What is Viral Marketing?

Have you ever heard of word-of mouth advertising? Sounds strange right! Viral marketing is a way of marketing in which the target audience is promoting the brand to the target audience itself, consciously and unconsciously both. 

 

You must have heard before statements like ‘once it's on the internet it's everywhere around the globe.’ Social media or the internet is a major part of our lives these days. One can’t imagine spending a day without checking out the trending reels or what is viral on the internet today. 

 

(Suggested Read - Social Media Marketing)

 

 

What is Viral Marketing?

 

‘Viral’  refers to anything that spreads quickly and widely across the audience through various platforms of the internet. Viral marketing is one such sales technique that has emerged from this craze of social media platforms. 

 

It basically refers to spreading information regarding one person to another either through word of mouth or through various internet platforms. The basic aim of the seller is to inspire or convince more people, friends, family or potential people who may lead to the increase in number of recipients to spread across the marketing message. 

 

This practice was more common in the mid-2000’s, as new internet businesses were introduced in abundance, although it is still very popular for business -to- consumer (B2C) marketing. The widespread expansion of social media domains like Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter has enabled more viral marketing strategies and increased their efficiency. 

 

Example of Viral Marketing

 

We have all seen and heard videos about the Als Ice Bucket challenge. I am sure many of us have tried it too. 

 

In 2014 the internet was flooded with viral videos where people had poured ice water over them. After the cold soaking, participants requested viewers to make donations to the ALS Association. Later they would challenge their other known ones to perform the challenge.

 

It seemed like everyone poured the bucket over in 2 month. Further resulting in 2.4 million videos posted on Facebook, 28 million people uploaded, liked or commented on ice bucket related videos. 

 

With such a massive response it was observed that from July to August of 2014, the Als association received $98.2 million dollars. Whereas the previous year they only received $2.7 million dollars during the same period. This is one such example of the viral marketing sales techniques. 

 

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Techniques for Viral Marketing

 

Top 5 techniques are as follows :

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Techniques for viral marketing

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1. Emotional Connect

 

The emotional drive and connection is very essential in order to attract the target audience. You tend to grasp more attention when you hit the right emotion and at the right time. Audiences tend to have an emotional connection to some things and results in the benefit for the endorser in terms of increase in number of recipients. 

 

As seen in the Als ice bucket challenge that evoked sympathy for the patients, Panda cheese commercials generated curiosity with mixed astonishment. 

 

2. Free valuable product

 

Free services attract more and more customers and also leads to engaging more customers and their interest towards the products and services. It also helps in establishing advertising opportunities and e-commerce opportunities.

 

3. Find a noble cause

 

Finding a noble cause behind the advertisement is a must. When the firm is seen as responsible and is socially contributing towards the development of the society it acts like brownie points, customers are attracted more to such noble causes and helps in adding brand value. 

 

4. Brand message

 

The content given out for promotion should contain some brand message. If the video is engaging, entertaining and fun and lacks a brand message by providing further information to the audience about what the advertisement is all about then the campaign may be a total failure. Without the brand message the efforts put through the video would backfire. 

 

5. Realistic Videos

 

The videos created should be related to the real-life situations of the audience. If the videos shot are not realistic, the target customers might lose interest or may not be able to connect to the campaign. The videos should be quirky and relatable to the customers day to day life and situation faced by them on a daily basis. 

 

(Check out - Effective Marketing techniques) 

 

 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Viral Marketing

 

Viral marketing is basically used by companies during launches of new products or big main events. In order to understand more about it let's go through some advantages and disadvantages of the same :- 

 

Advantages:- 

 

• Cost effective - The biggest advantage of this is it is very budget friendly and cost effective unlike print media and television advertising. Under viral marketing companies are only required to have an internet connection and access to social media platforms.

 

• Easy to segment target customers - Customers can easily figure out their target customers and do the marketing accordingly and then later select suitable social media platforms in order to endorse their product. 

 

• Optimum use of technology - In today’s era optimum use of technology is necessary. If you aren't using technology thoughtfully you tend to miss out on a lot of opportunities to market your products. 

 

Disadvantages:- 

 

• Negativity can be disastrous - Viral marketing is a double edged sword, if the marketing turns out to be negative then it causes a major dent on the company’s goodwill. 

 

• No guarantee of increased sales - A successful campaign does not guarantee an increase in the  number of sales. Viral marketing is only performing the half job, the company cannot be complacent if it wants to achieve higher levels of profits. 

 

• False news - The news in the market spreads like wildfire, so does the negative news and it can be used against the company. Any wrong news spread in the market can adversely affect the company's reputation. 

 

          (Recommended blog - Customer retention strategies)

 

 

Types of Viral Marketing

 

The types of viral marketing are stated below: 

 

1. Pass- along: It is the most common and refined form of viral marketing, because it encourages users to pass messages to other users. Basically this strategy enables the user to form a chain by placing the message at the bottom of the email which prompts the readers to forward this message to other readers. 

 

Many religious communities and organizations use this type by promising some miracle in your life as you pass the email to 10 others, resulting in greater reach to the customers. 

 

2. Incentivized viral: Under this most of the organisations use incentives and rewards which they offer for spreading the message to more people. In short, it calls the users to take action in order to be rewarded. 

 

This method greatly benefits referrals and becomes most effective when the offer requires another person to take action. 

 

3. Buzz marketing: This type of marketing helps the business to grab the most attention. Buzz Marketing involves drafting a message that either creates a controversy or leads to a gossip or topic of discussion. Gossip spreads like fire in the market,  markets builds a strategy that has some potential to create gossip and spread the message across the globe. 

 

4. Undercover marketing: As the name suggests it’s an undercover marketing strategy. It includes a viral message that appears to be an unusual page, activity without any link to forward it to others. It seems like nothing is being endorsed. This is the way the message gets passed innocently to people in a silent manner. 

 

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In the end to sum it all up, viral marketing is a low-cost, high-impact method of raising brand awareness and promoting a product or service. Companies rely on their target demographic or users to spread the word about their advertising efforts and pleasant experiences. 

 

Successful campaigns can aid in the company's growth, expansion into new areas, and revenue gain. Companies must select the appropriate platforms for advertising and format their material so that it can be shared easily. It can have undesirable repercussions if done incorrectly, eroding earnings and tarnishing a company's brand.