Viral marketing is just a brand new name for the good old word-to-mouth mouth marketing. Luckily, technology has made it easier for marketers to transfer messages and share them with millions of people.

But, here’s the deal –

It is not that simple, and it still has its principles that need to be respected in order for a viral marketing strategy to work. Many of the marketers make mistakes during the process and wonder what went wrong.

Here are the ten most common mistakes and how to avoid them.

1. Your content does not have viral quality

You are not making a commercial that you are going to play on TV. Instead, you should make your content as something that has viral quality.

What does it mean?

Well, it means that people need to see something in it that is worth sharing. You need to conduct a thorough research of your audience and offer them something funny and interesting, yet educational that they will make viral.

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2. You did not set your goals clearly

Starting a viral marketing campaign without setting your goals clearly is not a good idea. You need to know exactly your posts reach, conversion rates and shares to know that your campaign ended well.

If you are not sure how to set up goals clearly, talk to the people who were already through that and how all ended up for them. Learn from their mistakes and put everything down on paper.

3. Thinking that you succeeded if something goes viral

Virality means that you’ve managed to do something right – you managed to make something that will make people share it and enjoy it. However, marketing has the purpose of raising brand awareness and increase sales.

If you are going viral and the brand is still unknown – there is something wrong with your viral content.

The best thing to solve that is to do an anonymous survey where people will tell you openly what they think is wrong with your campaign.

4. Not investing enough money

Money is a major factor that speeds up the whole process. When you invest money into your content to become viral, you will be able to hit the target audience.

You do not need a lot of money for the promotion of the content. You can start with small sums of $4-5 and paid ads on social media. Once you see what works, you can consider investing more money.

5. Being a copycat when it comes to campaigns

Never try to copy someone else’s viral marketing campaign completely. It is always allowed to look up to them and get ideas from them. However, being a copycat always results in failure.

Look here:

Each campaign is designed according to the product they are trying to sell. You need to be acquainted with the product and with the people you are working. Furthermore, if you create the similar content, no one would want to share it – everyone wants something original.

6. Not taking into account SEO and other important aspects of digital marketing

Search Engine Optimization and other aspects of digital marketing such as website, content, social media, etc. should all be incorporated into your viral marketing campaign. It is a necessary part, and all aspects should be planned thoroughly.

If you focus just on creating viral content and sharing it, you will succeed only in virality, but your marketing campaign will not be successful. One way to pay attention to everything is to hire the right people who will each have to work on separate aspects, thus enhancing the campaign.

7. The hook and the message of the marketing campaign are confused

What many marketers do wrong is to emphasize the hook that will make the people share content and make it viral but to completely neglect the product.

Furthermore, they completely miss the point of their campaign, and the content becomes viral on its own. No one will be able to see the connection between the viral content and your brand.

8. Users find it difficult to share your content

Always pay attention to three things:

  • When you are going to share your content
  • All your share buttons are clear and visible on the page of your content
  • You have a sentence that invites people to share content

If all these three points are covered, you need not worry about your reach. On the other hand, you might end up with results that are not satisfactory.

9. Not knowing your audience

You cannot get to know your audience simply by looking at Google Analytics of Facebook Insight. To truly know who you are placing your content to, you need to communicate with people.

The beauty of social media is that it allows it.

Always read comments and respond to messages from potential customers. This will be a unique opportunity to show that you are professional as well and that you care about your audience.

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10. Not conducting a research

Research needs to be conducted whenever you plan to do something connected to internet marketing and especially when you create a viral marketing campaign.

You need to know your target audience and everything about them. The most important thing is to find out what makes them share content and what kind of content you need to offer them for your campaign to become viral.

Conclusion

To sum up, viral marketing requires a creative person who will take a closer look at the campaign from different perspectives and make sure that all aspects of it are covered. These ten mistakes are something that you should take into account and possibly try to avoid them as much as possible.

If you take one wrong step in this kind of marketing it can negatively affect your business and you as a marketer. Therefore, be careful and give your best to be all over the internet.