Five Key Elements to Decentralized Marketing

Derived from both…
Adam L Penenberg, Viral Loop and Andy Sernovitz, Word of Mouth Marketing

1 Repeatable

The principle of mass marketing is that the same message can be copied and sent to many people. Any printed or electronic document can be replicated and sent to multiple people with the same message.

2 Spreadable

Being repeatable does not mean easily spread.  For example, how many times do you pass on a shopping catalogue to a friend? In contrast, you may pass on a coupon to a colleague if  you consider it to be of value to them.

3 Self Replicating

Being spreadable does not mean self-replicating – you might have to work it to pass it on. To self-replicate means the message is spread as you use it. Every Hotmail email promoted Hotmail to the email recipient.

4 Multiple Nodes

Where Viral Loops work through a single point of contact, networks work through multiple nodes. And, the more the merrier. If you spoke to 5 people who also spoke to 5 people then you’d soon have a small army working for you.

5 Multiple Networks

Where viral networks typically stand independently, Double Viral Loops employ multiple networks. As one network grows so do the others feeding off it. PayPal‘s network grew as eBay‘s network grew.