Viral Marketing and CRM: A heady combination
No this is not about a terrorist plot to spread communicable diseases rapidly to bring down an economy :) This is more of an advertising concept which utilizes the immense popularity of social networking in today’s age of Orkut, twitter & Facebook. This is an online and more advanced, quicker and larger form of the traditional Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing. This has been around for more than a decade now but it is yet to be leveraged by CRM product vendors.
So what exactly is viral marketing and what impact does this have for companies and for us CRM practitioners?
Many of us have already experienced viral marketing in one form or the other, one of the most commonly (ab)used is all the mails that are forwarded to you by well-meaning friends talking about diverse topics from the ill-effects of coffee, danger of using plastics in microwaves to contributions for people suffering from obscure diseases like Small cell lung cancer to the benefits that you can derive from some vague mantra which has traveled the world 111 times and which must not remain in your inbox for any longer than 2 milliseconds after you have seen it and must immediately be forwarded to a zillion friends so that you get all the good luck and your recipients a time-bomb.
Viral marketing is based on the idea that a satisfied customer will evangelize a service/product which she likes (WOM) and each of her like-minded friends who gets converted to this service/product becomes "infected" and will go around infecting others eventually snowballing into huge sales for the company.
We are all part of different groups both on and offline based on our likes and dislikes. These groupings can be strongly knit e.g. Rajnikanth (a hugely popular Indian Actor) fan association or loosely connected e.g. An Orkut community for those born under a zodiac sign. Each of these can be utilized to spread information about a product/service which are relevant to them e.g. a newspaper that Rajni reads everyday – if this is made aware to a few of these fans then this news will catch on like a wildfire and very soon the readership of the newspaper will go through the roof - or a book on "What Leos need to look for in a prospective partner".
That is a Marketer already has a segmented audience waiting to be captured - and ready to get other customers - with suitably positioned offerings.
One of the earliest examples of viral marketing has been of Hotmail putting in an advertisement at the bottom of all mails sent out using hotmail inviting readers to register on hotmail. Of course this concept has become much more advanced now and the rate at which people get "infected" by viral marketing has zoomed exponentially due to larger and more receptive audiences that are a click away in today’s networked world.
These days creative messages which tickle the funny bone or target the good social citizen side e.g. environment related messages or patriotism e.g. the new 7 wonders campaign for Taj Mahal, stand a bigger chance of being forwarded.
So what impact will Viral marketing have on a CRM package? Will the new age CRM combine analytics with web-crawlers to identify suitable forums for new marketing messages? Can the Marketer define only the traits of her target audience and let the software hunt for online discussion forums or online opinion makers (having high Social Networking Potential) who can be used instead of depending only on the traditional campaign management module? Will it become proactive rather than just a passive tool? Will it incorporate intelligence to understand the motives and behaviors of its prospects by analyzing their browsing patterns on the company website?
Tell me how you think Viral marketing will change CRM or is it just a fad?
Many of us have already experienced viral marketing in one form or the other, one of the most commonly (ab)used is all the mails that are forwarded to you by well-meaning friends talking about diverse topics from the ill-effects of coffee, danger of using plastics in microwaves to contributions for people suffering from obscure diseases like Small cell lung cancer to the benefits that you can derive from some vague mantra which has traveled the world 111 times and which must not remain in your inbox for any longer than 2 milliseconds after you have seen it and must immediately be forwarded to a zillion friends so that you get all the good luck and your recipients a time-bomb.
Viral marketing is based on the idea that a satisfied customer will evangelize a service/product which she likes (WOM) and each of her like-minded friends who gets converted to this service/product becomes "infected" and will go around infecting others eventually snowballing into huge sales for the company.
We are all part of different groups both on and offline based on our likes and dislikes. These groupings can be strongly knit e.g. Rajnikanth (a hugely popular Indian Actor) fan association or loosely connected e.g. An Orkut community for those born under a zodiac sign. Each of these can be utilized to spread information about a product/service which are relevant to them e.g. a newspaper that Rajni reads everyday – if this is made aware to a few of these fans then this news will catch on like a wildfire and very soon the readership of the newspaper will go through the roof - or a book on "What Leos need to look for in a prospective partner".
That is a Marketer already has a segmented audience waiting to be captured - and ready to get other customers - with suitably positioned offerings.
One of the earliest examples of viral marketing has been of Hotmail putting in an advertisement at the bottom of all mails sent out using hotmail inviting readers to register on hotmail. Of course this concept has become much more advanced now and the rate at which people get "infected" by viral marketing has zoomed exponentially due to larger and more receptive audiences that are a click away in today’s networked world.
These days creative messages which tickle the funny bone or target the good social citizen side e.g. environment related messages or patriotism e.g. the new 7 wonders campaign for Taj Mahal, stand a bigger chance of being forwarded.
So what impact will Viral marketing have on a CRM package? Will the new age CRM combine analytics with web-crawlers to identify suitable forums for new marketing messages? Can the Marketer define only the traits of her target audience and let the software hunt for online discussion forums or online opinion makers (having high Social Networking Potential) who can be used instead of depending only on the traditional campaign management module? Will it become proactive rather than just a passive tool? Will it incorporate intelligence to understand the motives and behaviors of its prospects by analyzing their browsing patterns on the company website?
Tell me how you think Viral marketing will change CRM or is it just a fad?
Comments
Hi Shreedeep
I think you have raised a very pertinent question. I am working on Social Media Optimisation for the past several months and I have seriously felt a need for CRM practices especially in campaign management. Otherwise we run the risk of treating viral marketing as a creative aberration of the marketing department.
There are two barriers I foresee at this point.
The first is the cost. Viral marketing (especially the one carried through the social media) is considered a very cost effective way of reaching and influencing the customers. If CRM is incorporated, will the cost go too high?
Secondly, the traditional metrics of clicks, views, TRPs, etc are not applicable to social media where customer conversations, discussions, opinions, etc matter more than just the ROI. So is there a need to have a customized CRMs only for viral and social marketing?
The answers I am sure will be very interesting.
Posted by: Pramod | February 4, 2009 2:14 PM
Hi Pramod,
Thanks for your post. Regarding the two barriers that you have pointed out i would like to clarify that i was referring to incorporation of viral marketing concepts into COTS CRM packages. This, like you mentioned will strengthen campaign management. Cost will not be a problem since we are referring to organizations having a CRM system in place.
Regarding your second point, you are right. The traditional methods of measuring responses to a campaign will need to be enhanced since the opinion which gets built up in an online forum can be like an avalanche which can only increase in momentum and that too in double quick time. Companies must utilize these forums to remove any negative opinions about their products/services/brand and build a solid brand equity.
I will be posting on this topic to share some of my experiences. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, much appreciated.
Posted by: Shreedeep Panicker | February 5, 2009 8:42 AM