Viral marketing - what is it and what is it actually about?
Tips
26 January 2023
The ubiquitous advertising of thousands of brands does not make it easy to stand out above others with your product. Bored by the marketing messages surrounding them, recipients may not pay sufficient attention to a banner or promotional video. For this reason, many companies are opting for different and unusual campaigns. Find out what viral marketing is and how it can help to increase sales.
Viral marketing - what are its characteristics?
Viral marketing, or in other words viral marketing, involves the distribution of advertising content that then spreads without the involvement of the brand it relates to. Importantly, although the term may have a negative connotation, it actually has no bad connotations. Viral advertising can be created intentionally or occur independently of a brand's activities.
Goals and functions of viral marketing
Viral campaigns aim to get the audience of an advertisement to pass on information about the brand. For this reason, a viral cannot resemble a typical marketing message that consists of highlighting the advantages of a product. In this case, forms of viral marketing such as funny slogans, videos or graphics work well. It is not easy to create such content, but the effect of the advertising campaign perfectly demonstrates what viral marketing is and what it leads to. Internet users or recipients of other media, intrigued by an advertisement, will start talking about it in passing, informing or reminding other people of the product's existence.
The mention of the advertised brand among Internet users and outside the virtual space leads to the spread of the message like a virus. At the same time, it is worth remembering that viral marketing has mainly an image function. Creating amusing content builds awareness of a brand with a distance to itself. Controversial content contributes to its presence in the minds of recipients as original and intriguing. A viral can also be a campaign that generates a large public response, showing the brand as responsible and sensitive to issues close to everyone. 
What are the characteristics of viral campaigns?
Examples of campaigns over the years show that there are two types of viral marketing. One involves creating trends. The other group includes activities that use already existing slogans and associations.
In the case of controversial viral videos, the effects of the campaign are much more difficult to predict, which can lead to a decrease in brand trust and, consequently, product sales.
What importance does social media play in viral marketing?
An important marketing communication channel today is social media. Interesting posts can generate thousands of reactions and shares, and some of them do not require the commitment of large forces and resources to implement viral advertising. The importance of the popularity of such sites as an important social phenomenon means that no brand today has a chance of success without a presence on social networks.
In doing so, the use of social media poses a challenge for any company. This is because it requires the regular insertion of text posts, photos and videos. For this reason, it is important to plan publications. The task is also not made any easier by the need to be involved in several portals at the same time. Increasingly, this requires the hiring of specialists to look after company profiles, which entails the cost of paying for such a service.
Main advantages and disadvantages of using viral marketing
The use of virals makes it possible to reach large groups of consumers very quickly at a low cost compared to other forms of online marketing and even negligible when set against the cost of creating, for example, a TV spot. This strengthens the brand's position in the market, which ultimately translates into increased sales.
It is worth remembering, however, that viral marketing also has a disadvantage. It is the lack of full control over the message. Poorly chosen may cause viral advertisements to evoke negative brand associations in recipients. This is particularly important in the case of online campaigns. Control over the content disseminated there is difficult, and the direction and purpose of viral spread is sometimes impossible to predict.
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