What makes viral campaigns so important?
Ever noticed a business or celebrity you liked on Facebook offer an incentive or gift reciprocally for something from their followers? Social media celebrities aren’t offering free swag out of the goodness of their hearts,
and it’s no coincidence giveaways and promotions on social media are getting increasingly popular…
By running promotional campaigns on social media you'll be able to get advertising worth thousands of dollars for just a pair of hundred dollars. If you're not using viral campaigns to grow your business, you're missing out on one of the foremost lucrative marketing strategies available to businesses, and you're missing out on one in every one of the key advantages of social media as a marketing tool.
Let’s have a look at an example of a successful viral campaign.
While there are 1,000,000 and one ways to skin a cat and also the same is true for viral campaigns, simple methods that yield consistent results are the simplest approach for social campaigns. You don’t have to venture out and spend thousands of dollars filming a crazy video of yourself jumping out of a plane or doing a nudie run wearing nothing but your corporate logo, hoping to urge picked up by the press. you just must offer an incentive reciprocally for followers to love, share or inquire into your post. You don’t even need an outsized amount of followers for this sort of campaign to achieve success. As more users participate, your campaign and social profile are exposed to an exponential amount of users.
Let’s take a look at a successful campaign by popular cosmetics brand Mario Badescu.
By giving for free only 1 skincare product in exchange for reposting the image, Mario Badescu had their image reshared over 114 times, received 224 likes, 10 comments, and therefore the brand exposed to thousands of potential customers. With this straightforward promotion, Mario Badescu received hundreds or perhaps thousands of dollars of advertising for the modest cost of 1 skincare product. enormous for one tub of face mud!
The success of this campaign lies in its simple execution. the big and bold giveaway headline captures the eye of anyone fascinated by skincare products. The time constraint on the promotion encourages followers to act fast. and also the entry instructions are as simple because it gets.
How to make your viral social media campaign successful.
When it involves successful social media campaigns, the devil is within the details. The difference between successful and not-so-successful viral campaigns be the execution. to maximize results follow three essential steps.
Offer an irresistible prize.
Needless to mention, the more valuable your prize, the larger your response is going to be. While your prize is anything from a free shirt to a free holiday on Necker Island with Richard Branson, you’re best choosing a prize that's both compelling and relevant to your audience. Even better, make the prize your product, and also the buzz will drive awareness and sales of your product. Make your prize more compelling by gifting away multiple products—customers will have a greater chance of winning and this may increase your response.
Make your entry mechanism easy as pie.
For bigger results and also the sanity of your social followers, make it as easy as possible to enter your giveaway. The entry requirements of your giveaway should be foolproof, and your instructions should be too. It doesn’t get any simpler than the sooner example, ‘Repost with #MBWinner and you’ve entered to win the Flower & Tonic Mask!’.
There are two common techniques for allowing users to enter your contest.
1.Entry on your social media post.
To enter, users comment, like, or reshare your post on the social network. you'll create a viral campaign in minutes using this approach. you'll be able to also receive a surge of the latest followers with this sort of promotion. Keeping the entry mechanism inside the social network typically ends up in higher social engagement, the user is already in ‘social network’ mode and it’s very easy for them to love, share and comment directly on their newsfeed while already logged in.
2.Entry on your website.
You can direct users to an ardent page on your website to enter your promotion. this needs more legwork on your end and you’re visiting must create a special page on your website, however, it’s an improved approach for achieving specific business goals. you will ask users to share, like, or comment on your page, so enter their email address to enter the competition. you'll be able to then add entrants to your newsletter and market to them again and again at almost no cost. this is often an excellent option if you're looking to extend sales by getting followers onto your listing.
Check out these two resources to urge your promotion off the bottom.
Rafflecopter.
Rafflecopter allows you to form a giveaway or social promotion with just some clicks. you'll be able to require entrants to share your promotion and opt into your listing. you'll be able to then copy and paste the Rafflecopter giveaway into your blog with no need to use an internet developer. Great for those running a social campaign on their website. liberal to attempt to plans to start at $13 per month for power users.
Woobox
Woobox quickly built up a reputation because of the creme-de-la-creme of viral promotion apps for Facebook and has now expanded to Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. Woobox is great for running your promotion directly on your social network of choice and makes it easy to set up and run a social campaign in minutes. Woobox offers 6 free basic apps, and 15 social promotion apps for advanced users at $30 per month.
Promote the heck out of your campaign.
When your promotion is prepared to travel, you would like to push your campaign to the maximum amount possible. While you'll run a giveaway on your social profile with little promotion and it’s likely to induce a solid amount of engagement from your followers, if you heavily promote your social campaign you significantly increase your chances of the giveaway going viral. Increase the initial amount of users who participate in your campaign and it'll be exposed to a bigger amount of users. It’s important to stay this in mind, as it’s the viral nature of giveaways on social networks that make them so valuable.
Follow these steps and you’re bound to get a solid amount of entrants to induce your promotion off the bottom and before of other followers:
- Create a banner on your website or blog linking to your promotion.
- Cross-promote your social campaigns on your other social accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and so on.
- Do a fast email blast to your newsletter promoting your giveaway.
- For larger giveaways or promotions, run a paid drive on your social network to extend your exposure. Facebook’s paid ‘boost this post’ feature could be a great example of how you'll be able to significantly increase your exposure without an excessive amount of effort.
- Promote your social campaign on your marketing collateral, future brochures, flyers, posters, and then on.
- For serious prizes, like a vacation, car, or giant bag of money, you will want to send a fast handout with a news syndication service like PR Newswire (prnewswire.com) to induce your promotion ahead of the press.
Is it time you started incorporating viral marketing and giveaways into your marketing mix? Or perhaps you’re strapped for time and need someone to help? within which case, get connected, we are able to assist thereupon.
