Viral email marketing is just a small but most compelling part of viral marketing. Since viral content is anything people may want to share across their networks, the term is frequently used in social media contexts. 

It generally means the crowd spreads the news for you. As a result, viral marketing is advertising that expands by “word of mouth” or personal endorsement. Viral email marketing initiatives try to increase exposure and engagement by encouraging readers to forward the email/message or take some other comparable action.

In this post, we will talk about what is viral email marketing & show you 5 examples of successful viral email marketing so you get ideas for your own campaigns. 

What is Viral Email Marketing?

Viral email marketing is a type of email marketing that aims to get emails forwarded widely and swiftly — it can be via forwarding, sharing screenshots on social media, or asking friends to sign up for newsletters.

You can execute a viral email campaign by simply sharing an incredibly lucrative offer to your subscribers & incentivizing them to spread the word about it. It could be a sneak peek at a new service/product launch. Whatever it may be, viral marketing has the potential to be a very effective technique to grow awareness and revenue. 

Examples of Viral Email Marketing

Viral Email Marketing Campaign 1: Buzzfeed

According to studies, the hilarious content is more likely to go viral.

Of course, humor isn’t the only feeling that makes people want to share. The popularity of “false news” nowadays is primarily due to anger-fueled spreading.

We enjoy sharing our feelings with others who share our feelings. As a result, content that elicits an emotive response has social value. It reflects highly on you if you were the one who posted the meme that everyone is talking about.

Buzzfeed has taken what makes its web material so attractive and shareable and dispersed it via email in this example. By delivering their favored content straight to their subscriber’s inboxes, it became successful in keeping them engaged and laughing.

Viral Email Marketing Campaign 2: Mejuri

The majority of us enjoy a good deal and the one more thing we enjoy more than a good deal is the sense of being a part of an exclusive club!

Because it provides practical significance, the aforementioned email from jewelry designer Mejuri became viral. Getting a sneak peek at the sale items can allow you to purchase what you want at a lower price before everyone else.

The second reason why it became viral is that it has a social value or social currency. The concept of “social currency” makes people desire to be someone who benefits others. You value early access to sale items, and some of your friends will undoubtedly value it as well.

Furthermore, the email below provides an incentive to act quickly before the special rate is revealed to the general public.

Viral Email Marketing Campaign 3: Poncho

Since there is a lot of information online going head to head for our attention, you’ll have to always be creative to get past the “scroll on” instinct and into the domain of conscious thought.

Advertisers spend more time brainstorming concepts that they hope will pique the public’s curiosity and are encouraged to share them.

Poncho’s fully customized weather forecast is a terrific example of clever content that actually works in the mail setting. It’s amusing and individualized (as evidenced by the graph above…), and it forces you to give heed.

But why not simply post it on Facebook or other social media sites? Why should you use email?

It’s a matter of faith. Most of our Facebook friends, followers on Twitter, and other social media interactions are loose links. Many people have various perspectives about their email messages. We assume that if a friend or acquaintance takes the time to forward a specific email to us, it must be significant to them and useful to us.

As a result, whereas social shares boost exposure, email has a significant role in increasing conversion; as we all know, trust motivates people to take action.

Viral Email Marketing Campaign 4: Think With Google

If you really want your email subscribers to forward your emails, ask them to do so and simplify the procedure by including social sharing buttons in each email.

A post can easily become viral on the internet as well as in inboxes. Making the facts public is one fantastic approach to accomplish this. For example, you can talk about how many people have bought from you or what kind of results they’ve achieved by buying from you. People are more inclined to copy what everyone else is doing!

Have a look at the template below from Think with Google. It can be shared in a variety of ways:

A strong call to action to learn more about the company’s services. The newsletter can be shared online across various social media sites thanks to prominent social media links.

A link that is specifically designed to change your recipients into subscribers or best customers.

Viral Email Marketing Campaign 5: Wix 50% discount 

The email form Wix includes a timer that indicates for how long the discount will be accessible & it is created for a specific niche.

Viral email marketing tactics require personalization. The more niche-specific a message is, there are great chances that it will be forwarded to others with similar interests. The time ticking clock will let the readers know that this offer will soon be out of their hands.

Even if the readers are not  the one interested they will share it with someone in their circle who they think might find this offer helpful. To make it more attractive, they even list the perks buyers will be getting like free custom domain for a year. 

Bottom Line 

To sum up, viral email marketing enables businesses to effectively sell or tell people about their products by reaching out to customers who would otherwise ignore traditional email marketing campaigns. 

Viral email marketing allows companies to access new markets and perhaps extend their existing customers, all thanks to its expanded reach and ways of attracting the audience. So, all you need is a lucrative offer, a targeted audience, the right time, and a good email template to make your email marketing campaign go viral.