Key ingredients-Right Platform = Viral Marketing Campaign
Why Create a Viral Marketing Campaign?
When you say something “went viral,” you’re saying it spread rapidly from person to person—like a virus. Create an image in your mind of a rapid-fire transmission as you read more about what viral marketing is, You will understand fully how a viral campaign is achieved and how you can develop a viral marketing strategy for your brand.
Viral marketing can be considered a uniquely 21st century form of marketing. That’s because it’s largely—and in many cases, exclusively—spread through social media.
The concept actually dates back to the mid 90s, with Hotmail’s campaign that offered free email addresses to new subscribers. At the time, that was groundbreaking. And as a result, Hotmail had about a million subscribers within the next six months. (Source: 99designs.com)
Viral marketing is a high risk, high reward type of marketing. Even with the most careful planning, you can’t guarantee your campaign will go viral… but you can certainly take actions that increase the likelihood of it.
Shareability creates virality and is the backbone of any viral marketing campaign.
Social Media The Right Platform Makes the Difference
Every business is on social media because they want to reach their audience and stay relevant. But not every brand is on every platform and not every platform is the right choice for your viral campaign. (Source: 99designs.com)
Successful viral marketing means choosing the right platform for your campaign—It is important to use multi-channel advertising to reach the most eyes at the right time. But, picking the right platform will start the process
Visually Viral
One famous viral campaign that couldn’t have been as successful on any other platform was Xbox Design Lab’s #MakeItYours campaign, where they asked gamers to post their own customized Xbox controllers to Instagram. (Source: 99designs.com)
Instagram exists for sharing photos, so for a campaign driving people to customize their Xbox controllers, using Instagram to showcase their designs made perfect sense. (Source: 99designs.com)
Another great example of viral marketing that gained a ton of traction on social media was Adidas’ raffle for their NMD Pitch Black sneakers. Typically $2,230–$3,675
Sneakerheads love Instagram almost as much as they love footwear, so when Adidas needed to build hype for the NMD Pitch Black, they did it with a cross-platform contest that had Instagram followers watch a Snap to get a hidden phone number, then text that phone number to enter the raffle. (Source: 99designs.com)
Out of more than 16 million Instagram followers, 100 won a pair of the sneakers—out of the total of 500 manufactured. By creating this raffle, Adidas did more than promote a new release and build hype—they drove a ton of traffic to their Snapchat account. (Source: 99designs.com)
JewleScent Candles used Viral Marketing Sweep to help them meet their sales Goals when they were a small fledging candle company out of San Francisco. This brand was virtually unknown with their suprise jewelry gift inside the candle.
As you map out your viral marketing campaign, think about which platforms your followers are on and where your message would be most likely to be shared.
For a highly visual campaign, Instagram is the obvious choice. But for something where video best captures your campaign, like the Ice Bucket Challenge, your best choice is with a platform like Youtube or TikTok
Final Thoughts
In Conclusion: It is our mission to find ways for the average small business owner to go viral with their product or service. without breaking the bank.
Many vendors have created software and strategies to make this viral phenomenon become possible for everyone.
One key strategy for viral marketing success is finding a willing influencers that your audience pays can relate to. If you can find an Instagram media star or a youtuber that your audience follows who can represent your brand, go for it and go viral
