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What is viral marketing and how can you use it to achieve your marketing goals?
Viral marketing is a marketing technique that exploits existing social networks to promote brands or achieve other promotional goals, depending on the process of viral replication, similar to the replication of viruses in the biosphere and in the computer world and the Internet1. Where the one who receives the advertisement voluntarily passes it on to everyone he knows because he finds it funny or unique.
Viral marketing is a type of word-of-mouth marketing, but it aims to achieve massive spread of marketing messages. Viral marketing is called this because it mimics viruses in terms of its speed of spread and mode of transmission2.
Viral marketing is one of the best marketing techniques in our time, as it can reach a large audience at a low cost and in an innovative and attractive way. It also helps to enhance brand awareness and increase customer credibility and loyalty.
But how can you use viral marketing effectively to achieve your marketing goals? What are the most prominent viral marketing strategies?
Most effective viral marketing strategies
To implement a successful viral marketing campaign, you must follow some strategies that help you capture the attention of your audience and motivate them to share your marketing message with others. According to some experts, there are four main types of viral marketing strategies:
Pass-along strategy: This strategy is based on creating interesting, funny or surprising content that prompts users to share it with their friends and acquaintances. An example of this strategy is the "Charlie Bit My Finger" video, which has more than 800 million views on YouTube.
Emotional strategy: This strategy relies on provoking strong emotions in users, whether positive or negative, that make them feel sympathy, admiration, anger or sadness. An example of this strategy is the “Kony 2012” video that called for a stop to the crimes of the Lord’s Resistance Movement in Uganda.
Incentivized: This strategy relies on offering users an incentive to share your marketing message, such as a discount, gift, or chance to win a prize. An example of this strategy is the "Dropbox" campaign, which offered additional storage space to users who had invited their friends to sign up for the service.
Buzz Marketing Strategy:
This strategy is based on creating media buzz around a product, service or event, so that it becomes the subject of people, press and influencers talking. An example of this strategy is the “Red Bull Stratos” campaign, which organized the space jump of adventurer Felix Baumgartner in 2012.
How to create an effective viral marketing campaign for your business
To implement an effective viral marketing campaign for your business, you must follow some of the following steps:
Understand your audience first: Before you start creating viral marketing content, you must know who your target audience is and what their needs, expectations, interests, and problems are. You should also know where your audience is on the Internet and how they interact with different content.
Determine the campaign objective: After you know your audience, you must define the objective of the viral marketing campaign that you want to launch. What is the marketing message you want to deliver? What is the required action from your audience? What are the indicators by which you will measure the success of the campaign?
Preparing an easy-to-share marketing message: After you define the campaign goal, you must prepare an easy-to-share marketing message that is short, simple, clear, and attractive. You should also use visual, audio or interactive elements to increase the chances of your message spreading. You should also keep in mind the principles of the science of persuasion, such as reliable source, consistent message, social proof, likeability, commitment, consistency, and scarcity.
Provide an incentive for participation and interaction: After preparing an easy-to-share marketing message, you must provide an incentive for your audience to share and interact with it. The incentive can be in the form of added value, useful information, entertainment, education, recognition, reward, challenge, or contribution to a social cause.
Use Social Media: After providing an incentive for participation and interaction, you should use social media to spread your marketing message and achieve viral spread. You should choose the channels that are best suited to your audience and your message, and use hashtags, links, and calls to action to increase engagement. You should also monitor feedback, comments, shares, and statistics to measure campaign success and continuous improvement.
Conclusion and proposals
Viral marketing is a powerful and effective marketing technique, if used correctly. Through it, you can reach a large audience at a low cost and in an innovative and attractive way. You can also enhance brand awareness and increase credibility and loyalty among customers.
But to implement a successful viral marketing campaign, you must follow some of the steps and strategies that we mentioned in this article. You should also keep in mind some of the following suggestions:
Find Inspiration: Before you start creating viral marketing content, look for inspiration from previous successful viral marketing campaigns, both within your business and outside of it. Try to understand what makes these campaigns successful and how you can use the keys to their success in your campaign.
