Email Based Viral Marketing Mistakes You Could Be Making

Are you making mistakes in your email-based viral marketing campaigns that could be draining the life out of your business? It's not unheard of, and it's certainly not just a beginner's mistake. Using an email account to begin a viral marketing campaign is not difficult, but even the most experienced Web business owners can sabotage their own efforts with the common, but not so easy to self-diagnose, problems that we will discuss here. Just making one of the following mistakes in your email marketing campaign can make the difference between "online success" and the much more common "online mediocrity" that Web businesses face.

Email-based viral marketing mistake #1: Sending out marketing emails from a business email account. Networking is merely word of mouth in action. When people know you and know they can trust you, they spread the word about your business. The same theory goes for online marketing. When sending out emails to friends, family, and acquaintances that know you on a first name basis, send your quick message through your personal account. Why? Because people trust a name more than they trust a business. The point is to get the word spread as quickly as possible, and not many people are willing to forward an email sent from a business. People want to help other people, so put your name on your campaign.

Email-based viral marketing mistake #2: Writing long messages. Your friends and family might be willing to read three paragraphs about your business, your product, and your goals, but no one else will. Ok, your family and friends probably won't care either. They'll buy the product because they feel they have to anyway. What you're concerned about is the people that get your email as a forward and don't know you. For them, all you really need to do is include two to three lines with a link back to your sales page or main website. Don't saturate the message with details. Ask for the recipient to forward the message, and provide a link. Keep it simple. Your readers should be able to comprehend what you want in five seconds or less, which is simply to click, forward, or both. Make it easy on them to help you spread the word fast.

Email-based viral marketing mistake #3: Using promotional jargon. No one wants to read an advertisement for a product in their emails. Emails are meant for personal exchanges, and are not always the best place for pushy selling tactics. Using phrases like "limited time only," "buy it now," or "one time offer" aren't going to motivate people to buy, especially in a world where so many people are still skeptical of any online business. Make the message personal, quick, and up front.

Email-based viral marketing mistake #4: Offering life changing benefits (or threats) in exchange for forwarding the message. The emails you send out for marketing purposes are not chain letters. No voodoo curse will befall those who do not send out your message, and no one is going to buy that "Free Gift Certificate to Applebee's" trick. Again. You have a good product, you want potential customers to know about it, and you're asking for people to do you a favor and spread the word. It's ok to be honest about it! Quite often those who are up front and do not use questionable marketing tactics are rewarded with customer loyalty.

Email-based viral marketing mistake #5: Not following up. When you send out that first message, some people will forward it, some will click on your link, and some will tell themselves they will look at it later. Others will delete it and forget about it completely. In other words, people need to see your message more than once in order for it to be effective. Change the wording just a bit, and send out another email a few weeks later, being careful not to become a burden to those who can help you. Try not to make your readers feel as if your life depends upon their ability to forward an email. Keep it casual so that they will actually enjoy their role in promoting your business.

Remember, if you are running a viral marketing campaign from your email inbox, you are depending not so much upon the size of your contact list, but your ability to cause as many readers as possible to actually forward your message. Your success depends upon the willingness of readers to not only open and read your emails, but also to want to send them to those they care about. Keep it personal, and keep it going strong.