Your Marketing Campaign – The Power Of Viral

Posted on Jul 30 2013 - 1:20pm by Jane

Marketing

Why are viral so important to contemporary marketing campaigns? Viral marketing that involves producing short videos, blogs and competitions can take advantage of the potential for online distribution to spread a message to multiple people; this can be cost effective, and can significantly boost awareness of your brand. What are some of the more specific ways in which viral is important, then, and how can you incorporate viral marketing into your broader promotions?

Small businesses can particularly benefit from viral content, which can be produced and then uploaded to video sharing sites and social media. The content might be a funny video, a competition, or a notable blog post. The aim is to get that content shared by as many people as possible, which can create exposure and provide links back to your website or social profile, generating attention and hopefully conversions for your business.

Viral videos should, however, be right for your brand; this means not aligning yourself with offensive content, or copying strategies from other businesses. Links back to your website or social media profile should also be organic, and should be backed up with good SEO practices like keywords and opportunities to re-share content. Other approaches to viral can include sending out e-newsletters, while promoting free content and competitions that can be run on a short term basis.

Some of the best examples of viral marketing campaigns over the past few years include large brands creating content that gained large amounts of coverage on websites and social media channels. Tippex, for example, used a ‘Hunter and the Bear’ ad that featured options to change the content of the advert, while other companies have used flash mobs and unusual placements of a brand to generate attention. Some more examples of these viral campaigns can be found here.

There are some things to avoid, though, when it comes to viral media. Pushing too hard at the start of a campaign can put people off, and can spoil the emotional reaction that a viral ad should have. The aim should be to not directly reference the brand, but to create a compelling piece of content with a tangential link back to it, which can then be developed if users choose to click through to a website and other content; this can then translate to offline discussion and people searching out more versions of your brand.

In these situations, it’s usually best to work with a marketing agency that can tailor viral videos to your business needs and brand identity. For example, a marketing agency Brighton can potentially produce or source clips and videos that will grab people’s attention, but that won’t depart too far from the kinds of values that you want your brand to be associated with. Once a viral video has gained traction, it can then be built into other parts of your on and offline marketing campaigns.

Photo Credit: Flickr/Maciej Lewandowski

About the Author

The above article is composed by Jane. She is associated with some of the best technical communities as their staff writer. In her free time she writes articles related to topics like internet, technology and graphic design.