Viral marketing: why, how and what

Marketing comes in many different forms. You can opt for newspaper advertisements, online marketing, and so on. In what way does your own organization currently use marketing? One of the options you have is the use of viral marketing. The definition of viral marketing is not always clear. By viral marketing we mean creating content which goes viral. Going viral in this case means that the content is read and shared a lot in a short time. Content consists of texts, images, videos or fun memes.

Viral marketing is interesting for companies, to boost their reputation. This can be about the brand awareness of their organization as a whole, but also about a specific product. The more people are introduced to a product, the greater will be the number of sales. This has an interaction, because a larger number of sales in turn results in an increasing popularity of the product. The "fidget spinners" were a good example of this some time ago.

Berger's theory about viral marketing

Until recently it was thought that going viral was something that happened to you. People were lucky when one post was widely shared and read, while another had barely ten readers. from investigation from Jonah Berger, however, it appears that this is slightly different. You can predict it in advance. Viral content meets these six STEPP requirements:

1. Social currency: Sharing the content offers benefits to people. Their surroundings get a more positive image because it makes them funnier, more interesting, more heroic or more attractive. It is happy to share.
2. Trigger: Every year. Every month or every day. When something returns regularly, there is a trigger. Such as Christmas songs (flappie!), Payday, shopping, watching a new episode.
3. Emotion: Emotion gets people moving, whether this is positive or negative.
4. Publicly: Everyone shares it. You see it everywhere. So. Then it will be fine. The more often you see something coming back, the more obvious it is that you share it. Or, think it's stupid.
5. Practical value: Tips for saving money, advice on how to arrange something well, a very competitive offer of something that you really love ... when something has value, real value, then it is shared.
6. Storytelling: There was once. We humans like stories ,, with a head and a tail. We better remember that, we like to tell ourselves and the moral lesson makes us feel good. Read more about this storytelling.

People nowadays share content the most via social media. However, this does not mean that you have to place the content on social media yourself. After all, an interesting blog article can easily be shared on social media! It is important that you place buttons under each article to be able to share the article. The chance that readers copy the link to the article and place it on social media themselves is very low.

Trigger to share content

People who view your content will not automatically share this with their own followers. They must be triggered to share the content. For example, a trigger can be a joke in the content processed. Someone who finds content very funny will sooner share this with others. Or what about a statement that is made in content? If people agree with this statement, they will also share the content faster. For content to promote products, it can be smart to make clear what makes the product unique. The more unique the product is, the greater the chance that people will share it.

If you choose viral marketing, it can be smart to use large accounts on social media. If they write about your content, chances are that their followers will share it.