E-mails are one of the tools of choice in the world of viral marketing.

An e-mail is a quick and cost-efficient way of contacting people and of creating an instant relationship with a huge number of contacts. Internet users respond favourably to well-aimed e-mailing if it does not resemble SPAM (for example when the e-mail comes from a friend or a leading member of the internet user’s community).

Sending viral modules by e-mail

After having established the characteristics of a chosen target group (age, life style, and socio-professional background), a viral module (message, flash, video, game, competition, applications) which is transmissible by e-mail is created. This viral module tries to direct the internet users’ attention to one of the characteristics of the service or product that is to be promoted.

The chosen format ought to facilitate transmissibility by e-mail (size, formats…). The message ought to be sufficiently interesting, humorous, shocking… to motivate the addressees to forward it to a maximum of people.

After having identified opinion leaders in a target community, these receive a link or an example of a viral module (minisite, video...) inviting them to forward it to their sphere of influence.

To avoid “negative buzz”, any mass e-mailings that have not been requested before and are thus similar to SPAM are strictly forbidden.

Recommendation by e-mail

An alternative to the above named solution is to provide viral content directly on a website or minisite. A tell-a-friend function allows internet users who have consulted and liked the module to recommend it to their friends by e-mail. Providing electronic postcards or “e-cards” are a good example of this strategy.

A newsletter

After having aroused internet users’ interest and attracted them to your website, it is important to offer them a means by which you can contact them in the future. By creating an active, regular dialogue with them, mutual trust can evolve and the chances of a commercial act rise.

A minisite can thus offer the possibility to voluntarily subscribe to a newsletter in order to receive regular information or other examples of viral modules. A newsletter can be sent as a personalised message in text or html format.

Concerning tracking: With a newsletter you can track communication with the addressees and measure it in numbers: opening rates, the number of clicks…