Viral marketing

Viral marketing

Viral marketing is a technique that aims to promote a company or its products and services through a persuasive message that spreads from one person to another. We are talking about viral marketing since the offer is deployed like a virus

Definition Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is a form of promotion of a commercial offer where it is the recipients of the offer who recommend the brand, product or service to their entourage and thus allow the message to be spread. Nowadays, viral marketing uses social networks to encourage customers to give their opinions about companies, their communication, their products and to share this information with their friends, colleagues or family members.

The specificity of this type of marketing is that consumers become the main vectors of brand communication.

Viral Marketing Objectives

An Internet marketing campaign can have several objectives. Some are shared with advertising in other media than the Internet (image awareness, creation of traffic in store or on a site, encouragement to buy in store or online) others are specific to the Internet (creation of a database of prospects)

The objective of notoriety and image

Several studies show that advertising 

on the Internet, through banners, has an impact on memorization. The Internet user remembers seeing a banner.

The promise of viral marketing is not lacking in appeal, it is triggered by the sending of an e-mail or a message, the so-called word-of-mouth phenomenon. The transmission of information from person to person, by oral means to a chosen target, which will spontaneously take care of spreading the good word to an exponential audience. The main goal is to increase and enhance the reputation and notoriety of an image in any field.

The objective of creating traffic on a website 

Viral marketing is a very effective way to attract the public and customers to a site. The website is one of the ways to increase its visibility and market presence and reach a wide audience. However, it is necessary to implement techniques to make your website more dynamic. Generating traffic will allow the company to generate interest, membership and loyalty among potential customers, which will contribute to increasing its revenue. The role of online advertising is not limited to promoting the brand or product: it allows you to go to the advertiser's website with a simple click.

The sales objective

The sales objective in viral marketing is mainly characterized by the method chosen by the brand to attract the customer by the product by giving him this irresistible desire to share his discovery, by pushing him indirectly to encourage new customers to buy by effectively influencing their buying behavior, in such a context, the recommendation by a known third party, acts as a guarantee and reinsurance for future customers. Banners referring to a promotional offer such as an immediate discount or a digital coupon that can be used for a future purchase are important levers to trigger an online purchase.

The objective of customer relationship management

First, it is necessary to recognize your customer through all contact points (Internet, telephone, contact person, e-mail) and interconnect the different channels, then it is necessary to enrich the data collected previously and to be able to offer customers suggestions based on purchases made by other consumers with a similar profile. This makes it possible to build an individualized and personalized relationship with customers

Methods

Viral marketing must above all be dynamic. Indeed, this technique must make consumers want to click, respond and circulate this message.

To do this, there are different methods to do viral marketing:

e-mailing, which is the most frequently used technique. An email is sent to a group. The goal is to persuade the members of this group to forward this email to their friends and family. These are methods of referral, transmission and even sponsorship;

games and contests;

viral video campaigns;

the creation of parody, humour or self-derision sites;

discount coupons;

e-cards or virtual postcards.

Define precisely the target you want to reach

Favour a specific segment according to a geographical, demographic or psychological criterion.

Goal: to dazzle the entire target group.

Take care of the method

Knowing how to highlight, without overdoing it, the company's business, its positioning and its values

Establish a database prior to the operation

Gather on an ephemeral site all the information that will present the campaign, its duration and its modalities of participation...

Provide diversification in terms of objectives

It is not only a question of collecting the addresses of Internet users. A viral marketing operation must have other objectives such as animating the launch of products or new ranges, bringing customers together around the brand or bringing dynamism to the brand's network.

Train virality

Create a powerful message that consumers will want to share and follow with their friends.

Respect the legal aspects

A viral marketing campaign must respect legal notices such as the respect of consumers' privacy via their email addresses and their use for commercial purposes.

Attract and motivate

Be attractive in terms of the idea, the site and the choice of gifts to attract the core target audience.

Maintain the activity

Perform reminders to motivate the consumer.

