There was once an old joke about the three easiest ways to feed along information quickly-telephone, telegraph, and tell a woman. That made the rounds quite a long time before the information highway started! The simplest way to spread the term nowadays is with a viral email. But how do we achieve that?
People circulate emails to broad lists of family whenever they wish to send updates on job changes, addresses, marriage or divorce arrangements, births, as well as deaths. But our social groups are evolving into something outside of our blood or neighborhood ties. Newsweek journalist Howard Fineman, in the issue dated January 26, 2009, wrote about thinking about voluntary tribes in the present society. He described that as our old neighborhoods change and nuclear families become a thing of the past, folks are finding new solutions to align themselves with others. These alignments have little related to familial ties, race, or religion. They form because those are joined together by common ideas or causes.
These new varieties of groups translate into the best examples for implementing viral email. Think of sports fans who recently rooted for either the Pittsburgh Steelers or Arizona Cardinals competing in Superbowl XLIII. It was, in fact, the main example Fineman found in his article-describing “The Steeler Nation.” These fans found good ways to communicate their enthusiasm over the entire country, as well as outside US borders.
Pittsburgh Steeler fans created and sent myriad emails containing written messages, photo essays, and videos one to the other. People receiving these emails forwarded them to their friends and family, and the people forwarded them and so on. How can you measure the influence of such messages? It is a fact: A 27-year-old Steeler fan named Wilson created one single YouTube video and emailed his family with a url to it. Soon after, the recording had been viewed over 56,000 times!
Politics is an additional polarizing topic. In the months leading up to the presidential elections, emails favoring both Barack Obama and John McCain spread like wildfire for their individual supporters. Religion also drives people to share with you inspirational messages with one other. Health causes unite people, and thus do social issues like gay rights. But what are the most common features of productive viral emails?
Viral emails aren’t the same as the spam we all love to hate. Spam comes to our email addresses sent by persons unknown to us. Viral emails arrive at us because we know and trust the folks who sent them.
So if we open a viral email, why are we decide whether to pass it along? First, obviously, the message needs to touch someone’s sociologic heart. A McCain supporter, as an example, would delete an Obama message. But when polled in what compelled them to forward emails, people identified humor as the most important component. Commercial emails were that appears to be shared whenever they contained coupons. Viral messages were that appears to be deleted-stopped in their tracks!-if people deemed of the fact that content was outdated.
The idea of successful viral email marketing involves your belief in a product. Hopefully you’ve packaged your message in the humorous way. Then you can certainly dispense your message to your families and friends and ask these people to share it. They will probably share it not only with their relatives but with people within their social tribes. Put a Steeler logo about it! Insert a quote from Obama! Work with a beloved icon just like the crusty Maxine to spout your message!
Better yet, send your message off to your Steelers friends with a Steelers logo, but change it for others. Your cousin in North park will most likely delete it until you rebrand your message with a Chargers logo. Improve your sales pitch to ensure that some people get it with Obama’s smiling face, and some people see John McCain.
Keep the message funny, brand it with an icon that individuals know, and present it frequent change-ups. If all else fails, telephone a woman and tell her to send it!
Tags: Make Money, Viral Emails
