Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that existing social networks use viral processes to increase brand awareness or other company goals, such as increasing sales… Like the method of virus spreading in computers and humans, of course, this issue can be in two ways orally or through the effects of internet networks. According to Levinson (2003), viral marketing is one of the most powerful guerrilla marketing weapons. In fact, viral marketing exploits existing social networks by encouraging consumers to share product information with their friends. Also, viral marketing is a type of word-of-mouth transmission of messages by people, through which some marketing messages related to the company, brand, or company’s products are spread widely among the public through public media tools, often (Internet). .

The difference between viral advertising and viral marketing:

Researchers (Eckler and Rogers, 2010; Porter and Glaren, 2006) consider viral advertising as a subset of viral marketing. Viral marketing is the same as traditional marketing in the combination of marketing components (product, price, promotion and distribution), but viral advertising is one of the promotion components.

The difference between viral marketing and other marketing communications:

Unlike other marketing communications that have advertising content and are a type of marketer-consumer communication, word-of-mouth advertising is created by consumers themselves and willingly, which is transferred to other consumers through different channels. In viral advertising, marketers use an attractive and effective message to stimulate consumers to spread word of mouth. Also, viral marketing is stronger and faster than any other advertisement.

Problems with viral marketing:

Brand name control: One of the problems with viral marketing is that the company has no control over its brand name.

Growth without a chart: Viral marketing can lead to unpredictable growth paths.

Lack of measurement: The company cannot always track the person who receives the emails and what they do.

Threats to personal relationships: If this type of marketing works poorly, this type of retargeting can damage the marketer’s position in a large way.

Ways to overcome virus problems:

• Creating a strong brand name that can withstand interpretations or inventing an approach and solution that does not have a brand name.
• Choosing and using a virus that has a lot of value and limiting relationships.
• Getting to know the rules and regulations and training the fans of the company.
• Expansion, regulation and targeting of viruses of value.

Expansion, regulation and targeting of viruses of value. If the main goal of e-mail activities is to create a brand name, in order to achieve this goal, this method can be used.