Budget

A viral marketing operation is less expensive than a campaign on another media but you still have to plan a budget.

Analyze the return on investment at the end of the campaign

Key factors for viral marketing success

The first factor explaining the popularity of viral marketing campaigns is probably the low cost of transmitting messages. However, this is not enough because with the multiplication of this type of campaign, it is also necessary to seduce and motivate the Internet user to act

The quality of the campaign

The quality of the campaign is the key to success. It is the one that determines the recommendation. Humour is a sure thing, but it is not the only possible way. A successful campaign targets the right consumer, answers the right questions that potential customers can ask themselves and asks them the right questions, then presents the product while making it special to distinguish it from what is generally available on the market by taking into account the competition.

Contextualization

The contextualization of the viral campaign increases its chances of success. It strengthens customer engagement, ensures that content is sent to the right people at the right time and in the right place. It means relying on the tastes, behaviours and values of each consumer to send them messages likely to attract their attention among all those they receive every day and to engage with them in a long-term and fertile customer relationship.

Technical factors

The technical models should appear easier for Internet users in terms of recommendations. The action should not be too complicated and should be limited to indicating the identity of the sender of the recommendation and the e-mail address of the recipient. When the Internet user makes his recommendation from an email, a recommendation module is preferable to asking him to use the forward function of his email.

The viral potential of Internet users

The success of each viral campaign lies in its ability to attract a larger number of consumers and to influence them in a fast and intelligent way in order to transmit a message that they themselves will send to other people through social networks, media... thus creating a chain of Internet users interacting with each other. As a result, information can now circulate and spread like a virus within a community of individuals in a very limited time and at a very low cost. The campaign then seeks to improve its dissemination tactics and make the consumer instead of a simple target; an active ambassador to recommend and promote a brand, service or product. This is called the "Snowball Effect"; it will allow the company to boost its communication strategy and generate advertising benefits.

Interests and benefits of viral marketing

There are several advantages to the techniques adopted in viral marketing, including:

Easy to set up: 

According to Georges Chétochine, it would be enough to send a video or message that is funny or intriguing, unexpected and/or personalized to a specific target so that they can talk about it around them and transmit it to those around them.

Inexpensive: 

Thanks to the Internet, a multitude of forms of promotion are available free of charge to launch a campaign. The only cost observed concerns the time spent creating it: sending e-mails, posting on social networks (Facebook, Twitter...), posting videos online (YouTube, Dailymotion...), participating in forums and/or discussions... The only costs that can occur are those incurred if you want to outsource a viral campaign.

Improved visibility: 

Once the marketing campaign is implemented, it is the affiliates who will promote the product. Indeed, they are the ones who will be in charge of talking about it around them, transmitting information and making judgments. This will increase the number of affiliates, visitors, buyers and potential customers, thus improving product visibility.

Access to a market segment that cannot be reached by conventional means of advertising: 

By going through Web 2.0, we are reaching a clientele that is not necessarily influenced or simply does not consult traditional advertising media such as newspapers or television channels.

Limits and disadvantages of viral marketing

Viral marketing has many advantages but this technique also has many disadvantages:

Consumer fatigue:

Consumers who receive emails from a company several times a day may start to get tired of this and consider it spam. As a result, they become less and less receptive and reactive and therefore give negative messages to those around them about this company.

Hijacking or modification of the message: 

a consumer may unintentionally change the content of the viral message, which can lead to disastrous results for the campaign. Moreover, with the rise of parodies that can harm, the company no longer has control over its image.

Viral marketing only works for the right products: 

"Creating a viral marketing campaign is first and foremost about awakening and amplifying latent word of mouth. ». Indeed, launching a viral marketing campaign on a bad product will only amplify an uncontrollable negative image on it. You can't fool the consumer even with all the advertising efforts in the world.

Risk of saturation with the generalization of viral marketing: 

It seems that over time, viral marketing becomes less effective. Indeed, consumers are increasingly aware of the techniques used by marketers and are therefore very difficult to deceive. If the message does not contain a high degree of interest, it will be considered harmful and will be quickly ignored.

