[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_imageframe image_id="2125|full" max_width="" style_type="" blur="" stylecolor="" hover_type="none" bordersize="" bordercolor="" borderradius="" align="center" lightbox="no" gallery_id="" lightbox_image="" lightbox_image_id="" alt="PS: I Love You" link="" linktarget="_self" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_direction="left" animation_speed="0.3" animation_offset=""]https://www.sancoale.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/love-1215311_960_720.jpg[/fusion_imageframe][fusion_separator style_type="none" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" sep_color="" top_margin="15px" bottom_margin="15px" border_size="0" icon="" icon_circle="" icon_circle_color="" width="" alignment="center" /][fusion_text columns="" column_min_width="" column_spacing="" rule_style="default" rule_size="" rule_color="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_direction="left" animation_speed="0.3" animation_offset=""] Established in 1995, Hotmail was one of the early free web based email services that helped shape up the early consumer Internet era. Hotmail was one of the earliest to benefit from a simple growth hacking technique that helped its service go viral. Hotmail's initial ideas of marketing were the usual expensive outdoor billboards and radio ads. However what followed was a classic dialogue between the founders Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, and their investor Draper of the VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Over 80% of the initial signups were happening because of referrals. After much persuasion, Draper managed to get Bhatia and Smith to implement his idea of adding a tagline to the bottom of every email: "PS I Love You. Get Your Free Email at Hotmail." The tagline had a clickable link that led people to the Hotmail page. Every time a customer sent email, the tagline did its magic and hooked on more users. This simple but effective hack resulted in explosive growth in their user base, that too without any advertising dollars. What started as a trickle became a flood. Hotmail went on to spread like a virus. Every time a user signed up, he or she transmitted the awareness of and love for Hotmail to other users. In 18 months, Hotmail amassed a user base of 12 million. Microsoft eventually purchased Hotmail for a mind boggling sum of approx $500 million, paying a great premium to integrate Hotmail's gigantic user base with MSN. Not a bad result for the brainwave of adding the clickable tag in the footer of every email. Entrepreneurs and start-ups continuously need to search for innovative and cost effective ways to market their products and services by spending every marketing dollar wisely. If the marketing can be built into the product, and the product is world class, then it results in creating a world-beater such as Hotmail. The best growth hacking ideas are usually the simplest. [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Dove Real Beauty sketches has become an Internet viral campaign sensation. If you haven't seen it, spend the next three minutes watching it before reading further. Inspired by research that said only 4% of women considered themselves beautiful, Dove selected some normal women in normal jobs instead of photoshopped starving models. An FBI trained artist and the women were separated by a screen. The artist drew sketches of the women based on their own descriptions. After that, the artist drew pictures of the women based on a description by strangers who met the women for a short time. In most cases, there is a tremendous difference between the sketches. Women usually focussed on the problems, wrinkles, freckles, weight, etc seemed to weigh down their self opinion. They were often their own worst critics. In contrast, the strangers were much kinder, describing their best features first. Dove seems to send out the message that women are more beautiful than they think. As a part of the activation behind this campaign. Dove setup doors at the entrance of many public places across different countries that simply read "Beautiful" and "Average". It filmed women actually pausing before selecting the doors, proving the point further. The campaign was supposed to help boost self confidence of women, hoping that they see themselves for what they truly are. 114 million people saw the campaign in its first month of release globally due to its strong emotional appeal. The film was distributed to media, and released in over 20 languages on YouTube. The video was unlike a typical beauty ad. It had regular women. The brand wasn't in your face all the time, there was no attempt at selling any of Dove's products through the ad. Finally, despite the criticism about selection of women and its other ads and products, this particular campaign from Dove was a world-class viral campaign.