In the past decade, the internet has also evolved. People now can’t spend a day without the internet. From millennials to Senior citizens everybody is now part of the social media campaign. Thanks to the internet now any content spreads fast. When a video or content goes viral it receives more exposure than other similar types of content. But what exactly is this viral marketing? Viral advertising or viral marketing is a strategy followed by most businesses to promote their services or products across social media platforms.
Viral Marketing the name itself refers that customers spread information about a particular product to other netizens or people across the social networks. This information can be spread by word of mouth, mobile networks, internet. Viral marketing is personal, it is not done by the organisations and they will not be paying anything for the distributions of a particular ad or video. The videos will normally be published in their companies website or social media networks or websites such as Youtube or streaming platforms. Customers who liked that particular piece of content may share it with their close ones or public through their social media accounts, email or post it on their blog or web pages. The content can be in any form such as video clips, ebook, images, text or email message, interactive flash game, advergames or web pages.
How does viral marketing transmit information?
The concept of viral marketing has become famous in the ’90s. Over the years, the marketing gurus have foreseen its potential and it has taken a life of its own and became a thing. Many major brands are using viral marketing to promote their products to people. There is a viral strategy behind it along with creativity, preparation and luck. Viral marketing transmits information from one person to others like a virus.
Social media platforms are at an all-time high. Don’t you agree? Social media platforms are famous because of their ability to share and spread information faster. So, it has naturally become a habitat for marketing. Any information shared on these platforms can bring a lot of engagement to the video, product and company on the whole. People spend most of their time on their phones scrolling through their social media profiles and when content becomes viral it receives exposure from all everywhere. People will start noticing it and the company behind it. It may even increase followers on your social media profiles.
There are an equal amount of risks involved in Viral marketing. It is a double-edged sword as you see the control is in the hands of the public, it can go either right or wrong. When companies use viral marketing to promote the content then there are high chances of the message getting parodied or misinterpreted. But if everything goes right it can work magic for your brand. It can drive the engagement, drive web traffic and make your viral campaign a huge success.
How does it work?
Carrying out a viral marketing campaign is quite simple. All you have to do is come up with a concept that can attract your targeted audience. Create a video or any other form of content around that concept and then put it on the internet. And wait for your audience to sharing.
Virality is not planned it happens by accident. Any video irrespective of its uploader can go viral. Once it suddenly becomes popular it automatically gets circulated across the internet. While coming to brands there are two types of a focus point for dispersion strategy, i.e., Shown or concealed. In the former, the audiences are aware that they are viewing the advertising content. But in the later, they will not have any idea about the brand’s participation in the video so it becomes important for brands to apply concealed marketing techniques to carefully convey its participation in the content with making its audience feel tricked, deceived or cheated.
As you know one single mistake can the campaign against you which you don’t want. Don’t go overboard with your strategy, because sharing your content too many times can make you a spammer. So instead of repeating the same message over and over, come up with a perfect strategy to share your content at the perfect time at a perfect place and let it go viral.
Why Content goes Viral?
The recipe for viral marketing includes only two ingredients i.e., Good content and shareability. When you create good content, one way or another it will reach people related to it. For content to go viral it is important that there is an emotional connection, relatable, funny and lastly something that piques interest in your audience. You can create curious content or content talking directly about an important issue. You don’t always have to create content that has a social message you can create funny content too. There are thousands of funny videos that go viral daily. It is totally up to you on which type of content you want to create.
Advantages of Viral Marketing
As discussed earlier, viral marketing is a double-edged sword. Here are a few advantages of viral marketing.
Low Cost
When a brand is promoting its products or services the first thing they consider is cost. One of the most cost-efficient ways of promoting a product is Viral marketing. As you know, in a viral campaign the organisation doesn’t spend money to promote the content, it is shared by the audience. So, the costs will drastically get down. You don’t have to spend money to promote your products. It has an organic impact and with minimal costs, it brings enormous results. The brands can now spend little budget and time on their brand awareness promotion and marketing communication.
Engagement
Viral videos drive engagement automatically. A viral video not only gets shared domestically it can even reach the international audience too. Brands don’t even have to invest extra money or effort to spread the word about their products to an international audience. It has the potential of gaining the attention of your targeted audience. When they see the viral content are interested in your brand they would like to know more about your brand right? So they would search for your website and visit it. Once they visit your website there are high chances of them becoming a regular customer.
Brand awareness
Once your content goes viral more people will know about your brand. Which means without spending a single extra penny your brand is reaching your audience. All your brand needs to have is exceptional creativity. People will automatically get to know about your brand and form a personal connection with you. Compared to other forms of advertisement this will take your brand into people including your targeted audience. Viral marketing is a powerful tool when it comes to creating brand awareness.
Non-invasive
Viral marketing is not invasive. Users are the one who decides to share content. It evens improves the communication between the brand and audience which is rare in the traditional forms of advertising. In traditional methods of advertising, it is hard to know whether your audience liked your content or not. But with viral marketing you can easily understand it if it goes viral, it is sure that people love your content.
Social media following
It is rare to find people without a social media account. Every day hundreds of people are using these platforms to share, like, comment. There is a lot of potential for these platforms as they allow brands to understand their audience preferences better. When your content goes viral, more and more people will start taking an interest in your brand and would like to know more about your brand. So they would search for your brand on all major social media platforms and follow you to receive your content regularly. When your followers visit your profile, make sure you have provided them with all the necessary information they may visit your website increasing both engagement and sales.
Few Examples of Viral Marketing
iPhone X
Who doesn’t love Apple, right? Whenever Apple launches its new products it comes up with unique campaigns that draw attention to the product. Apple has a viral appeal, the brand that is already famous all around the world is simply using its products to turn people into its fans. One such campaign is “selfies on iPhone X”. People love taking selfies so Apple has used it to spread love digitally. It has become a huge viral hit and has allowed showcasing key features such as True Depth camera, Portrait Lighting Effects etc.
Old Spice
Old Spice has been around for a long time. This brand has changed with time and has adopted new age advertisement techniques to stay fresh and young. Old Spice is undoubtedly the king of viral marketing as it always comes up with out-of-the-box, humorous campaigns that will leave you in splits. The one campaign that stood out and never gets old is they came up with a character called Old Spice man in their ads “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” for their 2010 campaign. It has become an instant viral hit and has more than 56 million views on Youtube.
Conclusion
If your content is creative and the concept is interesting then your content will automatically go viral. All the major brands are one way or the other creating content that goes viral. Now that you know the benefits of viral marketing, why not try making your next piece of content VIRAL!!!
