Viral Marketing as the name suggests is spreading information on a mass scale. It describes any strategy that seeks to spread information about a product or service from person to person by word of mouth or sharing through the internet.
The advent of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat have contributed to the efficacy of viral marketing massively.
These platforms allow one-to-one interactions and every person loves personal attention. If your brand is able to deliver that, you’re in the running to go viral.
According to various reports around 75% of the marketers know this personalization tactic but hardly 20% of them use it. That’s majorly because people tend to assume that going viral is a matter of luck and not of strategy.
While accessing all communicational platforms we get to understand the users spend most of their time emailing, sharing content, viewing news and forwarding it to their friends, families and other acquaintances.
Now, the catch here is that they don’t just share any content.
People share content which seems relevant, useful and credible. And that is exactly what you have to create.
Interestingly, according to Bryan Heathman, president of I Promotion for 24/7 Media, an online direct marketing company, 80 percent of online firms use viral marketing. Viral Marketing acts as a double-edged sword due to its ease in spreading and sharing. It can be a PR nightmare if it goes wrong.
Some Important Facts about Viral Marketing
That’s a nightmare for a modern day marketer. He learns marketing, gets all the things right, but doesn’t succeed. So, here I enlist top tricks or tips to let you hit the ground running.
An important thing that is of concern is that although viral marketing is an extremely effective tool and it is something to include in your list of online marketing strategies, the basic marketing rules still apply.
The advent of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat have contributed to the efficacy of viral marketing massively.
These platforms allow one-to-one interactions and every person loves personal attention. If your brand is able to deliver that, you’re in the running to go viral.
According to various reports around 75% of the marketers know this personalization tactic but hardly 20% of them use it. That’s majorly because people tend to assume that going viral is a matter of luck and not of strategy.
While accessing all communicational platforms we get to understand the users spend most of their time emailing, sharing content, viewing news and forwarding it to their friends, families and other acquaintances.
Now, the catch here is that they don’t just share any content.
People share content which seems relevant, useful and credible. And that is exactly what you have to create.
Interestingly, according to Bryan Heathman, president of I Promotion for 24/7 Media, an online direct marketing company, 80 percent of online firms use viral marketing. Viral Marketing acts as a double-edged sword due to its ease in spreading and sharing. It can be a PR nightmare if it goes wrong.
Some Important Facts about Viral Marketing
- Viral content is a product of relentless efforts. Most content goes viral because of the hard work that the company puts into it. If you put enough efforts into your material and truly know your audience, there is no reason you can’t achieve your desired outcomes.
- Instagram has the highest conversion rate from browser to consumer. We all know Instagram is a popular photosharing platform. An image is really worth a thousand words. Instagram makes this quote pretty much self-explanatory. So, marketing on instagram is a quick way to go viral.
- Weekend posts foster 25% higher engagement on Facebook. This sounds obvious due to more time spent on the platform on weekends than usual weekdays.
- You only have to be there initially. Once your content is out in the hands of your close circle, and they like it enough to share it, your part is done. They share it with their social circles and then their progressive actions generate enough momentum to continue the sharing process, indefinitely.
- You can optimize a “viral post”. To make your content go viral, be absolutely original, offer value to your audience, make your piece visually appealing, and add something surprising (maybe an offer).
- Instagram is a clear winner in viral marketing. With 49% of photos and 60% of videos reaching 250+ interactions, it outperforms all other social networks. So, invest your time and energy on this platform to outperform your competition.
- Facebook posts including hash-tags have 60% more interaction than other posts. Use them strategically to link your posts to trending and relevant discussions and topics.
- Going viral earns you a ton of links. The visibility of your brand over the internet is a potentially big benefit in terms of the number of links you get for your website. Viral Marketing is a cool way to Search Engine Optimization.
- Connecting on LinkedIn helps you reach the highest level of trust. According to a recent study, LinkedIn users actively entreat it as a valuable source of industry news and professional advice.
That’s a nightmare for a modern day marketer. He learns marketing, gets all the things right, but doesn’t succeed. So, here I enlist top tricks or tips to let you hit the ground running.
Top 7 Tips to Win at Viral Marketing
- Create an Emotional Appeal
Viral marketing is all about being able to trigger the emotions of your audience. If your viral strategy fails to do so then you will definitely have to compromise on your desired outcomes.
Following this, the next question is how to create a strong emotion? You can set off love or hate in your audience through your content, create something that will make people jovial or insanely angry, or be an idiot or a genius. - Don’t Focus on Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing involves endorsing your product or service, giving insights of it, and how it is beneficial for the audience. In reality, people actually do not care about you or your product unless you have an interesting story to share along with it. Everyone remembers the Bravia TV advertisement even when the product was not even seen throughout the advertisement because of the story that it delivered. - Target the Right Audience and Channels
Nothing goes viral on its own; you need to deliver the right message to the right people. Try to determine your target audience, if it is for a particular age group or for a particular gender or religion.
Next, determine which marketing channels are the best where you can publish your posts so that it reaches the right audience. You need to determine these before you let your content go live. - Reward Your Customers With Your Valuable Product
There is probably no one who doesn’t like something valuable for free. “Free” is the strongest word in a marketer’s vocabulary. To attract the attention of your audience, offer the most valuable product or service for free.
The most viral marketing programs potentially benefitted by using this strategy. By implementing this strategy, you may not profit today or tomorrow but if you can generate people’s interest on you then you will profit soon. - Create More Videos
A video does what text doesn’t. It creates an immediate and real impact on the target audience. Adding a video on YouTube or Daily Motion allows your audience to share it with their friends and eventually, the video becomes popular and can end up spreading like wild fire all over the internet, increasing brand awareness enormously.
Moreover, if your video is really interesting then people might embed your video on their websites or blogs. This way, people will see your video from different websites as well, thus making it even more popular.
In essence, video marketing is the best tactic to add virality from your campaigns. - Enable Sharing, Embedding and Downloading
Just as the viruses only spread when they’re easy to transmit similarly you need to allow people to share your content easily, embed it on their own sites and download it to spread it across the internet.
Moreover, simplify your message so that the audience can understand it easily and this will encourage them to share it with others. - Do Something Extraordinary
People always want to see something new. Ordinary and general content has zero probability to get viral. To make your marketing campaigns noticeable do something unexpected.
Simply trying to promote your product or service is not something great – others are doing that too. The key is to be original. Deliver what you deeply feel about, what you think your audience will connect to.
Conclusion
Many people think that viral marketing requires a huge budget and time or that it is a product of luck. But the above-mentioned strategies can definitely help you drive more traffic and sales. If you are not using online viral marketing techniques yet, you are putting your own business at a disadvantage by missing out on millions of visitors to your website or blog.An important thing that is of concern is that although viral marketing is an extremely effective tool and it is something to include in your list of online marketing strategies, the basic marketing rules still apply.
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