The last New Year’s Eve I was at a great party. Over glasses of champagne I had a lot of interesting conversations. One of these was about my work with freemium. After explaining the concept of freemium, one of the people I was talking to asked if it was a bit like viral marketing. The answer was a slightly loud YES. That is if you consider viral marketing in its original sense.
As described by Seth Godin, there are two different kinds of viral marketing.
The original version is where a product spread like a virus, because people who have tried it tell their friends and they again tell their friends. A great example of this is Gmail. The product was so great that once you had seen it, you had to tell your friends.
The newer version of this is where a campaign for a certain product spreads, because people tell their friends about the campaign. A great example of this is the Dynamite Surfing video. Note that it is the campaign that is viral not the product. People tell their friends about the funny video.
When you use freemium, you release a free quality product. If it is good and relevant to the users, they will tell their friends.
So yes, freemium is like viral marketing. It is a way of letting your free costumers see how great your product is. If people can access your ideas, these ideas can more easily spread ‘virally”.
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3 Comments
Yes, Viral Marketing is the most poweful advertising, which cost you as free
Interesting perspective on this and I was wondering about viral marketing . Thanks for tackling this case study.
“When you use freemium, you release a free quality product. If it is good and relevant to the users, they will tell their friends.
So yes, freemium is like viral marketing. It is a way of letting your free costumers see how great your product is. If people can access your ideas, these ideas can more easily spread ‘virally”.”
Thanks for the explanation. It is something to think about. I do something like this with a refer a friend script, but they do need to refer someone.