Viral marketing can seem like a blessing from heaven to any new and struggling start-up looking to find success right out the gate.

It’s simply the speediest and most effective business advertising methodology to effectively get the news out about your company or brand.

Nonetheless — there’s a catch:

It…isn’t particularly the easiest task in the world to become a smash online sensation overnight.

While, yes, viral marketing can be a Godsend to the budding entrepreneur, for the vast majority, virality must be accomplished by essentially throwing a lot of different stuff on the wall and seeing what sticks.

Familiarizing yourself with the in’s and out’s of viral advertising, its associated methods, and the most popular industry standards can assist you in arranging a satisfying presentation that will help increase your chances of becoming a web sensation and expanding your industry cred.

In this article, we will take you through the nitty gritty on viral marketing, its significance, and methods.

Let’s dive right in, shall we?

We know what you’re probably asking.

So…What is Viral Marketing anyway?

We’re glad you asked.

Living in the age of Tik Tok and Instagram, you have most likely run into a plethora of different “challenges”.

You’ve probably retweeted and shared trending posts on Twitter and Tumblr.

Perhaps you know of a nearby coffee shop or restaurant that became famous online by posting a clever tweet or IG post promoting deals.

This, in short, is what viral marketing is all about.

Viral marketing is a business publicity methodology where a promotion or post is shared across the web by many individuals. These posts cause people to discuss your item by really igniting their interest, further captivating them.

With this sort of marketing, the clients become the advertisers of the brand or item.

For example, let’s assume you send out a few tweets per day. Then let’s suppose one out of ten of those tweets is really promoting an item, either straightforwardly or by implication. That makes YOU the advertiser of the brand without even being partnered with it!

At this point, you’re probably wondering:

Ok, so how can I circulate around the web?

While in the past, becoming a viral online sensation was something of a difficult situation, today it has actually become a lot simpler.

There are a bunch of strategies you can follow, and assuming your content speaks to the audience, they will share it. This will in turn cause a domino effect type reaction, and your post will spread like a wildfire around the internet.

The Significance of Viral Marketing

Have you ever seen how certain HR directors hunt like sharks to track down the most innovative viral marketing supervisor?

That’s because they understand how powerful of a marketing tool it can be regardless of whatever business needs it. A creative enough viral marketing director and viral marketing plan can all but guarantee an expansion in your rush hour gridlock and eventually — your business deals and industry recognizability.

While viral marketing is totally an accident in many cases, often, it’s the result of a lot of backend leg work.

It also comes with several advantages, such as:

• Minimal advertising expense
• Quicker brand recognizability for newer companies
• Brand mindfulness and reach
• Growth of your company or organization in a brief time frame

Viral marketing system is, in short, a financially savvy publicizing method for large and private companies alike. It involves (unrealized) advertisers who will like and share your posts — your substance — entirely free of charge. It can also help cut down on the expense that you would normally spend on paid promotion.

Viral marketing can help you attract a different kind of crowd, presenting your brand to a larger scope of people than you may have initially intended. In this respect, virality can be a much more compelling option than most other forms of paid advertisements.

Want fast growth?

The very best thing about viral marketing is that it leads to fast brand development. Typically, getting your name out there is a long and winding process that can take years. When promoting yourself on social media, you can do so in a much shorter span of time.

There are two popular forms of viral marketing: the kind that brings tears to your eyes and the kind that makes you laugh. Either way, it ignites enough of a reaction out of you where you can’t help but immediately share whatever it is with your companions and supporters, which will in turn launch a whole chain of virality for you as everyone else begins to share it, too.

Motivating force viral marketing is one of the best approaches to getting the message out there about your brand or business. This kind of promoting technique involves offering clients certain prizes or incentives if they retweet or share your content. One example of this could be a discount of some kind.

While using viral marketing to become a breakout web sensation can be a science, the component of chance also plays a critical role in things. Sometimes you may go months on a mission without being generally welcomed by the crowd. This sort of campaign is generally directed by huge organizations and many different partnerships.

Other times, you may get lucky and have a straightforward tweet go viral and shoot your brand straight to the top.

Again: it can really come down to the luck of the draw.

Examples of Viral Marketing

Viral marketing has found its way into many different company marketing strategies, and for good reason. Here are a few examples of some of the most renowned content that went viral.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

If you used the internet in 2014, there’s no way you missed the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that was all over social media at the time.

In this challenge, the previous participant invited new ones to empty a large bucket filled with ice water on their heads. The participants had 24 hours to complete the challenge. In the event of refusal, the invited participant had to donate money to the cause instead.

If a participant decided to complete the challenge, the participant was required to nominate at least three more people to participate. Then, a long chain would be formed.

E.l.f.’s #eyeslipsface Cosmetic Challenge

Over the past few years, Tik Tok has proven to be one of the most ideal platforms for marketers. Many brands, from service companies, to art, books, movies, and music — are being promoted through the platform to target Gen Z.

E.L.F. took advantage of this trend by creating a viral campaign on TikTok. The brand spent an ample amount of time on research and began a campaign to target Gen Z by creating a buzz around a specific song. By creating a hashtag entitled #eyeslipsface that spread across TikTok at lightning speed, the campaign encouraged users to post videos of their eyes, lips, and face with the song that was specially created for the campaign.

The video was in turn shared with their followers and as a result, over 2.8 million videos were created by Tik Tok users.

Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich

Everyone has probably heard of the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich.

That’s all thanks to its brilliant marketing campaign.

Once again: sometimes, viral marketing is nothing more than spontaneously posting a single tweet and watching it go viral. This, in short, is what happened with the Popeye chicken sandwich in 2019.

It went so viral that people even started drawing comparisons between Popeye’s chicken sandwich and the classic chicken sandwiches at the much-loved Chick-Fil-A. Chick-Fil-A then saw the opportunity to rejuvenate their marketing campaign and claimed it by calling themselves the “original”.

Popeye’s retweeted the tweet with a funny response, and thanks to this alone, people started rushing to Popeye’s to get a taste of their sandwiches and decide for themselves which one was best.

In this blog, we went over a number of techniques that you can use to make your brand or company go viral online.

With that said, never forget that the most vital part of viral marketing is getting to know who your target audience is.

According to Tevin Jackson, CEO of StellarServiceGroup.com,

“Knowing your core audience will help you do a better job of creating the kind of content you need generate more traffic or sales. It’s also extremely crucial for you to figure out what platform works the best for you. For instance, if your target audience is Gen Z, you should use platforms such as TikTok and Instagram to reach out to more people. If you use Facebook, your plan will fail, as Facebook is not trendy with Gen Z anymore.”

So what are you waiting for?

Get out there and try your hand at your first viral marketing campaign.

You can only truly fail at it if you don’t start.