Pros & Cons of Pass along e-mail

It is no doubt that using pass along e-mail to reach customers is low cost. Once we get the e-mail address from previous customers and members, we can send out the promotion e-mail to them. E-mail receiver will be always willing to forward the mail to their friends if they think it is useful and attractive. Through the word-of- mouth, people usually open the mail which is sent by their friends. Perhaps, it is one of the fastest and credible way to spread message.

However, pass along e-mail may not be successful sometimes. First, many promotion e-mail will be listed as junk mail, e-mail user will always neglect it. Second, e-mail user may feel annoying to receive the mail from the company, they may delete the message immediately. Third, pictures and text cannot be viewed when user open the e-mail (see the example blow).

The Pros & Cons of Web-Facilitated Viral (Web Prompt)

I have discussed the example of Web-Facilitated Viral (Web Prompt) from the last post, as I mentioned Web-Facilitated Viral is highly relied on the motivation of value-added benefits, therefore, the benefits are (1) the advertiser can leverage the power of netizens to spread its message; (2) building good feelings/reputation from the brand to customers, also, (3) save a lot of advertising cost etc.

However, there are also some trade-offs with the Web-Facilitated Viral, for examples, (1) the value-added benefits are hard to determine because the value is from the point of sender’s view; (2) an effective and efficient website takes time to build and fine-tune etc.

In conclusion, Web-Facilitated Viral (Web Prompt) can be a powerful and cost-efficiency tool to promote a product/brand/company as long as the advertiser has a good tactic.

 

Pros and cons of incentivised viral marketing

As my mentioned in previous two posts, I think you know what incentivized viral marketing is basically. Now, I would like to discuss their advantages and disadvantages which base on the example of free netbook.

For the pros, the activity is very attractive due to nobody doesn’t want to get free stuff. It will increase the participation numbers and then company can easily to get customer database. Moreover, this activity also can create internet WOM and increase brand awareness because the gimmick power is big. Many customers are willing to spread the message with their friends as soon as possible. Then, company can achieve the aim of incentivized viral marketing.

For the cons, there is a risk if the activity can’t get customer attention. Because of we can’t ensure customers love the free gift and they will spread message with others. Moreover, company needs to spend cost on purchasing the products.

Pros and Cons of Web Link Viral

As viral marketing is being used widely nowadays, it proved how useful the viral marketing is. It seems that web-link viral has a lot of advantages so that it can be used widely. However, there are still some disadvantages of the use of web link viral. I am going to explore the pros and cons of web link viral to all of you.

In the above case, it has demonstrated the web link viral very well. As the writer of this blog has expressed how amazing the company's activity is, and the content is all come from their personal opinion, it is more persuasive. Other readers may believe in the content more, and have positive prejudice towards the company. In the example, the writer has successfully attracted some other users to discuss the link, and most of them believe that the function of the company is attractive. It proved that the web link viral is useful when spreading the positive word of mouth out.

However, there are still some disadvantages of using web link viral. As the user may not have positive opinion about the company, they may express their negative opinion about the company. The negative image of the company will be created afterwards.

Pro and Cons of using Web Link Viral

This time, let's talk about the pro and cons of using web link.

Pros:

Web link is a good builder for equity since it is something can creating word of mouth effect. Consumers tend to trust it more often because people doesn't feel it as “intrusive” as other regular advertising. It can spreads at a fast pace and which is an effective means of branding and developing an impression in the minds of audience. Besides, Web link helps in  differentiating from competitors and breaking away from the clutter.

Cons:

Viral Marketing could damage your product forever. Since you cannot fully control it, you can just plan ahead, prepare the information, set it loose and hope everything goes as planned. Moreover, Using web link has no standard practices and it is quite difficult to quantify the results.

 

So, how do you think about using web link?

Incentivized viral's pros & cons

Pros

Companies in different industries like using Incentivized Viral to help them increase referrals. They can be easier to obtain customers’ personal information through Incentivized Viral as customers can get some free stuff after leaving their or their friends’ contact. It can increase their customer’s data base. Moreover, more and more people like sharing on their blog or forum. They would like to share the “jetso” to the others so that the company's brand awareness would be enhanced finally. The more they discuss, the more opportunities to get the media’s attention. The optimal situation is getting the media’s attention to broadcast the campaign to help the company do a free promotion.

Cons

Incentivized Viral would increase the production cost of the Companies as they have to produce some gifts to the customers. Besides, it is difficult for the companies to outstand their incentive as more and more competitors exist.

Real Case of Web-Facilitated Viral (Web Prompt)

There is a real case about Web-Facilitated Viral (Web Prompt) from HK Tourism Board. It is a promotion for the event - HK Summer Spectacular. It is not a good example of Web-facilitated viral as the impact is really small.

For a Viral Marketing like Web-Facilitated Viral, a force or an initial in terms of benefits to the sender, such as monetary (coupons) or physiological rewards (share of funs), are required to motivate them sending to relatives. However, in this case, there is no value for the sender and hence, the impact of this campaign is really small. Therefore, this is an unsuccessful case of Web-Facilitated Viral (Web Prompt).

Pros and Cons of Web-facilitated viral(e-mail prompt)

E-mail prompt is user-friendly?
Advantages of e-mail prompt

Company can gererate mass contacts via internet . For example members also can recommend others to visit the website if they also left their friends or colleagues e-mails.Therefore, company can be easier to gerenate mass contacts for promoting.

As the communication process between visitors and company in internet, no matter sent out e-mail or gerenate contacts, company only spent less on the communication but can promote the products or promotio even without boundaries.

Disvantages of e-mail prompt

It is easier to be through as a spam so that people will ignore. It was because e-mail can be left by other people. In this situation, some people may not be willing to receive these kind of message. Therefore, people will be list the types of e-mail as spam.

 Someone may think that e-mail prompt is under owner permission even the sending company is illegal to generate their contacts. Thus, the privacy problem is seriously destroed by e-mail prompt too.