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Quote:...promotional marketing is one of the most successful lead-generation, customer acquisition and retention vehicles in the online industry. Appealing to our innate love of the freebie, online promotional marketing leverages incentives such as interactive sweepstakes, printable coupons, instant-win and rich-media games, rewards systems, viral marketing and seasonal programs to entice users to take action toward a buying decision.

Finally, a continual stream of enticing promotions is a great tool for customer retention. Promotional tactics -- including forward-to-a-friend and personalized electronic newsletters -- can help to maintain ongoing, permission-based communication with in-market customers...

full article: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/7647.asp

Use it too often and your business will suffer.  Viral marketing can be done 24-7, but the use of  coupons, free this or that, needs to be limited to retain its effectiveness.