A buzz term that has been around for the better part of 10 years now is viral marketing. The attention it gets from an online marketers standpoint is warranted as some incredible advertising has been done. It has also appealed to consumers as they have enjoyed some very entertaining content.

What’s holding your campaign back from going viral amongst your target audience on social media? Here are a few things to look at, and I’m going to show you a successful viral video at the end of the post.

What problems are there with viral marketing?

The biggest problems with viral marketing attempts are two-fold. One of my favorite ‘cut to the chase’ examples was provided by Seth Godin. He explained on his blog how poorly prepared marketers would:

“slap some goofy viral thing on top of it (their online marketing efforts) and wait for it to spread. And if it doesn’t spread, they create a faux controversy or engage a PR firm or some bloggers and then it still doesn’t work.”

Another example would be the Kellogg’s UK controversy known as the “RT to Feed a Hungry Child” campaign. They sent out a “1RT = 1 meal for a hungry child” tweet.

The lesson here is about the product and the message – you have to put it first! In Seth’s example, marketers were concentrating on going viral, rather than having a great product. In my example, the focus was on going viral, rather than explaining their Give a Child a Breakfast campaign. Both failed miserably because they focused on the potential of going viral, rather than wanting to highlight a great product or service.

Viral marketing tactics that will work

We’ve all read the typical “make something hilarious or useful” advice. Here are five important viral marketing techniques that have worked for campaigns in the past, and should work for you:

1. Never think about traditional marketing techniques: Pictures of your perfectly arranged product in the manicured hands of a supermodel who’s looking uninterested and away from the camera will not work in a viral marketing context.
   Think of a company like BlendTec who went viral when they decided to show their blenders destroying popular products. Will it Blend? is now one of the most popular YouTube marketing channels, even though it doesn’t feel like online marketing at all. Check out the embedded video at the end of the post for an example.
2. Bring your marketing into real life: Many successful viral marketing campaigns bring real people reacting to crazy situations into their videos. Remember the “Devil Baby” campaign on the streets of NYC? It was advertising the new horror movie “The Devil’s Due” by showing people…being scared! The success was in people seeing themselves in those who reacted, and having a laugh at the expense of others.
3. Take your products to extremes: If you sell a boring product, don’t worry. There is hope for you. Take Sharpie as an example. They sell markers. That’s it. Plain old markers, highlighters, those things you lose all the time and can’t find when you have a document on your desk.
   What they have done with their Instagram account is nothing short of remarkable. They have encouraged their fans to take those markers and draw with them. The drawings are uploaded to their account, or given a hashtag. The individual pieces of content may not be viral, but the Sharpie account certainly is.
4. Reward your customers with your product: My favorite example of this right now is Coca-Cola’s #SharetheDerby campaign. They set up two Coke machines at a soccer match in Milan where two Milan based teams were playing against one another.
   The machines gave out free Cokes, but fans could only get one when the opposing fans pushed a button. There was a camera and a big screen so that they could see one another. They were rewarded with bottles of Coke thanks to their ability to work together. The video on YouTube gained tens of thousands of views as people enjoyed the reactions.
5. Team up with unlikely partners: Joining forces with partners outside your industry can create buzz for both groups involved. Dolce & Gabbana teamed up with Magnum ice cream to create not only a luxury ice cream bar, but headlines just for their efforts. A brewer in the UK teamed up with a local cycling clothes manufacture to create a beer for the Tour de France. Both the beer and the clothing gained exposure due to the unusualness, and also highlighted the best of both their brands.

These five examples of viral marketing tactics can be applied to virtually any company with online marketing goals.

What these examples show above all else is that online viral marketing can not be like traditional marketing. It has to entertain audiences in a real way, or give them something new and exciting to think about. And thank goodness for that, I’m so bored of looking at uninterested models holding overly made-up product!