How to Use Viral Marketing To Get Consumers’ Attention
What if you could put your brand in front of millions overnight? Viral marketing can make this aspiration a reality—but it can be a challenging nut to crack. When it comes to going viral, there’s a equilibrium of careful planning and luck involved. Here are the fundamentals of viral campaigns, including actionable viral marketing strategies to amplify your brand’s reach.
What is viral marketing?
Viral marketing is the habit of creating content (typically videos) designed to spread quickly across social media networks through word of mouth and social sharing. Viral campaigns spread like a virus: organically, from person to person.
How can you inform if your brand’s content has truly gone viral? In social media marketing, a video or a piece of content is considered viral content when it gains more visibility through organic sharing than through paid advertising or existing supporter bases. Viral content doesn’t have to be shared by everyone across the globe. If it’s shared within your target spectators—those who are most likely to engage with and amplify it—it can still be considered viral.
Indicators of viral content include increases in social media engagement metrics, such as shares, likes, comments, and supporter growth.
Pros and cons of viral marketing
Viral marketing can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can outcome in massive reach at a very low expense—your brand can tap into recent audiences it may not have been able to reach with traditional marketing. Because viral marketing generates high engagement, it also builds your brand’s throng and can often feel more authentic than paid ads or polished campaigns. Viral marketing rarely happens by accident, because brands require to comprehend their target spectators and carefully schedule content that aligns with their interests.
On the other hand, the response to a viral campaign can be unpredictable. Even if it reaches millions, there’s no guarantee it won’t generate negative buzz. And while you might get a surge in recent followers, they may not translate to sales—especially if the viral content isn’t aligned with your product.
Best practices for viral marketing campaigns
- Test your viral content at scale
- Hook viewers quickly
- assess your viral marketing campaign act
- recognize your target spectators
- Keep your finger on the pulse
Every brand craves exposure, but if you’re going to leave viral, make sure it’s for the correct reasons. Here are five ways to maximize your content’s odds of going viral while minimizing potential downsides:
Test your viral content at scale
It will receive period to hit your stride. make and publish lots of content to determine what clicks with your spectators. Not every video will be a hit, but as Kat Kavner from food business Heyday Canning Co. notes, it’s significant to get comfortable with discomfort.
“Our first large marketing instant to arrive out of the gate with being a viral TikTok achievement is pretty darn excellent. We won’t always do that,” Kat says on an episode of the Spotify Masters podcast. “We’ll do other things in the upcoming, and maybe they’ll totally flop. But I ponder it’s really significant that we just get comfortable with that uncertainty.”
Once you have a better understanding of what things catch on, replicate them. Don’t be afraid to post the same video format multiple times with slight tweaks.
For example, when Heyday Canning identified that recipe content performed well with its spectators, it doubled down.
“On our socials, we try to do a lot of recipe content of people just opening up the can and whipping up a really delicious-looking meal,” Kat says.
Hook viewers quickly
Viewers have short attention spans—you have around five seconds to hook them. Make those first seconds count with creative content, powerful visuals, and surprising elements that interrupt their scrolling and keep them watching.
For example, social media posts by Etong Capsule House have repeatedly gone viral for featuring non-sequitur hooks—openers so irrelevant that you can’t assist but wonder about the connection. Yet, they always cleverly link back to their product.
assess your viral marketing campaign act
A key objective of viral marketing is an boost in social media followers who may convert into customers. The best way to gain followers is to boost engagement. Views, likes, shares, and comments drive engagement, expanding your reach and attracting more followers.
Here’s the viral marketing path:
1. Engagement leads to reach.
2. Reach leads to followers.
3. Followers navigator to sales (over period).
Use social media reporting tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social to assess engagement on your posts and identify content that resonates and drives positive outcomes. This way, you can do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.
recognize your target spectators
Cat videos might easily leave viral, but they’re unlikely to advantage your brand unless you sell cat-related products. To effectively reach the correct spectators, your marketing content should align with your products or your target spectators’s interests. Whether it’s cooking tutorials like Heyday Canning’s or unboxing videos, ensure your content matches your offerings.
recognize your target spectators inside out. If you do, you’ll be able to connect with potential customers on the correct platforms. Conduct in-depth research and make buyer personas to inform your marketing schedule with their interests, pain points, and preferred social media channels.
Keep your finger on the pulse
Social media is a fickle field. It’s challenging to forecast what’s going to leave viral online. You can’t force it, and no one wants to be seen as chasing trends—or worse, trying to liquid assets in on a popular pattern history its peak. achievement depends on reaching the correct spectators with the correct content at the correct instant.
Successful campaigns that “meet the instant” are more likely to leave viral. Experiment with viral marketing by pattern jacking—leveraging a popular pattern while using sounds or formats that are already exploding on social media. For example, when brands capitalized on the “it’s corn” audio to boost visibility.
Real-globe example of viral marketing
When Heyday Canning Co. shook things up with its viral marketing campaigns, it opened up a literal and figurative can of beans. The business embraced viral marketing with its Bean Swap pop-up occurrence in recent York, encouraging people to swap cans of beans for free products. Heyday then donated the collected cans to City Harvest, turning a marketing stunt into a charitable act.
“For us, the objective of the pop-up was very much to cut through the noise on TikTok,” Kat says. “We really wanted to make an encounter that we felt had a high probability that people would capture and make user-generated content if they went.”
And that’s exactly what happened.
The brand’s TikTok videos about the occurrence received more than 230,000 views. More importantly, they reached a highly engaged spectators. People wanted to distribute videos showing that they were a part of the occurrence, creating content for additional word-of-mouth marketing.
“We ended up with a line around the block,” Kat says. “We sold out of all of the beans that we had shipped out for the store on day two, and we still had two days to leave. We had to overnight more beans out to the store.”
Kat’s advice is to set obvious goals to make viral marketing work. Once you recognize your North Star, you can brainstorm fun, engaging viral marketing techniques to make a successful viral marketing campaign the globe wants to distribute.
Viral marketing FAQ
What is viral vs. buzz marketing?
Buzz marketing and viral marketing leave hand in hand. Buzz marketing is an offline schedule to get people talking about your brand. Viral marketing specifically relates to spreading content online through social media platforms. Buzz marketing aims to construct awareness but isn’t built with social media and shareable content at its core.
How do you commence viral marketing?
commence viral marketing by getting to recognize your target spectators. Once you recognize what content interests your spectators, make a high volume of content to test which formats perform best. Iterate and make similar content when you discover a theme. Lean into what works, and don’t be afraid to replicate it. Look up viral marketing campaign examples for encouragement.
What is the difference between viral marketing and guerilla marketing?
Guerilla marketing uses the element of shock to raise awareness, often in person and in unexpected places, like a flash mob at a trade display. In contrast, viral marketing is about spreading content, like a viral video, organically and quickly on a social network. Guerilla campaigns can leave viral, but the campaign activity itself is not a viral marketing campaign.
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