Suffering from communication overload, consumers developed internal firewalls and rejected brand messages. An efficient way to slip past these firewalls is peer-to-peer backup. Friends are the only ones who don’t force you to buy something. Leveraging pre-existing social networks, viral direct email gives companies an exponential increase in brand awareness, without the cost of distribution.

Your own e-quake via direct email

First of all, don’t mess up your subject line! When your SEO editor writes the headline, he spends 80 cents on the advertising dollar. So no puns, lyrical titles, or pompous language. David Ogilvy was confessing that he once used the word "obsolete" in a headline aimed at housewives only to discover that 43% of them had no idea what it meant. Better still, in another title he used the term "ineffable" only to discover that he himself did not know what it meant.

The Bulk folder is another killer. To avoid this, do not put the following words and symbols in the subject field: "free", "money", "money", "guarantee", "discount", "loan", "to buy", "To win", "save", "reward", "%", "$", "™", "*". Next-generation spam filters also analyze the body of the text and assign a score based on keyword density. Once you reach a spam threshold, bang… the Bulk (or Matrix!) has you.

Avoid negatives in the subject field. The speed reader may miss the "not"and their amazing brand slogan "We use our templates" changes in "We use templates". No prospect would take money out of his pocket for a "Me too" website, killing the uniqueness of the brand.

For the direct email body, be careful with superlatives, generalizations, and platitudes. Fill your copy with factual information, statistics, and survey results. You can always turn to datamonitor.com, Reuters, CBS, BBC. And don’t worry about the length of your email: renowned studies have shown that readership plummets up to 50 words per copy, but drops very little between 50 and 500 words.

The God-sent benefits of the viral campaign

A viral marketing study published in Business Wire (2006) and conducted by Sharpe Partners, an interactive marketing agency, found that 89% of US adults browsing the Internet forward engaging emails to their friends. Additionally, 63% of respondents share content at least once a week, while 25% send engaging emails daily or almost daily. The Sharpe Partners study also found that 75% of those interviewed disseminated content to up to six other recipients, and only 5% refused to disseminate content with clear brand promises.

When checking the type of content, humorous material turned out to be the most popular, with 88% reposts for jokes and cartoons. The other conspicuous viral categories were news (56%), followed by healthcare and medical advice (32%), spiritual stuff (30%), gaming (25%), business and personal finance information (24%), hobbies/ sports. (24%).

For an amplified viral effect, you can always try rich media emails. Containing high-quality graphics, Flash animations, audio and video material, or banners, they are more dynamic and engaging.

Direct viral email is a boon for SMEs for the following reasons:

1. No distribution costs. Your business will reach a much broader audience at virtually no cost, as people willingly submit the brand proposition. Time is the new currency.
2. Viral marketing is not intrusive or interrupted advertising, unlike most traditional techniques. A TV commercial annoys the viewer by pausing the movie or show they are interested in. That’s why people learned to use commercial breaks as bathroom breaks. Pop-ups, superstitials, interstitials, and floating ads are even more aggressive, forcing Internet users to view them and attracting negative attitudes towards the brand through this aggressive approach. According to Yankelovich’s 2005 study, 7 out of 10 Internet users are looking for ways to block, opt out, or remove advertising.
3. More effective guidance. By forwarding an email, the sender knows best which of their friends, family, or co-workers is most likely to enjoy the message based on common interests and hobbies. The targeting will not be simply demographic, but also psychographic, preventing you from bothering people with no affinity with your brand.

In the name of impeccable SEO writing and viral spread, implement these strategies for your success.