In a world of million advertising messages that all begin to look the same how can a company stand out? It needs a good story to promote. And to begin every story, a great viral strategy is needed. Creativity and Innovation provides motivation to act! Thus, advertising must combine all the techniques of Viral in order to succeed. Firstly, it has to ‘hit’ people emotions and give them a unique experience that will put a new & alternative idea in their mind. And secondly, it has to drive them to share the advertising message, always by involving the company’s brand.That can be achieved by different suggestions and effective solutions.
THE SECRET COMPINATION BEYOND EFFECTIVE VIRAL STRATEGIES.
The following ideas and practical information will work regardless company size.
Three main tips combined
Tip 1 | BEFORE FINDING THE IDEA – clearing the ground
- Determine what the public wants.
It is really important to investigate peoples interest and understand users needs by searching through online surveys such as blogs, forums etc.
People create the content in their conversations and these are digitally recorded. Pay attention to them!
Every marketer-advertiser must think of what gets people complete attention. The toughest part of the challenge is to get into people’s mind. But do not rush! Remember, a not so nice advertising can be avoided by zapping, but a not so nice viral advertising can end up to the recycle bin.
- Forget advertising for a moment.
This is not just an advertisement, and its common strategies. It is a good story!
What matters for the advertiser is to focus on that and then try to add advertising strategies. Clear your mind and act like you are not an advertiser, just create something people will like to share. It’s all about the content that a message will go viral.
- Think virally.
What do we expect the advertising to do? Go virally!
Many viral phenomena start innocently and spread virally by mistake. But mostly a whole strategy is hiding behind all. Although it is difficult to profit what campaign will succeed. It is important to have these phrases always in mind ‘Never leave people standing with nothing.’ Have a plan and a detailed timeline of whom you will tell the content to and when.
- Be creative.
Avoid plagiarism. The message has to be innovated and fresh!
Do what you love! If you do not love what you do, you cannot expect others to.
- Do not let the buzzzzz sleep.
The key is to think of a context that create buzz (buzz marketing). Advertisers must give people something clever, amusing, catchy, remarkable, groundbreaking etc. so as to capture their interest. Treating people well, earns their respect and they will do your marketing for the company, for free!
Tip 2 / SETTING UP THE SCENE – action to interaction
- motion on emotion.
What matters is to make people feel something, to create a very strong emotion.
Happiness, anger, fear, excitement, joy…
If the advertising contains something fascinating, newsworthy and valuable it is likely to be successful. If people love or insanely hate your advertisement, the results of knowing the brand, product or service will be the same.
- Surprise.
A successful viral advertising must be something unexpected, something different. Determining what people want will help to understand what they expect in order to surprise them in a unique way. The secret is to create an overthrow in the end.
- Use e-fluencials.
People always trust the opinion and testimonials of friends or trend setters such as V.I.P.s. It is also estimated that people trust recommendations from other consumers and they are more likely to trust a friend more than a common advertising, even if it is about the same product. E-fluencials are infectious and shape the publics’ opinion. They have the power to change a nice-to-see message to a must-see. By building awareness, interest and trust, the consumer becomes an evangelist for products or services. Evangelists can be fans/ volunteers / just bloggers / celebrities and more.
- Branding & advertising are going always together.
The most important of all is to embody the company brand in the advertisement and promote it together with the viral message. Otherwise, people may forget that it’s this company who advertises.
- Give motivation.
Another important secret is to motivate customers to promote the company’s fame. Every company must give people something in order to share their message, an interest to spread the advertising virally. That can be: a special offer | a great service | a cool product | a gift | a coupon | a good cause and charity.
- Find a room
It is estimated that the viral advertising message at the right environment grows exponentially. So, the next step is to choose the perfect media and media spaces to get the word out and show off the message. Media selection is crucial to approaching selected audiences at times when they are most receptive.
- Establish web dialogue
People love to talk! If they like the advertising message they want to talk.
So, it is good to make some room for that conversation to take place, by adding comments. Get people talking on blogs, forums or social media and the message stays forever!
- Use an affiliate microsite
Creating an affiliate microsite with more fun and entertaining theme can benefit the company for several reasons. The focus can address a specific topic, audience, or action and can provide a better situation for selling purposes. In addition it is flexible and can make changes quickly
- Sharing is good
Sharing is what viral marketing is all about. Allowing sharing – downloading make that easy for everyone. Simple! Every advertiser must consider to ‘’offer’’ the message in a usable format (mpg – jpg) (you tube) The content must be effortlessly transferable to everyone. Social web networks, application and tools for quick diffusion of message are the key for sharing.
- Viral is not exclusive
The advertising message must be simple to be transmitted easily. It has to be fast and easily accessible. Nobody will give time to see a message, if it is not accessible. People attention is restricted as well as their time. Restrictions such as codes, registration, log in/ sign in, ‘become member’, delay and hinder the proccess.
- Spam jam
Emails are full of Chain letters and spams. So it has to say stealthy ‘do it yourself’, ‘share my advertising message’ and not clutter up by thousand of ‘share me’.
- Throw an event
Viral messages are ideal to communicate events. Whether these are online or offline. Similarly traditional communication events of product and service samplings, competitions, launches and other social or corporate activities can be supported and even built up through viral advertising online.
- Create a blog
After finding the idea of the viral advertising, it is important to create a place such as blog or forum to support the viral campaign.
Tip 3 / KEEP IT WORK
- Focus on people.
The company who advertises virally must not be oriented around company benefits with the viral advertising. Nobody cares about companies who are all about themselves! The key is to let company fans to publicize these benefits to their friends. It is commonly known that pride drives people. They all want to be popular and loved. People like to share something unique and exciting to discover. By sharing a message of value to them they can achieve that. So the advertising message must give them the reason to talk about the company by focusing on benefits for the public. Happy customers are the best advertisers!
- Track and measure the results.
The word of mouth conversation is the best feedback for the company. So, reaching to the end, it is important to do online surveys, search in blogs and read the comments about the viral advertisement. Listen to the feedback and immediately respond to it. Use advanced measurement tools and techniques.
- Feed the scene.
The viral advertisement may have got people’s attention. But after that what? In order to keep the public committed the company needs to act on a frequent basis and communicate more. Extra material! Sequels such as bloopers | backstage look | blog about the process | part number 2 | making of video | Facebook fan page
- Join the conversation.
Conversations die out when there’s only one person talking. Every company must remember that people will share their advertisement and express their opinion through online media. So what matters now is to connect with the audience and reply to comments. A conversation is on going whether you like it or not. Possitive and negative feedback must be listened to. The more the company participates, the more the conversation grows, the more buzz is created. So, it is important to be officially transparent and develop the conversation.
Good luck!