Effortless Transfers and Common MotivationsThe basic concept behind viral marketing as applied on the Internet is geometric progression; similar to old-fashioned chain mail letters. Hotmail.com accomplished this by applying Wilson’s first principle: give something away. They offered free e-mail accounts and included a simple tag on the bottom of all e-mails informing recipients that they too could receive a free e-mail account. They also incorporated Wilson’s second principle; provide for effortless transfer by means of including a link to their site on all e-mails. Users had to do nothing to promote Hotmail.com but send e-mails to friends and acquaintances. Combined, both of these features addressed Wilson’s principle of exploiting common motivations: establishing and using a Hotmail.com account was free and it was easy.Scaling From Small To LargeOne of the pitfalls that may come with viral marketing is the possibility of not having enough resources to accommodate a rapid growth in customer base. Hotmail.com avoided this by ensuring that they had, or had access to, enough mail servers to handle the explosion of traffic. Although not all businesses engaging in viral marketing will have to worry about providing mail servers, viral marketing by its very nature will increase traffic to a website. If offering a free download, program, graphic or hyperlink the smart e-business will make sure to have adequate bandwidth to handle this traffic. Nothing will kill a viral marketing campaign faster than customers not being able to access the “freebie” they were offered.Utilizing Existing and Others’ ResourcesWilson’s last two principles, using existing communication networks and others’ resources were perhaps the strongest advantages enjoyed by Hotmail.com’s viral marketing strategy. Most of what was required was already in place and being supplied by others. They are not an Internet service pr...
