Viral marketing is a new term that first flourished in the internet around the 90s. Although it is derived from viruses which are something people definitely avoid getting at all costs, our technology savvy generation is informed of its meaning due to constant exposure. Older folks should be more familiar with its predecessor, the word of mouth. Viral marketing and word of mouth both involves people spreading a company’s product information, or idea however viral marketing exceeds its predecessor by leaps and bounds when talking about the extent of spread due to the wide scale reaches of the internet.
The common ground between virus and viral marketing is that they both multiply exponentially. If your viral marketing is extremely effective, it is plausible to get thousands or even millions of fans, from a startup of tens. While going viral might be a marketer’s dream, for every single success, there are hundreds of failures. Fortunately, viral marketing requires a relatively small investment to start and mostly depends on how you manage your material and channel.
Known companies would opt for a multichannel approach that doesn’t need to be connected for it to work. With smaller businesses that mostly depend online for viral marketing, more thought is needed in order to reach a large number of people at a short amount of time. To save you the effort, we have compiled a simple list of guidelines that help ensure your viral marketing attempt doesn’t fall on its face.
Aim for Simplicity.
Like in most things, people are receptive to viral marketing that delivers a simple message. This is also takes in consideration that people have short attention span so the easier they get the message, the quicker it is for them to share.
Challenge your creativity in storytelling.
It’s one thing to tell a story that drives a simple point, it’s another thing to make it memorable. Your story doesn’t need to be a novel; it doesn’t have to laud your idea or product’s advantages over its competition. Go for a striking image that symbolizes what you offer and tell your story in a way that makes it stick in your audience mind in just enough time for them to share it on their social networking site.
Be bold.
Companies can be hesitant in jumping in with viral marketing due to its uncontrollable nature. Once you have shown your viral content to your audience, it’s theirs to interpret and to share. There will be times when your audience’s interpretation of your presentation will be off-kilter and that’s fine. As long as the ideas resonate with your audience, your marketing is working as intended.
Think ahead.
It can be easy to base a viral marketing campaign on what’s currently popular since that should open you up to a large initial fan base. That’s good until you look around and see several other companies having the same idea. And then when time passes, and people are interested in newer fads, your viral marketing becomes old and boring. To make it more exciting, think outside the box and you might be rewarded by starting new trends that others follow instead.
Whether you’re creating viral content for blogs, videos or pictures, these guidelines should work on getting your viral marketing attempt start on the right track. It can be a bold move for many businesses that are used to traditional marketing; even scary at times however, the rewards of a successful viral marketing campaign are definitely worth it.
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Jaskirat S Talwar is the owner of Impinge Solution. Impinge Solutions is a web design company which offers full-cycle services in areas of custom web design, web development, mobile application development, offshore PHP development, SEO, hosting & support in all over the Globe
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