Microsoft Hotmail service used viral marketing to spread the word about their email services.  Since the beginning of hotmail, advertised the possibility of having a free email address by passing emails.  Each email sent automatically contains a link to the website service, along with a short catchy phrase.  Once an email is received, the recipient can click on the link and start making use of Hotmail by signing up.  Again, the new users sent more emails and each email contained a link.  The word spread like wildfire and Hotmail was using the power of the masses to advertise its service without any effort from its side.

Viral marketing is essentially a very inexpensive tool to market a service or a product. There is no need to create new resources, but advertisers use the ones already in place and each user becomes a testimonial for the company.  If someone uses the service and lets others know about it, that person is advertising the services of the company.

Hotmail used a very effective way to promote itself.  It was a subtle way of saying, ‘I am using this service and it is good. Try it out.’   This stands to show that the service in itself works and what is best, someone who is close to you such are your friends are telling you about it.  Viral marketing allows the message to be spread faster than traditional advertising campaigns.

The process of viral marketing or a viral marketing campaign can be categorized in different types.  They all use the same concept: spread the word.

• Pass it on.  Emails are used mainly to pass messages fast.  With a click, one can send a message to one, ten, twenty persons and so on.  Very often there is a note to forward or to click on a link or both.
• Create false news so that people will talk about it and let others know about it. There is no real reference to passing it along, but the news can be so sensational or different, that it will be passed on automatically.
• Controversial facts.  This is used very often by people in the entertainment industry.  Having something to tall about is a tactic used by most gossip magazines.

On the other hand, viral marketing is often attacked by people mainly consumers, marketers and lawyers since some emails breach the privacy of the individuals and are an annoyance to the recipient.  There are other viral marketing campaigns which are very subtle and use its techniques skilfully to attract favorable reactions from others and aim at passing on the message.  A good viral marketing campaign is like a terrible virus which spreads unknowingly to others.  Catching a cold and being part of a viral marketing campaign is very simple.