What is the difference between viral marketing and content marketing?

Viral marketing is any marketing technique that induces websites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users, creating potentially exponential growth in the message's visibility and effect. There are three criteria for the basic marketing of viruses. the messenger, the message and the environment. All three must be executed effectively for a viral message to succeed.

Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action. More specifically, content marketing refers to sharing knowledge, advice or entertainment in a consumable format, including:

- Blog articles

- Videos

- Podcasts

- Social media marketing

- Emails

- Webinars

Viral Marketing is for me largely unfocused compared to Content Marketing which should be on point, specific and tailored for the prescibed / desired target audience.

Viral marketing is when people are encouraged to share content on certain products and services via internet. Content marketing is when a company promotes products and ideas through specific posts via different platforms of social media

Viral Marketing aims and achieves to be a popular content, recognized and shared by many 

Content Marketing is promoting original content by one self

Viral Marketing is an approach to introduce the products throu advertising or use related information to media or other form of information to attact customer.

 

content marketing is the strategic form use to give the customer more knowledge about the product he is buying and details are all implies in the content.

Le marketing viral est un processus de propagation d'un message commercial à propos d'une offre ou d'un service dont le principe n'est pas le destinataire et qui est décodé. On parle de marketing voiture virale le message se propage tel un virus dans le cercle de connaissances et de relations du destinataire.

Le marketing de contenu, appelé parfois aussi stratégie éditoriale, est une stratégie marketing qui implique la création et diffusion, par une entreprise, de contenus médias afin d’acquérir de nouveaux clients.

Viral marketing focuses on short term wins which can lead to an influx of fans and views.

Content marketing builds a story and personality for your brand over a period of time, creating brand loyalists and making your brand part of the customer's life. 

Viral marketing without effective content marketing is futile.

Content marketing stands apart on its own and has become an essential part of the marketing funnel. 

Viral Marketing focuses more on viral content for example " The World Record Egg" That boomed in early 2019. Content Marketing focuses on providing valuable information to the users and following these steps:

1- Attract

2- Entertain

3- Educate

4- Convince

Viral marketing or viral advertising is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people in their social networks, much in the same way that a virus spreads from one person to another.

Just like the word viral, it is spread like a virus from one person through another person and it is widespread and inexpensive for example, the "WORLD RECORD EGG" on Instagram.

whereas Content marketing is more traditional and core to business and marketing, it is the process in which creative content is created to attract or engage with the specific target audience. for example, Coca-Cola used the "Share a Coke" campaign.

Viral Marketing is mass marketing most popularly thru social media. Where as Content Marketing is focussing on a topic / technology / product and is aimed at specific target segments