Viral marketing: basic rules

The wide spread of access to the Internet in the Ukrainian segment has caused a dizzying growth in the popularity of Internet advertising, one of the leading provisions in which viral advertising rightfully holds. Viral advertising, naturally, has no relation to computer viruses, and received this name only thanks to a similar method of distribution.

Viral advertising, in contrast to the classical advertising (or traditional), is unobtrusive and does not contain a direct call to purchase. She is so intelligently luring you into her network that you yourself start working on it, sending links to your friends and acquaintances. This type of advertising is perceived as more fun and entertainment than as a full-fledged advertisement, but no less effective.
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Viral marketing has its own rules, which can be either known in advance or encountered in the process. Researchers of online advertising identify from 3 to 9 basic rules of viral marketing , my team and I follow the following rules:

1. The advertising virus must be placed in an interesting package (originality, novelty, freshness, and others like the above listed components are the key to a successful start of a viral campaign);

2. viral advertising should be provocative (intrigue, dare and dare: your advertising should force the consumer to act, at least click on the link and go to the site you are promoting);

3. do not limit and encourage link exchange (remove all possible barriers to the spread of the virus, maximize the spreading capabilities: throwing a viral video on youtube, bother to post it and VKontakte with the same name);

4. speak not about the product, but about what interesting it can bring to the life of your consumer (even if in a comic form: read the TV park and your hair will be soft and silky ©);

5. evoke emotions (the consumer must emotionally become related to your advertisement: laughter, tenderness, or even a slight sadness will cause a definite positive feedback both in the case of the spread of the advertisement message and in the case of the purchase of the advertised product by the end consumer);

6. clearly define the target audience to which the virus should spread (successful advertising will not be limited to this audience, but will go far beyond its limits, but initially the target audience defined by you will become the repeater of the advertising message);

7. information about the advertised product or service should be freely available (the consumer should easily go to the advertised website, find the right link and information online, and you, in turn, create the most favorable conditions for this).



Interestingly, the standard life cycles of the project are involved in the preparation of the viral campaign. Read about them below.

Strategy
The period of setting the marketing goals and objectives of the viral advertising campaign, determining the target audience of the shares, taking into account possible risks, making forecasts, budgets and so on. In other words - the planning and approval period, as a result of which the main decision of the customer will be made: to be or not to be an advertising campaign in the network.

Creative
Development of a common creative idea of ​​a viral campaign. It is here that determines the means by which the consumer will be caught in the network. We are talking about the way of presenting an advertising message, which will be interesting for the target audience.

Production
Russian language - the production of a viral object. Based on the fact that the body of the marketing message can be a video, audio file, game or character, the time costs and funds spent on the implementation of this work are different.

Sowing the virus and controlling the spread
The initial point-like distribution of a virus message on Internet sites and the subsequent control of the speed and quality of the spread of viral advertising. The key stage in the development of a viral advertising campaign is an extremely important and one of the most discussed in the theory of viral marketing.

Performance analysis
The final stage, summing up the entire viral campaign. Naturally, for the client he is the most important, because he draws a line under the project implemented by the company in terms of numbers. For the contractor, this analysis is the assembly point of the next project: what should be taken into account? what are the problems? How to avoid this in the future? etc.



Viral advertising is an ideal solution if the customer wants to spread rumors and gossip about the brand, increase the website’s Internet traffic or bring the consumer closer to the product. Thus, viral advertising becomes a powerful tool for promoting a brand through the Internet, although it is far from being limited to this tool. A successful online advertising campaign, at a certain stage, goes offline and continues to work even when you have stopped following it, but this is a separate topic.