Viral marketing is a marketing strategy that encourages consumers to spread information about a company's goods or services via the internet. It inspires users to share messages with other users, leading to exponential growth. A classic example is Hotmail, which included promotional messages in every email, causing the service to spread rapidly among recipients. The rise of social media has increased the effectiveness of viral marketing, as users spend more time on social platforms than email. Both large and small businesses can benefit, but it is particularly well-suited to smaller companies seeking cost-effective growth.

1.  By Himani Kalra

2.  A method of marketing whereby consumers
are encouraged to share information about a
company's goods or services via the Internet.
 Viral in literal sense means anything which
spreads fast (across users).
 Viral marketing is described as a marketing
strategy which inspires users to spread or
share the message to other users which can
lead to multi-fold growth.

3.  For Example:
 Hotmail is one of the most classic examples
of successful viral marketing. They offered
free e-mail to the masses, and simply
attached a signature at the bottom of each e-
mail message that promoted their free
service. Every single e-mail sent by a Hotmail
user contained this message, thus spreading
it like a virus. Recipients would see the ad,
and as a result, they too signed up for
Hotmail.

4.  The expansion of various social networks,
such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat,
has contributed to the effectiveness of viral
marketing. As users grow, and as the time
they spend on social media sites exceeds
their time spent emailing, more users are
viewing news and forwarding it through their
preferred social networks. This requires
marketing campaigns to shift focus from
more traditional email campaigns to more
creative social campaigns.

5.  Viral Marketing can be effective as a stand-
alone tool or as part of a larger marketing
campaign.
 It can be used by both large and small
companies, but can be especially attractive to
smaller business, as it can be more cost-
effective than traditional marketing efforts.

6. ADVANTAGES
 Lower Advertising Cost
 Fast growth
 Mainstream media Exposure
 Increased Credibility
 Rapid Lead Feneration

7. DISADVANTAGES
 Tough to Create
 Non repetitive
 Hard to measure
 Uncontrollable
 Negative Buzz
 Ethical Considerations

8.  Pass-along
 It is the most common and crudest type of viral marketing,
because it encourages users to pass message to others.
Basically, this strategy tries to form a chain by placing a
message at the bottom of the email which prompts the
readers to forward this message to others.
 Incentivized viral
 This type of viral marketing is used by most organizations
in which they offer a gift or a reward for either passing a
message along or providing someone else’s address. In
short, it calls the user to take action in order to be
awarded. A customer base grows like this. This method
can greatly increase referrals, and becomes most effective
when the offer requires another person to take action.

9.  Edgy Gossip/Buzz marketing
 This type of viral marketing helps business get the attention of the
public. This strategy involves ads or messages that create controversies
that lead to gossip or a topic of discussion. For example: an actor
leaking controversial or private information just before a new movie is
released.
 Gossip spreads like wildfire; incredibly fast from one person to another
and often to another corner of the globe, too. Build a strategy that can
create some controversy to become hot gossip, and spread it from one
corner of the country to the other.
 Undercover marketing
 Undercover marketing includes a viral message that just appears to be a
cool or unusual page, activity or piece of news, without any provocation
to link or forward it to others. This is something that doesn’t seem like
anything is being marketed. That is the way the message gets passed –
innocently to other people in a quiet way.
 User-Managed Database
 This organized form of viral marketing involves having users invite
others to join their communities. In this method, users create and
manage their own list of contacts through a database given by an online
service provider. By doing this, they create a viral, self-propagating
chain of contacts that grows naturally and encourages others to sign up,
as well.

10.  1. Videos. Upload an interesting, educational and/or
entertaining video to YouTube, Metacafe and other video-
share sites that captures the imagination of viewers, and
anything is possible.
 2. Social Media. It’s hard to imagine a business having that
same level of success today without participating in social
media networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and
others.
 3. Article Marketing. If you write articles and allow them to
be syndicated, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that
one or more of your articles could go viral – provided, of
course, they are well-written, interesting, educational
and/or entertaining, and offer good value.

11.  4. Tweet Button. The Tweet Button is pretty much everywhere these
days. This useful widget allows users to post a tweet to their Twitter
profile from any website. Here’s how it works: Tweets posted using the
Tweet Button are pre-populated with a shortened link to the webpage
from which the message was sent (for example, your website). Users
have the option of customizing the tweet’s content before posting it.
This is an excellent way to give visitors to your site the ability to spread
your content via Twitter.
 5. Share Widget. Share widgets give your visitors the ability to easily
share and bookmark your website through popular social network
websites.
 6. E-Books. E-Books have long been one of the most effective methods
of viral marketing because they’re easy to produce and have the ability
to reach a large audience. If your e-book contains content that is
interesting, entertaining and/or educational, and offers good value,
readers will enthusiastically pass it along to others.
 7. Newsletters. Newsletters are not only an excellent way to keep the
name of your business in front your subscribers, they also have excellent
viral potential. To take full advantage of this potential, at the end of your
newsletter, ALWAYS encourage readers to pass your newsletter along to
others.

12.  Why This Kolaveri Di?....
 Soon after the song was leaked, Sony Music India
wanted to make the most of the advantage. Jack
in the Box is the digital agency responsible for
making the video go viral. According to Ninja
Magic. in, the company aimed to market the
video on YouTube, Facebook & Twitter.
 Let's first talk about how the company managed
to market the video on Facebook. Sony Music
India's South page has about 200k fans. And
most of them are Tamils. So, posting about the
video on Facebook page attracted viewers,
comments, likes & shares. In turn, YouTube views
of the video started going up.

13.  #WhyThisKolaveriDi

14.  Kolaveri for Future Managers:
 All IIMs has accepted this song as the best examples of
viral marketing.
 Lessons in Viral Marketing
 Broadcast Yourself : It is lot more than just a viral concept
need not be Rocket Science. Sometimes, It's just a simple
idea, captured right.
 Contagious: A good Viral is highly contagious. You don't
need to promote it. A good viral spreads by itself.
 Gaining a good amount of attention on-line Will attract the
other traditional media towards your story. The viral was
covered in leading News Channels & Newspapers.
An Online Viral can spillover offline. Gaining a good
amount of attention on-line will attract the other
traditional media .

15.  What can you learn about Social Media Marketing
from Kolaveri Di?
 You need to define your social media marketing
strategy properly. When you've a Facebook fan page
which is liked by thousands of targeted users, your
content/articles will be viewed by those. Sure your
website will get more clicks. But, this is not enough.
These readers should automatically share your
content with their social friends. These readers
should subscribe to your newsletters. These readers
should buy your products.
 This brings us to the main thing that is important, i.e.
Content. If Kolaveri di wouldn't have funny lyrics &
cool beats, there would have been a very few shares
& likes. Why did the song get so many likes & shares
on Facebook? Heck, because of the content.
Remember if the content is good, you don't need to
market it. It'll market itself.

16.  Instant Awareness
 Little Hints of the product
 Get Their Attention
 Measuring Effectiveness- views, likes, re-tweets..
 You may find selling points you never thought of!
 Review section helps!

17.  Viral marketing became a new media
phenomenon, gaining increasing interest in
marketing literature. Interest in online viral
marketing has increased among marketing and
advertising scholars. Studies in this area typically
have focused on either intermediate
actions/processes such as probability of opening
and passing along viral information. Besides
message characteristics, individual consumers
also play a critical role in the viral marketing
process. All consumers are the targets of
marketing communications, although some
consumers are more valuable to businesses and
industries than others.