{"id":8505,"date":"2023-09-06T11:37:59","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T10:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.seo-marketing.koeln\/viral-marketing\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T09:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:36:18","slug":"viral-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/viral-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Viral marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h2\">What does <strong>viral marketing<\/strong> mean?<\/h2>\n\n<p>Viral marketing is a <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/was-bedeutet-display-marketing\/\">marketing strategy<\/a> that aims to spread an advertising message like a virus in the shortest possible time. One example of viral marketing is the use of various social media channels. Viral marketing is also known as &#8220;word of mouth&#8221;, i.e. the verbal passing on of information about a service or product. In German, this is known as word of mouth.   <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h3\"><strong>Objectives of viral marketing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n<p>Viral marketing wants its advertising message to have the same effect as a virus. This means that the greatest possible number of people should be brought into contact with the advertising message or &#8220;infected&#8221; in the shortest possible time.  People should then show enthusiasm for the advertised brand or product and inform other people about this product or brand.  <\/p>\n\n<p>In addition to spreading the advertising message, the viral campaign can also serve to strengthen the brand, which can have a positive effect on the company&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/was-sind-ranking-faktoren\/\">ranking<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p>In the long term, the campaign should of course increase the company&#8217;s turnover through new <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/target-group\/\">customers<\/a>. If these customers continue to promote the company&#8217;s offers via word of mouth, the company&#8217;s turnover will continue to rise steadily. <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h4\"><strong>Seeding &#8211; The dissemination possibilities of viral marketing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n<p>Free information materials such as white papers, advertising games, videos, free products or <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/was-sind-die-besten-keyword-tools-zum-recherchieren\/\">tools<\/a> are particularly suitable for viral marketing. It is important that these are placed and distributed in a targeted manner. This is done by what is known as &#8220;seeding&#8221;. This means that the advertising message is sown or scattered, so to speak.    <\/p>\n\n<p>For a successful seeding strategy, the following points must be in place for the viral campaign to be successful:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Distribution should only take place on the relevant platforms. This means in the places where the <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/target-group\/\">target group<\/a> is active. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Distribution must be both target group-oriented and strategic.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A lively exchange of communication must take place on the selected platforms, e.g. chats, forums, newsgroups, portals, blogs, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>Social media channels are a particularly good distribution channel for viral <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/was-bedeutet-display-marketing\/\">marketing<\/a>. Thousands of users become aware of the product within a very short time and can &#8220;like&#8221; or &#8220;share&#8221; it, which means that even more users get to know the product. <\/p>\n\n<p>In order to gain more trust, authenticity and authority, it makes sense to address the opinion leaders, the so-called influencers, of the respective topic area at the beginning of each seeding process. Through their advertising messages, potential customers immediately have more trust in the product and the reach of word of mouth also increases. <\/p>\n\n<p>In addition, influencers have a great influence on their circle of interested parties, which generally appeals to very different age groups. This means that the product is automatically presented to several <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/target-group\/\">target groups<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h5\"><strong>Advantages<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n<p>As a rule, other people take over the distribution of information for you. This makes it possible to generate a high profit with low costs. However, this depends on the respective planning, implementation and the campaign itself. After all, the conception and selection of suitable distribution channels also cost time and money.   <\/p>\n\n<p>It is much more likely that the recommendations will be noticed, consumed or, in the best case, passed on, as the recommendations are passed on by friends, acquaintances, relatives or even colleagues. After all, these groups are generally trusted more than the company itself.  <\/p>\n\n<p>When it comes to viral marketing, the speed with which advertising is carried out is of course also important. The Internet in particular is known for the fact that a lot of information reaches a wide variety of people in a very short time, provided the company uses the right contacts and channels. <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h6\"><strong>Disadvantages<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n<p>A viral campaign can never be completely controlled, even if the <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/target-group\/\">target group<\/a> is defined at the start of the campaign. As soon as consumers react negatively to the product or message, this can have a lasting negative impact on the company and even damage its image. After all, negative impressions are also quickly passed on.  <\/p>\n\n<p>Measuring the success of viral <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/was-bedeutet-display-marketing\/\">marketing<\/a> is also difficult, as it often involves a great deal of research.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h7\"><strong>Proof of the success of viral marketing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n<p>Evaluating success is not particularly easy, as the campaign can only be controlled to a certain extent. However, success or failure can be measured with the help of certain <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/google-analytics\/\">tracking tools<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Social media monitoring tools:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>Facebook and Co. offer companies free analysis options that provide very detailed data on displacement. There are also numerous other free tools to test the impact in social networks. <\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Web analysis tools:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>It is possible to use <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/google-analytics\/\">Google Analytics<\/a> to find out how visitors became aware of the company.<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Clipping services:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>Both online and print media can be searched for company news using these paid services. There are numerous different service providers for this. <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h8\"><strong>Success factors<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n<p>Viral campaigns are not a sure-fire success, even if the advertising message is spread via the Internet community. Like any other marketing campaign, they require clear planning, strategic implementation of the measures and a clear concept. <\/p>\n\n<p>The following factors in particular influence success:<\/p>\n\n<p>1. a unique and creative idea<\/p>\n\n<p>The idea forms the basis of every campaign. It is important to always keep in mind that your target group always receives added value from the offer. After all, it must be worthwhile for the potential customer to report on it and spread the word. It is not always necessary to focus on the service or product, but the message itself is often used as bait,   <\/p>\n\n<p>Viral marketing is often referred to as &#8220;guerrilla marketing&#8221;, which is also a marketing strategy. Compared to viral marketing, guerrilla marketing focuses on the surprise effect. The two marketing strategies are not the same. Viral <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/landing-page\/\">marketing<\/a>, on the other hand, offers an opportunity to implement the guerrilla idea.   <\/p>\n\n<p>2. clear goal, clear approach<\/p>\n\n<p>A clear goal includes, for example, choosing the first multipliers and planning which channels will be used for distribution and when. This is particularly important as viral campaigns can only be controlled to a very limited extent, if at all, and it also simplifies the measurement of success.  <\/p>\n\n<p>3. simple dissemination options<\/p>\n\n<p>Recommendation functions of social networks or easy embedding options for videos or graphics can make distribution as simple as possible.<\/p>\n\n<p>4. prospect of profits<\/p>\n\n<p>To further encourage users to share a news item, video or whitepaper, the prospect of profits is particularly recommended.  <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h9\"><strong>Examples<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n<p>Videos play a very important role in viral marketing. According to studies, users can react 60,000 times faster to an <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/alt-tag-and-title-tag\/\">image<\/a> than to text. A video can therefore be quickly captured visually, which means that it remains well in the user&#8217;s memory. This is why many viral campaigns use videos as a basis. But particularly unusual methods can also attract attention:    <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h10\"><strong>Ice Bucket Challenge<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n<p>The Ice Bucket Challenge mainly involved celebrities pouring a bucket filled with ice-cold water over their heads. This challenge initially only spread via social networks until the Golf Channel Morning Show reported on it in mid-2014. From then on, the Ice Bucket Challenge was all over the media.  <\/p>\n\n<p>EDEKA also ran other viral campaigns, the so-called &#8220;Supergeil&#8221; campaign, which became famous through a video on YouTube with over 12 million clicks. Another example is the Moorhuhn game from 1999, which advertised the Scottish whiskey producer Johnnie Walker.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A marketing strategy that aims to spread an advertising message in the shortest possible time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[304],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lexicon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8505"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45160,"href":"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8505\/revisions\/45160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}