Harnessing the Power of Viral "Refer-A-Friend" Campaigns to Boost Traffic and Sales

Jan 2
18:14

2024

Matt Hockin

Matt Hockin

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The concept of viral marketing and publicity is essentially a modern spin on the world's oldest form of promotion - word of mouth. The internet has taken this age-old method of buzz creation and amplified it through a global network of digitally connected individuals. The traditional "word of mouth" has evolved into the digital "word of mouse", where people rapidly share information with their friends and family, spreading the word across the farthest reaches of the globe. Savvy marketers have learned to harness the power of this viral publicity through the use of "Refer-A-Friend" promotional strategies and tools.

The Power of Viral "Refer-A-Friend" Promotions

Viral "Refer-A-Friend" techniques can be utilized to promote virtually anything. For instance,Harnessing the Power of Viral Audri Lanford hosted a giveaway contest on her new website, www.wz.com, where she gave away four Sony PS2's as a promotional strategy. Participants were given the opportunity to earn additional entries by referring friends, resulting in a 9600% increase in referral results. This is a cost-effective method to boost traffic and sales.

Another example can be seen on Seth Godin's website, IdeaVirus.com. Godin promoted his book, "Unleashing The Ideavirus", by offering the entire book for free download. This strategy, coupled with a "Refer-A-Friend" tool, resulted in over 100,000 downloads and more than 400,000 readers in just a month.

Implementing Viral "Refer-A-Friend" Promotions

To leverage this technique to increase your traffic, sales, and digital word-of-mouth publicity, consider adding "Refer-A-Friend" forms to your articles, contests, eBooks, freebies, giveaways, information pages, sweepstakes, thank you pages, and more. The goal is to transform each visitor into a potential promoter of your content.

There are numerous "Refer-A-Friend" tools available to suit a variety of needs and budgets. For instance, BigNoseBird.com offers a free "Refer-A-Friend" script called BirdCast, which logs each referral for tracking purposes. On the higher end of the spectrum, qbiquity.com offers comprehensive word-of-mouth solutions for highly trafficked websites, complete with real-time tracking and integration with other communication mediums.

Conclusion

All viral "Refer-A-Friend" programs operate on the same basic principle - leveraging the power of referrals and digital word-of-mouth publicity to exponentially increase the reach of your message. Incorporating "Refer-A-Friend" and other viral techniques into your marketing strategy can provide a significant boost to your traffic and sales.