what is viral marketing

Viral marketing is a method of promotion that involves the dissemination of messages from person-to-person without the involvement of the originator.

This is commonly achieved through the use of email, but web-based postcards and ¡®recommend this site to a friend¡¯ links are other means to the same end.

Viral marketing campaigns generally rely on the strength of the original proposition: be it a product, service or (increasingly) entertainment value.

One example of viral marketing is encouraging current and potential customers to tell others about the company's products and services, and in turn encouraging those others to tell even more others.