Start small: Before you launch your viral marketing campaign on a large scale, start small by launching it to a limited group of your audience, such as your loyal customers or influencers in your industry. Ask them for their opinion and impression
Ask them what they think of the campaign and how willing they are to share it with others. Use their feedback to improve the campaign before launching it on a larger scale.
Be ready to engage: After you launch your viral marketing campaign, be ready to engage with your audience and respond to their comments, questions, and complaints. Be present and engaged on social media, email, phone and more of communication channels. Be professional, friendly, and honest in your communication with your audience.
Measure Campaign Results: After your viral marketing campaign ends, measure its results against the goals you set at the beginning. Use analytics and statistics tools to measure KPIs, such as views, shares, likes, comments, visits, conversions, and more. Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your campaign and learn from your mistakes and successes.
Examples of successful viral marketing campaigns
To get some inspiration for creating effective viral marketing campaigns, in this section we'll show you some examples of successful viral marketing campaigns in different industries, and we'll analyze what made them successful and what you can learn from them.
The “Ice Bucket Challenge” ALS Fundraiser: One of the most famous viral marketing campaigns of all time, this campaign went viral in 2014, involving millions of people around the world, including celebrities, politicians and athletes. The idea was simple and innovative: challenge someone to pour a bucket of cold water on their head, film it and post it on social media, invite three other people to do the challenge within 24 hours or donate $100 to the ALS Association, which supports ALS patients. This campaign has been a huge success, raising more than $115 million for the association, raising awareness of the disease and the search for a cure. The keys to the success of this campaign are: using the factor of surprise, entertainment and challenge, providing an incentive to donate or participate, exploiting the power of influencers and social proof, creating a campaign hashtag (#IceBucketChallenge) to facilitate tracking and dissemination.
“Share a Coke” campaign to increase sales of Coca-Cola: This campaign is another of the most famous viral marketing campaigns, as it began in Australia in 2011, and then spread to more than 80 countries. The idea was intuitive and clever: replace the Coca-Cola logo on the drink's bottles with common names or words that express a personality or relationship, such as "Chris", "Sarah", "Legend" or "Friend". This idea caught the attention of consumers and prompted them to search for bottles bearing their names, the names of their loved ones, or words that match them, and to share their photos of them with the bottles on social media, using the campaign hashtag (#ShareACoke). This campaign increased Coca-Cola sales by 7% in Australia, increased the number of followers on Facebook by 870%, and increased the number of shares on Twitter by 998%. The keys to the success of this campaign are: using personalization, affiliation and recognition, providing added value to consumers, exploiting the power of social networks and word-of-mouth marketing.
“The Blair Witch Project” campaign to promote a low-budget horror movie: This campaign is one of the first viral marketing campaigns to use the Internet as a main promotional tool. The film was an independent production with a small budget ($ 60,000), and it tells the story of three students who get lost in a forest and encounter supernatural forces. The idea was daring and unorthodox: to create a website for the film that claims that the story is true and that the scenes shown in the film are video clips found after the students disappeared. Online forums, documentaries, and gossip pages have also been created to heighten the mystery and curiosity surrounding the film. This campaign succeeded in deceiving many people and attracting their interest in the movie, until it became one of the most profitable films in history, with revenues of $ 248 million. The keys to the success of this campaign are: using the factor of surprise, excitement and mystery, presenting a unique and unusual story, exploiting the power of the Internet and the media.
Dumb Ways to Die Rail Safety Awareness Campaign: This campaign is one of the funniest and cleverest viral marketing campaigns, launched by Transport Melbourne in 2012, to raise awareness of rail safety and reduce the number of accidents. The idea was cheerful and creative: to create a music video showing cartoon characters dying in stupid and funny ways, with a cute and memorable song, ending with the message "The dumbest way to die is by being killed by a train." The campaign went viral, with the video garnering over 200 million views on YouTube, the song becoming one of the most downloaded songs on iTunes, and launching a game, book and website inspired by the campaign. This campaign reduced the number of accidents on railways by 30% in Melbourne, and increased safety awareness globally. The keys to the success of this campaign are: using the factor of humor, creativity and positivity, presenting an educational message in an indirect and non-boring way, exploiting the power of visual and audio content.
