Perfect Life

Viral marketing is essentially word-of-mouth marketing with a digital twist. For many marketers and other professionals in the marketing industry, it is the one of the most effective and efficient methods to market a brand, product or services. Think about it for a second. Why spend thousands, if not millions of dollars, just to launch a fancy advertising campaign that covers print, radio, TV and banner ads, when you can go for viral marketing and spend next to nothing? Why work too hard when your followers and patrons can do the work for you?

It certainly gets you thinking doesn’t it?

Viral marketing campaigns are all about laying the groundwork, and letting it run on its own with the help of your target consumers. It’s called viral marketing because the way word of it spreads is just like a virus. Everyone who hasn’t seen it wants to see it and those who have seen want to share it with those who haven’t. Indeed, it’s a very powerful marketing method-far more powerful than any other platform in the world of conventional advertising.

So, now for the ever important question…How should you launch a viral marketing campaign for your brand?

Let’s cover a number of ways for you to get started.

Get a Reaction

The first component of a successful viral marketing campaign is the way in which it gets you, the viewer, to make a reaction. Your campaign must stir strong emotions, be it hate or love, joy or anger and sadness. Obviously, positive emotions are the most beneficial as you don’t want people to have a negative perception of your brand. However, this doesn’t mean that your goal should be to please everyone, because to be honest, neutrality often only leads to failure.

Stop Thinking about Ads!

Viral marketing campaigns aren’t about creating ads that people share after seeing. Conventional marketing is all about peddling a product or service, showing how good it is, how affordable it is, and how much better it is than the competition.

Consumers hate that. Viral marketing campaigns are all about building a good story that actually piques the interest of your target market. Try focusing your attention on a good story, instead of the product itself. Take for example the Old Spice viral campaign. The focus on the campaign wasn’t the product, it was on a series of random situations and the “Old Spice Guy”.