Viral Marketing includes everything that spreads by “word-of-mouth,” “creating a buzz,” “leveraging the media,” and “network marketing.” It grows by pass-along rate from person to person. It is most effective when a large group of recipients may forward a story or video content, the overall growth snowballs very quickly.
Viral marketing takes time. You may not get the results today or tomorrow, but it generates a groundswell of interest from something free. To begin with, you will only gain views, that will lead to shares and re-shares and the number grows. But there’s a method in the madness. Let us find how.
Here I have discussed the top six viral marketing trends that marketers follow.
- Video Streaming:
Live streams are taking over the other tools and are fast growing as the most powerful tool for viral marketing. In 2016 the live video streaming market was around $30 billion industry and it is projected to be more than double in growth by 2021 to become a more than $70 billion industry. Live streaming of videos is on the rise. It is the new wave of digital communication, content promotion, and content consumption.
Nearly 10 million active users across the world are watching for an average of 106 minutes every single day. Twitch.tv is one of the biggest live streaming sites in the world right now. About 81% of Internet users viewed more live-streamed content in 2016 than they did in 2015.
Why makes live video streaming so popular? Live video streams help users stay informed on the latest news and events, get actively connected to companies, and get instant access to fresh content.
Moreover, with typical TV subscriptions in decline, it only makes sense that live streaming is the new way to consume content.
- Artificial Intelligence:
AI has a massive impact on Viral Marketing. AI-powered tools help marketers deliver highly-customized content delivery, automated based on their persona and lifestyle. Starting an AI strategy can be expensive, but it is very much in demand. A research report by Salesforce State of the Marketing shows that high-performing marketing teams are more than 2x as likely to use AI in their campaigns as under-performers. The Salesforce report also points out that marketers anticipate AI usage will grow by 53% over the next two years.
- Viral Content:
Viral content is the reigning diva of the digital space. HubSpot reports that video is a growing priority, with 48% of marketers planning to add YouTube to their marketing plan in the next year, and 46% plan to add Facebook video. Research shows that in-person events member sites perform well only for niche segments. Viral content is better than automated e-mail campaigns. Also, it is much easier to do.
All you need is a smartphone with a good camera, a phone tripod and a social media account to leverage live video on Facebook. Or, you may also use Magisto, an AI-powered tool that helps you edit and market videos in just a few minutes.
It is interesting to note that even bigger business magnet has realized the importance of viral content. Quite recently Apple committed to spending $1 billion on original content for its streaming platform. Also, PepsiCo opened a brand new content creation studio in downtown NYC with the aim of generating revenue and creating a vehicle for advertising their products.
- Chatbots:
The 2018 Gartner research shows that 85% of interactions will be with chatbots by 2020. Chatbots are driven by a predefined workflow and help drive customer engagement and facilitate faster conversions by answering questions or offering suggestions. Use of chat apps has actually surpassed the use of social media and audiences will expect it from most companies.
Chatbots are in fact, the best way to tackle a huge load of customer requests and create relevant responses that truly cater to their specific needs. Chatbots also guide consumers in making a choice through product recommendations. Сhatbots actually revised online shopping experience by capturing feedback and product reviews from the users. Chatbots integrates with platforms such as Skype, Kik, and Facebook Messenger.
Know more about chatbots playing a pivotal role in e-commerce. Read my earlier blog post How are Chatbots Enhancing Online Shopping Experience?
- Micro Influencers:
Influencers in social media are towering personalities with a huge fan following. Influencers have a few words to say but have a large number of people to cheer them, re-share their posts or retweet their comments. But that also means being less original, apart from losing connect with the core group of users (with whom the fan base started). This lies at the crux of micro influencer marketing. The reason why micro influencers are leaving behind “Influencers” of all sorts is because they have a steady and dedicated group of followers. This goes a long way in helping personal branding.
On average, a micro influencer on Instagram or Facebook has somewhere between 10,000 and 500,000 followers. We must understand that it is not necessarily the number of followers as much as how engaged that audience is. Micro-influencers have targeted audiences as their fan base and are deeply connected to them. They respond to the messages and chat with their followers on a regular basis.
Recent research reports by Ellevate shows that micro influencers are 4x more likely to get a comment on post influencers (with around 10 million followers). About 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations and only 33% trust ads. With more than 32% of internet users enabling ad blocker in 2017, it’s increasingly harder to reach users and micro influencers can bridge that gap moving into 2018.
- Instagram Stories:
Instagram is fast becoming the leading player in digital marketing space, especially, for personal branding and influencer marketing. Apart from its alliance with Facebook, Instagram has added many new features including Instagram Stories. A hot favorite with most business entrepreneurs, it helps them enhance their visibility and engagement. Top brands are using Instagram Stories to generate user-specific content in order to interact with their audience, increase their engagement rates, website conversions, leads or sales. As of June 2018, 400 million Instagram users use Stories daily, up from 300 million users in October of 2017.
Instagram Stories allows you to tag your Stories with their appropriate location, and what more you can add your post to the location’s Story, making it more readily available for viewing. You can also add links to your Stories ads. This is useful, as users swiping up on your Story Ad are taken to your product or service’s website. Moreover, you can cross-post all of your Instagram Stories directly to Facebook Stories.
Closing thoughts:
You may increase views through aggressive digital marketing and deliver value to your audience. This will add up to the much-needed the success for your Viral Marketing campaign. Creating awareness is essential even if you have killer content. People must see and share to make it popular. You need to create something that pulls in the kind of attention that will spread. While there is no fixed formula for success, we have to keep redefining our strategies.
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