Risk of excessive success:

 A campaign can become a victim of its success and no longer satisfy consumers. Indeed, if this one presents a very interesting offer, the number of members can very quickly become excessive and uncontrollable to such an extent that the company cannot meet the expectations of all consumers or with a very insufficient quality.

On the edge of ethics: 

Some companies do not hesitate to pay consumers to promote their product. Example :

 "Sony Ericsson. To launch its T681 digital camera phone, Sony Ericsson hired actors who, dressed like tourists, went to major monuments and asked real tourists to take pictures of them; the loan of the camera was an opportunity to discuss and promote its merits, but this practice gave rise to controversy.

Legality of viral marketing

Viral operations must "comply with commercial law and in particular with the constraints relating to advertising and direct marketing".

Do not mislead: 

The law on trust in the digital economy, codified in Article L. 121-15-1 of the Consumer Code, states that if the viral marketing technique is used by sending an e-mail, it must be identified as an advertisement as soon as it is received. If this is not the case, the word "advertising" must appear in the text of the message. The point here is not to mislead the receiver of the message. In addition, if the message includes a proposal to participate in a contest or promotional offer, the conditions must be clearly stated and clearly accessible.

The collection of personal data: 

Viral marketing techniques including the collection of email addresses (editorial sites where you can send the article to the person of your choice, virtual postcards...) raise the problem of the site's use of addresses entered in the process such as reminders. As a reminder, Article 14, § 1, of the law of 11 March 2003 stipulates that "The use of electronic mail for advertising purposes is prohibited, without the prior, free, specific and informed consent of the recipient of the messages".

The advertiser must be known: 

The company's service provider (in practice, it will often be the advertising agency that developed the website and/or handles the sending of e-mails) and the advertiser of the information, advertising or service must be known. Their names or company names, geographical addresses, contact details including e-mail address, company numbers, etc. must be visible. "The use of a hyperlink to a specific page containing this information is sufficient to meet the legal requirement. »

Examples of this

the sticker, which is a very old form of viral marketing; it is the exposure of a message to the sight of a large number of people.

Hotmail: free email provider. On each email sent appears the name of the company.

Wassup, advertising video for the Budweiser beer marketing campaign, which was quickly parodied.

the 7up game "Zavez pas vu Fido Dido? "which was launched in 2006 and restarted in 2009 with attractive gains (stays in New York, Cancun...).

Tupperware: it is the friends themselves who promote the products to their own friends.

the Star Wars parody called "George Lucas in Love" that was broadcast on the Net and humorously shows how the universe of the Star Wars saga was found.

Hakuhodo, a Japanese advertising agency, has launched promotions on interactive electronic greeting cards. The card you send can be a win-win for you and your recipient

Controversies

Viral marketing is mainly driven by profitability, either by selling a product or by advertising revenue. A real viral marketing industry now exists on the Internet, and has largely emancipated itself from the advertising sector to invest in the click farm sector, competing with sensationalist statements to attract the naive Internet user, often in contempt of the truth.

One of the main fields of viral marketing on the Internet is health, a huge market and a very easily viral theme on social networks. Thus, the generalization of networks such as Facebook has seen the emergence of a real medical fake news industry, with groups bringing together several million followers and listing in a sensationalist tone and always affirmative or even authoritative all kinds of medical false information, as "miracle cures" for obesity, cancer or other complex diseases, relaying conspiracyist and anti-scientific ideas against medicine, and feeding their whimsical information flow on all kinds of foods or treatments, without author's names or medical sources or references. The most popular are Santé+Magazine (site owned by a former Moroccan chef converted into an e-business) with more than 7 million subscribers, but also Santenatureinnovation.com, Sante-nutrition.org or Topsante.org, all massively shared by naive Internet users. None of these sites are maintained by qualified physicians (or even any qualified medical personnel), and a large part belong to opaque pharmacies using false identities and head office addresses