Viral marketing: digital word of mouth becomes strategy

Viral Marketing is, first and foremost, a digital marketing strategy.

The word viral in recent times has become one of the most commonly used words in everyday language, but when this term is put side by side with marketing, we see a new way of disseminating content for commercial purposes emerging.

This is precisely where viral marketing, or a new customer-centered promotional approach, was born.

But what does viral marketing mean and how to structure such a strategy for your company? Don’t worry, continue reading and we will reveal every aspect to implement your own successful strategy.

Viral marketing definition

Viral marketing is an unconventional marketing strategy that aims to quickly spread a promotional message by harnessing the communication skills of the users themselves.

Viral marketing: what it is and how it works

Viral marketing is a marketing strategy that uses the dissemination of viral content to promote a particular brand, service or product.

The human mind, now accustomed to classic persuasion strategies is constantly looking for content that captures their attention, and what, if not images and videos, is capable of doing that?

We are constantly connected on social media to catch new trends, latest trends in any industry, and to occupy downtime with content that piques our curiosity, and it is on these principles that viral marketing is rooted.

This marketing strategy, exploits the propensity of users to share, with their niche, engaging content that reflects their interests. Indeed, to create viral content, it is essential to consider:

What the audience is looking for and what they want to see
Why and how users share content

Of course now you must be wondering what benefits viral marketing can bring to your business. Well, I’ll list them for you now.

Viral marketing meaning and operation

Take advantage of people’s tendency to spontaneously share interesting content with their network of contacts
Aims to create messages or content that spreads independently on the web, like a virus
The spread of the message follows an exponential trend
It is an evolution of traditional word of mouth, but with a voluntary intention on the part of the promoters.

Goals and benefits

Reaching a wide audience quickly at low cost
Greatly increase the visibility and notoriety of a brand, product or service
Take advantage of the greater trust people place in the advice of friends and acquaintances than in traditional advertising.

Key Features

It is based on original, creative and highly shareable content
Leverage the dynamics of social media and online networks
Requires reaching a “critical mass” of spread to propagate itself
It can use various formats: videos, memes, social challenges, offline events, etc.

Critical issues

It is difficult to predict and control the actual virality of a campaign
Requires careful planning to be effective
May pose reputational risks if the message is misunderstood

In summary, viral marketing aims to turn users themselves into vehicles for spreading a promotional message, exploiting spontaneous sharing mechanisms to achieve rapid and wide visibility.

The benefits of a viral marketing campaign

It is a quick and effective marketing strategy that can capture attention and stimulate users to share online, and this generates quite a few benefits for your business.

Want to learn more? Here’s a list of the main benefits that such a campaign can elicit.

Incredible coverage: through rapid word of mouth, your company is able to reach a wider audience
Natural sharing: we are inclined to share content that we find important and interesting with people close to us. This sharing is not invasive.
Low dissemination costs: through natural sharing, your campaign grows organically, greatly reducing the costs allocated to promotion
Brand strengthened: your brand becomes known to more people, and this viral impact will imprint your brand in users’ heads in the long run

Factory Communication - The benefits of a viral marketing campaign

These benefits are really crazy, of course, however, carrying out viral campaigns can prove to be a double-edged sword if proper care is not taken and the result could be the wrong message and a loss of credibility.

But how do you structure viral content so that it is successful? I’ll tell you right now, what are you waiting for, read on to find out.

How to structure a viral marketing strategy

Creating such a marketing strategy will help you in so many ways, such as attracting new contacts and converting them into customers, increasing sales and leads.

To implement a strategy focused on viral marketing you will have to define and plan in detail the type of communication and content you want to spread. This way you will be sure that your message will not be misinterpreted.

Its engaging nature must be the focal point so place maximum attention on creating content that goes viral, engaging using GIFs, photos, videos or challenges that stimulate the user.

This content must trigger an emotional factor for it to have a great impact. To do this it targets a specific emotion or a particular common interest (or problem) of the target audience.

You can also make use of testimonials or influencers to help you spread your brand message, so the audience who knows these personalities will be more inclined to share the content.

So-called challenges, contests or challenges can also easily capture the interest of the public.

I’ll give you an example, a clothing brand might offer a photo contest to inspire users to pose in their clothes and share them on social media with a specific hashtag.

To better understand how to make content that captures and goes viral here are some examples of famous brands that have hit the mark!

Factory Communication - Successful Viral Marketing

Viral marketing successful examples

Who remembers the Ice Bucket Challenge? Well that is an example of successful viral marketing. Years may have passed and it is still being talked about today.

This challenge was aimed at raising funds against multiple sclerosis, and in a very short time it has become one of the most shared and popular web challenges across social media.

And what about Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign?

It was certainly a great viral marketing success. The commercial advertising message immediately went viral because of its irreverent humor and its ability to capture viewers’ attention.

Have you ever heard of the famous IKEA post that went viral in a few hours thanks to 6 simple letters? Typing error or example of social strategy?

Do you remember Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian skydiver who broke the wall of sound by free-falling from space and winning the record, for the Red Bull Stratos campaign?

Well it has been one of the most watched and suspenseful marketing campaigns in recent times.

These are just a few of the successful examples that have quickly spread across the Web, and all of them feature extremely appealing content.

Some for defying the laws of nature, others for creating entertaining and engaging content have nonetheless achieved unparalleled success, thus elevating the brand and gaining much acclaim from consumers and viewers.

Creating a successful Adv campaign can be a great way to gain new leads and new customers; we at Factory can help you achieve your dreams.

10 useful tips for developing your Viral Marketing Strategy

Creating viral marketing strategy is one of the primary goals of those who deal with web content, but gaining visibility through social shares is by no means simple: in fact, it is important to find the right key to propose your content in a creative and original way.

Below are some useful tips that can help you increase the visibility of your content.

1. Make the text easily readable

Articles that provide content in the form of a list are those that are of most interest to users who prefer a quick and intuitive reading punctuated by a bulleted list. We recommend useful lists of tips, procedures, guides, etc.

2. Use short, descriptive URLs

The short urls are the ones that are clicked on in the highest percentage by users. The more descriptive they are, the more useful they are in suggesting the content of the page or article to both the user and the search engine.

3. Use emotional imagery

Including at least one image in your article or page will get you more shares than those without, on social channels.

It is important to make them highly visible by placing them at the top of the page to make it easier for users to share and word-of-mouth the content.

5. Provide useful content

It is important to convey useful information that can arouse the user’s interest and, help them, for example in solving a problem or reaching a solution.

6. Create long and comprehensive content

Writing articulate content is not only rewarded by major search engines but also allows for greater success in social sharing by users.

7. Insert a custom Call to Action.

It could be, for example, a specially designed call to action asking for sharing on social media.

8. Always write in SEO key

It is essential to write content according to SEO techniques, never omitting SEO tags (Title, Description). They are key elements to achieve your search engine rankings.

9. Use Hashtags

Using appropriate hashtags helps improve the visibility of the post on major social channels, such as Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter).

10. Post when users are most active

This is definitely basic information for planning the publication of your posts. So you must first find out when they get the most return.

It is sufficient to look at the statistics of your Channels such as Site, Social Network etc… It will then be sufficient to schedule the publication in the hour of maximum return.

Not all Products and Services can be spread through Viral Marketing campaigns, but together we can figure out which way is most effective and cost-effective to best spread your Brand, Product or Service.

Viral & Influencer Marketing: related articles

If interested in learning more about the world of influencers, read these articles:

Viral marketing: when word of mouth becomes a strategy