The Power of Viral Marketing

The High Cost Of Untargeted Leads Confirmed

Never underestimate the power of a signature file. This was the basis of HotMail's viral marketing strategy : the e-mail signature used in tens of millions of e-mails sent daily by its users promote the free service. This technique lifted HotMail's user base from 3 million two months after launching to 10 million at the end of 1997. The company finished 1998 with more than 30 million users, a feat that simply has no equal in Net history.

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Results from a study done by GrowthSpurts.com show that an untargeted campaign for a particulat website generated a higher clickthrough rate and a lower cost per visitor, but was much more inefficient in terms of sales conversion:

A recent USPS survey found that Americans read or scan more than 88% of all advertising mail delivered to their homes and--after reading the catalog or advertisement--14.3% to 18.1% of the households plan to respond.

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