Viral and direct marketing
Marketing techniques are innumerable. There are many ways to approach the potential client. There are two marketing approaches that are very interesting due to their specific techniques. They are viral marketing and direct marketing.
Viral Marketing is a marketing technique that uses social networks, both online and offline, to transmit the message or advertising, through a self-replicating viral process. This process resembles the spread of computer viruses or biological viruses.
Almost anything can be the subject of a viral marketing effect: information, web link, video clip, e-books, etc.
Viral marketing expansion methods can be:
Word of mouth: simple communication between people who know each other.
Social networks like Facebook are the perfect examples of viral media. The number of people using these services is huge. Members of these social networking environments are very well connected as each user has many contacts. Finally, the method to share an idea or message is very simple, through different sharing techniques.
Calls “Invite your friend” from different electronic services. These messages that provoke actions are moving an important part of the population that wants to share the message, but is not willing to invest effort.
The advantage of viral marketing is that it requires very little or no investment. The viral marketing system is driven by the willingness of the transmitters to spread the message further. The power of exponential growth is tremendous. If each person distributes the information to 5 people and more, this gives 3,125 people informed after 5 levels from the transfer of the original message. Viral marketing experts know this formula very well, therefore, viral marketing is part of the portfolio of marketing techniques.
The downside is that viral marketing is not reliable as a standard method of information transfer, as not all ideas are likely to transfer at the same rate. Simply, the result of the viral marketing campaign is unpredictable, since the power of the campaign depends on many parameters.
Also the “viral competition” dictates the effectiveness of the viral campaign. If two similar campaigns are present in the same period to a similar audience, the social group is likely to transfer the message that seems more interesting at that moment.
There is no secret formula to guarantee the success of a viral marketing campaign, but good ideas, with a tone of humor, anticipation and value-added elements can help make a viral marketing campaign successful.
On the other hand, direct marketing is a sales method where advertisers approach potential customers directly with advertising, products, or services. The most common methods of direct marketing are telephone sales, requested or unsolicited emails, catalogues, leaflets, brochures, direct visits, etc.
There are two main differences that distinguish it from other types of marketing. The first characteristic of direct marketing is that the message is transferred directly to consumers, without using intermediate means of communication or mass media campaigns. The second feature is the “call to action” principle of communication to consumers.
Direct marketing is attractive to many companies as the results of the campaign can be measured directly. For example, if a marketer sends out 5,000 emails and 250 respond to the promotion, the company easily calculates that the campaign gave a 5% response rate.
On the other hand, the measurement of other media (TV, Radio) must often be indirect, since there is no measurable calculation of the recipients of the messages. The measurement of results is a key element of any activity.
Direct marketing is practiced by businesses of all sizes, from the smallest start-ups to multinational corporations. The decision to use the direct marketing approach is not related to the size of the company. If the niche of the target population is too small, direct marketing can be more profitable than a large-scale advertising campaign.
Direct Marketing and Viral Marketing have completely different approaches. The power of both marketing approaches can be harnessed, depending on the situation. Each person is the potential buyer, it only takes a little bit to activate the buying mechanism.