We all have it inside us: a quiet voice that constantly reminds us that we need to find the best way to market our business and make it famous. Because when a company or startup comes to prominence, it converts, it sells, and it evolves into something big.
With the advent of the internet and social media, information spreads like a virus. Going big means going viral, being famous means being viral, and prominence means virality.
Whether you’ve wanted to or not, you’ve no doubt personally contributed to at least one of the most viral marketing campaigns that has ever existed by sharing an image, video, or any other type of content online — or simply through giving a word-of-mouth recommendation.
Only lazy people wouldn’t dump an ice bucket, hum that ta-ra-ta-ta-ta fast food tune, or recount one of those whimsical deodorant commercials on what a man could smell like.
And the most interesting part of this isn’t how the man could smell but why people want to spread the word about it. Naturally, you may be wondering… What is a viral marketing campaign?
Let’s answer this question.
Why Do Viral Marketing Campaigns Spread?
Viral marketing campaigns advertise brands, products, or services by encouraging people to spread the advertising message from person to person online and by word of mouth at an ever-growing pace.
As we said, going viral is the dream of every business. But here’s the truth.
It’s almost impossible to pin down the exact source of a virus. The same goes for viral marketing. Nobody knows how exactly viral content goes viral. And if someone knows, they keep it secret.
Nevertheless, there are a few things that are clear.
It’s All About Organic Growth
Of course, you can plan your viral campaign and boost it for money as well as share your promotions everywhere you can. However, your business can go viral only with the voluntary support of the general public. People love spreading viral messages because these messages make them feel special and connected.
Viral Marketing Is Publicly Personal
When it comes to virality, you need to remember that customers are all the same. As human beings, we like communicating, sharing, and receiving different kinds of information. If you want to come up with one of the best viral marketing campaigns ever, you should create it for your ideal customer who will spread your message to everyone else.
Here’s what Seth Godin writes about creating viral copy:
The best approach is to not try to write things that will go viral.
No, the best approach is to write for just one person. Make an impact on just one person. Even better, make it so they can’t sleep that night unless they choose to make a difference for just one other person by sharing your message with them.
The rest will take care of itself.
And who is the ideal customer? Someone who will have enough curiosity to go through the entire journey with your business or brand and end it with your product or service in their hands.
Virality Means Sincerity
Most successful viral marketing campaigns are honest, heartwarming, and full of life. They’re mirrors where people see something that reflects their personalities and the inner world. Viral ads carry a strong emotional appeal that makes people spread them on their own accord.
Viral Changes and Improves
If you believe your business can make this world a better place, you’re on the right path. The top viral marketing campaigns promote good products and services that are meant to improve something. Nobody likes lame products or services no matter how effective a viral marketing strategy is. Anything can go viral. The question is how it will resonate with people.
How to Create Successful Viral Marketing Campaigns
Now that you know the essence of creating effective viral marketing campaigns, it’s time to learn tips and tricks that will help you achieve virality.
Explore the YouTube Effect
YouTube was the first platform to demonstrate how content goes viral. And you know what? It happened by accident!
In 2005, OK Go, an American rock band, recorded a low-budget homemade video for their song A Million Ways. Originally, they sent it to some of their friends who uploaded it to video hosting website iFilm where it was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. This was many times the number of copies OK Go sold of their first song after touring and promoting it on the radio.
After recording the Here It Goes Again official music video based on the same simple concept, OK Go’s label uploaded it to YouTube in 2006. Within a single day, the video reached 900,000 views.
As one of the first viral video marketing campaigns on YouTube, Here It Goes Again had a mind-blowing effect rather more on the band than on the viewers. To recap:
- It was simple.
- It was cheap.
- It was unintentional.
When thinking about how to blow people’s minds with your own viral content, keep this in mind.
Follow STEPPS
Jonah Berger, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a viral marketing guru, claims that six elements (STEPPS) can make your idea or product contagious:
- Social currency is used by people to get desired positive impressions among friends, colleagues, and family.
- Triggers are stimuli that make consumers think about related things.
- Emotion makes people care. When people care, they share.
- Public. It’s hard to copy something you can’t see.
- Practical value shows major benefits of an offer that can easily be shared with others.
- Stories are like a Trojan horse that carry viral and valuable messages.
If you analyze both time-tested and recent viral marketing campaigns, you’ll see they’re based on understanding the target audience’s behavior, recognizing the power of stimulating this behavior, and knowing how to roll all this into a captivating message.
Monitor Google Trends
Discovering current trends may be really useful for creating viral ads. Google Trends is a platform that contains lots of data on what people search on Google and how they search it in real time and throughout the year.
For instance, you can enter any viral phenomenon and see related topics, related search inquiries, trending words, and tons of other unique information.
Anticipate Future Conversions
Say you have a website, you’ve launched one of the best viral digital marketing campaigns ever, and your website traffic has started to grow like mad. Do you know how you handle it?
You can have nearly 50,000 website visitors a day and sell only around 20 items a day, and all your efforts to promote your business with viral marketing can go out the window.
Before you start your viral marketing campaign, think out your conversion strategy. Namely, don’t focus on every person that may become your customer. Focus on those who care.
Go Viral with AI-Produced Video Advertising
Video is one of the most beneficial ways to make your content viral. If you have some footage you want to go viral, use Softube AI to edit it like a pro with no human intervention.
You can use Softcube for starting large-scale video ad campaigns and creating high-quality videos like the one you see above.
Thanks for reading our tutorial. May your content go viral!