“Old Spice” campaign to relaunch old men’s fragrances: This campaign is one of the smartest and most amazing viral marketing campaigns, as it was launched by Old Spice in 2010, to re-launch old men’s fragrances that were targeting the generation of parents and grandparents. The idea was daring and charismatic: to create a series of TV and Internet commercials featuring “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” a handsome, muscular, talkative man who addresses female viewers in sarcastic and arrogant fashion, claiming that wearing Old Spice will make their men like him. This campaign succeeded in arousing the viewers' interest, making them laugh, and seducing them, and it became the talk of people, the press, and influencers. An interactive campaign was also created on YouTube and Twitter, where viewers could ask questions to "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" character, and get direct and funny answers from him. This campaign increased sales of Old Spice by 107% in one month, increased the number of followers on Twitter by 2,700%, and increased the number of views on YouTube by 800%. The keys to the success of this campaign are: using curiosity, seduction and sarcasm, presenting a distinguished and influential personality, exploiting the power of interaction and dialogue.
“ALS Ice Buc ket Challenge” ALS fundraiser: This campaign is one of the most famous viral marketing campaigns of all time, going viral in 2014 and involving millions of people around the world, including celebrities, politicians and athletes. The idea was simple and innovative: challenge someone to pour a bucket of cold water on their head, film it and post it on social media, invite three other people to do the challenge within 24 hours or donate $100 to the ALS Association, which supports ALS patients. This campaign has been a huge success, raising more than $115 million for the association, raising awareness of the disease and the search for a cure. The keys to the success of this campaign are: using the factor of surprise, entertainment and challenge, providing an incentive to donate or participate, exploiting the power of influencers and social proof, creating a campaign hashtag (#IceBucketChallenge) to facilitate tracking and dissemination.
“The Best Job in the World” campaign to promote tourism in Australia: This campaign is one of the most creative and attractive viral marketing campaigns launched by Tourism Queensland in 2009, to promote tourism in the Barrier Reef Islands. The idea was brilliant and enticing: a job advertisement titled “The Best Job in the World,” an island ranger for six months, for a salary of $150,000, with simple tasks such as island scouting, diving, kayaking, and blogging about the experience. The conditions were also simple: submit a one-minute video explaining why the applicant deserves this job. This campaign aroused the interest of millions of people around the world, as more than 34,000 people from 200 countries applied for this job, and the campaign received massive media coverage from various media outlets. This campaign contributed to increasing the number of visitors to the Tourism Authority website by 400%, and increasing the number of tourists to the Barrier Reef Islands by 20%. The keys to the success of this campaign are: using the factor of distinction, temptation and opportunity, providing high value to the participants, exploiting the power of competition and participation.
Will It Blend? To prove the quality of Blendtec blenders: This campaign is one of the funniest and simplest viral marketing campaigns, launched by Blendtec in 2006, to prove the quality and strength of their blenders. The idea was funny and outlandish: to create a series of videos showing company founder Tom Dixon putting unexpected items like iPhones, iPads, golf balls, camcorders, etc. into his blenders, then pressing the “Will It Blend?” (Would you mix?), Then he surprisingly shows the results of the experiment. The campaign succeeded in captivating, entertaining and curiosity, and became an internet hit, with the videos garnering more than 300 million views on YouTube and increasing the company's sales by 700%. The keys to the success of this campaign are: use of humor, innovation and surprise, live proof of product quality, exploit the power of visual content and repetition.
These are some examples of successful viral marketing campaigns in different fields, from which you can draw some ideas and lessons to create effective viral marketing campaigns for your business. We hope this article helped you understand the concept of viral marketing and how to apply it in your business.
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