It can be time-consuming and frustrating to start a new business. It can also be expensive. It may appear difficult to come up with a high marketing budget. Marketing, on the other hand, is critical for every firm, particularly start-ups. This is where viral marketing comes in, broadening your pool of prospective clients while also saving you money.
We’ve put together a list of 5 low-cost viral marketing strategies for entrepreneurs. This article will first define viral marketing and then go through some of the advantages it may have for your business.
✅ What is Viral Marketing?
Viral marketing is exactly what it sounds like: advertising campaigns that have gone viral and have been widely shared by viewers. The best viral marketing is shared by everyone, including those who do not want the things or services being given, but by spreading the message, the reach is enormously increased.
✅ How can Viral Marketing benefit Businesses?
There are several advantages of using a viral marketing strategy:
1 Budget-Friendly
Advertising is often expensive. In comparison, low-cost viral marketing is affordable since you often do not have to pay for anything other than the initial outlay: creating the advertising and maybe disseminating it in one or two locations. However, you must prioritize marketing expenses above innovation. Creativity is what drives virality.
The good news is that if the advertisement or campaign becomes viral, there will be no further charges. Alternatively, if it is a pay-per-click advertisement, it will be linked to the number of click-throughs that result in a sale and hence to revenue growth.
2 Massive Visibility
As the phrase implies, viral advertising spread like wildfire. Having an ad seen by hundreds of potential clients will get the attention of tens, but only a few will take action. Low-cost viral marketing, when done well, may bring a product or service to the attention of millions of people.
3 Self-Sharing
Almost half of the world’s population is on social media, an unimaginably large target audience that will actively participate in distributing material that appeals to them. Having a strong, positive link to a product or service on such a piece of content is perhaps the world’s most cost-effective viral marketing tactic, encouraging end users to undertake the job of distributing the ad on behalf of the seller – and doing so without even recognizing it!
✅ Cost-Effective Viral Marketing Strategies
Developing viral marketing techniques for start-up firms may be difficult – no one can anticipate which video will “go viral,” and sometimes it is simply a matter of having the appropriate clip at the right moment.
However, the following characteristics all increase the likelihood of marketing campaigns working, especially if you can create a strong relationship between the attraction of your content and your brand, so they do not get separated in the thoughts of the viewers.
Cost-effective viral marketing efforts like this are an ideal plan to pursue new and untested firms since they keep expenses low while providing all of the benefits of an expensive advertising strategy.
1 Create an Emotional Impact
Adorable animals, heartwarming rescue stories, and babies behaving in ways that put adults to shame elicit significant emotional responses from viewers, with some even weeping up. They want to communicate how they feel with their friends and family, and they will, even if it means creating their call to action.
2 Create an Inspirational Impact
Stories of people going above and beyond standard expectations are likely to attract the attention of someone looking through their social media page. When young individuals turn their lives around or senior people finally fulfill a long-held dream, whether it’s skydiving or graduating from university at the age of ninety, viewers might feel inspired and positively inclined towards others.
Canny advertisers can provide an incentive to the inspiring individual by including their narrative in the commercial, therefore buying into the goodwill produced by the heartwarming deeds.
3 Create an Entertainment Impact
People enjoy stories that make them grin, laugh, or impress them. Jokes, people putting themselves in ridiculous situations, or parodies of prime-time television shows and the latest movies are all excellent ways to tap into our desire to be amused or entertained – connecting this content with a strong brand presence connects the product with the pleasure felt from engaging with the content. Good-looking individuals, heartwarming connections, and delicious-looking food are further examples of impact content.
4 Create Reliability
People must have a sense of connection to the campaign. Being relevant is vital for viral video clips and advertising since people like to share products that speak to them on some level while avoiding those that do not appear to apply to their own life.
5 Create Interactivity
Interacting with information encourages users to linger over it, whether they are clicking quiz answers, locating hidden things, or completing a puzzle. However, they should not be too difficult – the user should be able to score pretty high in only a few minutes, so they feel a feeling of success and associate that sense of well-being with the brand.
Interactive material is frequently fun, and those who perform well will be eager to share the quiz or puzzle so they may compete against their family and friends. You may also motivate individuals to take part in a challenge. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge demonstrated this in 2014.
This viral campaign was an instant hit, raising $115 million in only eight weeks. Over 17 million individuals worldwide took part in the challenge, which helped to popularise ALS, which was previously a relatively unknown condition.
✅ What is Guerilla Marketing?
Jay Convard Levinson invented the phrase “guerrilla marketing” in his 1984 book “Guerrilla Advertising.” Guerrilla marketing focuses on unconventional techniques that generate buzz and leave a lasting impact on customers. It also serves as an excellent bridge between online and physical shoppers. Unlike other kinds of marketing that follow a set of guidelines, guerilla marketing concepts rely primarily on creativity and execution.
While guerrilla marketing was created to help small companies, many large-scale corporations also use the greatest guerilla marketing methods to expand their business offline.
✅ How Does Guerrilla Marketing Work?
Are you sick of employing the same old-school marketing strategies that every firm does to increase its consumer base? It’s time to try something new and generate a wow factor for your business that your consumers and target audience will remember for a long time. Here are a few things to think about before doing guerilla marketing.
✅ Types of Guerilla Marketing
There are several methods to use guerilla marketing strategies to build your business offline. Before creating any customized campaign for your brand, keep your budget and the creative capabilities of your marketing employees in mind. Here are some examples of well-known guerilla marketing tactics that you might wish to attempt for your company.
1 Experiential Marketing
Unlike traditional marketing approaches, in which customers are often passive players, experiential marketing allows people to engage in the process, allowing a company to develop and thrive. Experiential marketers employ creative marketing to launch campaigns that assist customers in developing an emotional connection with a brand and its products.
2 Astroturfing Marketing
Unlike buzz marketing, which relies on organic brand recommendations, Astroturfing marketing relies on fabricated endorsements to establish a reputation and social proof. McDonald’s adopted this strategy a few years ago, paying 1000 consumers to submit favorable reviews to encourage others to trust a business and make a purchase.
3 Buzz Marketing
Buzz marketing is a common guerilla marketing technique used by marketers to generate excitement about a product or brand. Because there is little engagement from a brand, this sort of guerrilla marketing is extremely cost-effective. The approach relies around upon obtaining genuine endorsements from high-profile individuals, celebrities, and prominent influencers who promote a business or service without receiving anything from the brand.
4 Stealth Marketing
Stealth marketing is a prominent guerrilla marketing approach that reaches clients without their knowledge. Marketers employ this method to raise brand recognition and generate buzz about a product or service.
5 Street Marketing
Street marketing is less well-known than other types of guerilla marketing. However, this strategy might generate more interaction and leads than other viable options. Marketers communicate their brand message through posters, billboards, and street art.