible value-added offer, by which viral email marketing works effectively.”
Timing is also an important variable you need to consider in email marketing. If you have your autoresponder with you as your viral marketing software, limit the number of emails you send to your readers. Thrice a week is already enough. The chances of getting clicked depend on how powerful the quality of your message is, not the number of times you send them in their inbox.
Closing Words
The world of viral email marketing might be the easiest tool you can use in online marketing. My advice to you: Start small and never purchase any mailing list services if you think you don’t need one. As a beginner, the effectiveness of your mail campaign depends on the overall quality of your goals, the quantity will follow.
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