8 Viral Marketing Examples (and What You Can Learn From Them)

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“How can I make my business go viral?” Every entrepreneur who wants to increase awareness, engagement, and sales would ask this question.

Often, it may seem like going viral happens at random. While that can sometimes be the case, the truth is, certain factors increase a campaign’s likelihood to go viral.

Want to know what they are? Read until the end of this post.

We’ve also included a list of the best viral marketing examples from well-known brands and our own users here at UpViral. There are a ton of valuable lessons you can take away and apply to your marketing campaigns.

What is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing is a method that’s used to encourage people to spread the word about a company online or offline. People spread information similar to how a virus gets transmitted from one person to another ― fast.

There are two ways to increase word-of-mouth (WOM):

One is Traditional word-of-mouth where there’s very little to no effort from a marketer. Rather than planning everything from start to finish to encourage word of mouth, you leave things to chance.

You put something out and when people see it, it’s up to them to actively share it with their friends without restrictions. If they share a positive message, this benefits a brand tremendously. Meanwhile, negative messages backfire.

Two is Amplified word-of-mouth where a marketer plans and structures a viral campaign. The marketer decides the message to be shared, how it should be shared, whom to share it with, and where to share it. Usually, a marketer offers an incentive to motivate their audience to share the campaign. The right incentive will increase the campaign’s potential to go viral.

This blog post focuses on amplified WOM.

So, yes, implementing a viral marketing strategy can turn a business into an overnight success. 🔥 The key? Know what makes your audience tick.

How Does A Viral Marketing Campaign Work?

These are the elements involved in an amplified viral marketing campaign:

Product or service - What do you want to promote and go viral? It could be your product or service that’s yet to be launched or that hasn’t been selling well.
Messenger - This is you, the creator of the viral campaign and the source of the marketing message. As the messenger, it’s important to set goals for your campaign. Think about what you want to achieve as a result. Is it to grow your email list? Increase your social media following? Boost sales?
Recipient - This is the receiver of your message. If your message resonates well with your audience, they will immediately share it with their friends. Then their friends will share it with their connections. The cycle continues.
Marketing channel - Rather than using a single channel to promote your product or service, leverage multiple channels. These include email, social media, blogging, and even advertising (paid social or paid search).
Reward or incentive - Give away something that resonates with your audience as a reward for sharing your message. It could be your own product or service or something else related to your niche that you can get from Amazon.
Mechanics - You need to determine the actions that people should take when spreading your message and to earn the incentive you’re offering.

The Benefits Of Viral Marketing

What is the importance of viral marketing for businesses? Viral marketing can help a business in any niche with the following:

Brand awareness - Create some buzz around your business using viral marketing. If you can get people to talk about you, you can reach a vast audience in such a short time.
Social proof - Viral campaigns often result in lots of user-generated content like testimonials, photos, and videos. Raving fans will be happy to share their thoughts about your business. You can then leverage user-generated content to boost social proof, leading to more conversions.
Cost-effectiveness - With viral marketing, you’ll only be spending money during the initial phase of your campaign. For instance, advertising your campaign on Facebook to gain traction. Once your ad catches your target audience’s attention, they’ll be continuing the work of spreading your content. You won’t have to keep on running that ad for a long time.
Lead generation - Time and again, viral marketing has proved to be a powerful way to grow your leads. If you can effectively nurture the leads you’ve collected, you can spark new and repeat purchases.

Companies in various industries use viral marketing to reach their goals. These industries include but are not limited to personal care products, music, food, and more.

Top 5 Viral Marketing Campaigns to Take Inspiration From

Below, we’ve compiled campaigns from brands that did viral marketing successfully. Find out why they worked and how you can use their strategies for your own campaigns.

1. Dollar Shave Club

In March 2012 Dollar Shave Club, an American company that sells razors got a huge boost from its YouTube video “Our Blades Are F***ing Great.” The video starred DSC’s founder Michael Dubin. The video wasn’t the kind that you’d normally expect in a razor ad. It was personal, funny, unique, and had just the right length.

Within a few days, the video got 3 million views and thousands of people visited their website and subscribed.