Unlocking the Power of Virality: How to Create a Product That Spreads Like Wildfire
Have you ever wondered what makes a product go viral? Is it just a matter of luck, or is there a secret formula to creating a product that spreads like wildfire? In this article, we’ll dive into the world of product virality, exploring the different types of virality, and providing actionable tactics to help you boost the virality of your own product.
What is Product Virality?
Product virality refers to the phenomenon where a product gains rapid and widespread popularity primarily through user referrals, word of mouth, or inherent sharing features. It’s a growth mechanism in which existing users play a pivotal role in acquiring new users, amplifying the product’s reach organically. The foundation of a viral growth channel is your current users, whose actions lead to the acquisition of brand-new users.
3 Types of Product Virality
Virality can mean different things for different products. We can bucket most of them into three main types of virality:
Word of Mouth
Word of mouth happens when users talk about your product without being asked to, either online or offline. This can include mentioning your product on social media, writing articles about it, or publishing videos featuring your product. People usually do this for one of three reasons: to grow their own social presence, to boost their ego, or to share rare information with a wider audience.
Invites
Invites are the easiest type of virality to build into your product and also the easiest to track. We talk about invite virality when users actively and intentionally try to bring their friends, colleagues, or even random people to the product. There are three main reasons for users to do so: because the product is better with friends, they are rewarded for doing so, or it’s a part of the natural function of the product.
Experiential Virality
Experiential virality happens when one person using the product leads to other people experiencing the product, even when they don’t talk about it or invite others. We can distinguish two types of experiential virality: actively shared and passively seen.
How to Improve Product Virality
Now that we’ve covered what virality is and what types of product virality are out there, let’s discuss a few tactics for boosting the virality of your product:
Create Social Features
Create social features to encourage invitations. This tactic is relevant for products used primarily by a single person. For example, Uber introduced a feature allowing users to share their trip details and estimated ETA, encouraging users to send links to their friends.
Make it Easy to Share Content
Make it ridiculously easy and frictionless to share content with friends. Let’s take another look at YouTube’s sharing feature: with the press of a button, the user can easily copy a link or even send a premade message via WhatsApp, email, etc.
Make Users Feel Good About Sharing
Help users share things that make them feel or look good in front of colleagues. Some examples include achieving a new level of language proficiency, hitting a workout strike, making a donation, or achieving something meaningful.
Give Incentives
Incentivize your users to invite friends, colleagues, or even random people to use your app. For example, Revolut gives users actual money for referring new people to use their product.
Boost Word of Mouth with Influencers
Identify influencers relevant to your target audience and ask them to talk about your product. Odds are some people will start resharing or repeating the message, boosting the word-of-mouth virality of your offer.
Create a Great Experience
Last but not least: just create a truly remarkable user experience. To put it simply, if your product does a fantastic job at solving user needs and improving their lives, there’s a higher chance they’ll talk about it or encourage their friends to also get the benefits.
By implementing these tactics and focusing on creating a valuable, usable, and enjoyable product, you can unlock the power of virality and watch your product spread like wildfire.