It is said that there will be approximately 100 million SNS users in Japan as of 2022. Using SNS for corporate branding and acquiring new customers is important list of armenia consumer email not only for BtoC companies but also for BtoB companies.
Viral marketing is an effective way to increase awareness through social media. By taking appropriate measures, you can increase awareness of your company at a lower cost than advertising. It is also useful for improving your brand image and building trust with users, so it is a marketing method used by many companies.
In this article, we will explain the overview of viral marketing, how to create it, and provide examples for marketing personnel at B2B and SaaS companies.
What is Viral Marketing?
Viral marketing is a marketing technique that aims to spread information naturally, just like a "virus" spreads through word of mouth and sharing.
The following social media platforms are often used for viral marketing:
X (formerly Twitter)
LINE
Have you ever seen blog posts with buttons like "Tell a friend" or "Share on social media"? Installing such buttons is also a form of viral marketing.
Development and background
It is said that the first company to use viral marketing was a small American company called Hotline.
To promote their new email service, Hotmail, Hotline included the phrase "Get your own free Hotmail at www.hotmail.com" in every email, and as a result, they went from 20,000 users to 1 million in just one year .
Subsequently, the following now-famous services expanded their market share by making full use of viral marketing.
Facebook (launched in 2004)
YouTube (2005)
X (formerly Twitter) (2006)
The success of these services has served as a model for companies around the world, and with the spread of social media, viral marketing has become used by a wide range of businesses.
The purpose of viral marketing
The goal of viral marketing is to increase awareness of your company without excessive promotion and to gain trust and support from users.
Viral marketing involves posting quality content and waiting for users to respond and spread it. As content that doesn't feel "advertising" is shared more widely, users will naturally trust you more.
If you can get the response you want, you can increase awareness and build your brand at a lower cost than advertising.
There are many B2B and SaaS companies that are troubled by the large amount of advertising costs that occur continuously. Viral marketing that utilizes free SNS can be an effective measure for companies that want to reduce advertising costs.
