6 Viral Marketing Tools Proven To Drive Traffic and Leads Fast + Tips to Run a Successful Online Contest

Before we get to the 5 best viral marketing tools in 2021, let me tell you a brief story so that you know you’re getting sound advice.

Not too long ago, I played a significant role at a popular viral marketing company called Queue Technologies. Some of you I’m sure either heard of, saw, or even used it when it was available to the public.

Queue was a viral marketing platform to run contests, giveaways, and sweepstakes. We were known for our live and interactive leaderboard that had lots of cool gamification and features built into it. 

Many of the most notable digital marketers (e.g. Neil Patel), influencers, and marketing agencies were using our product, along with a few notable pop-stars, such as Bruno Mars.

The gamified contest platform produced some pretty amazing results. In fact, more than 70% of the campaigns we ran on our platform went viral. 

And I can say that I know for a fact that a couple of the tools on this list will openly admit that Queue inspired the development of their products, which is awesome.

Speaking of awesome, here’s an old dashboard from one of our campaigns:

Above you’ll see that our client had a list of about 9K people that they invited into the contest directly. The “Viral Signups” all came from those 9,355 “Direct Signups” sharing the news about the contest.

That means our client came into the contest with 9K contacts and left the contest with 40K contacts. And they achieved those numbers in less than one month.

Not bad, right?

This is what the right viral marketing tools accompanied by well thought out campaigns can do for your business.

So, want to 4X your lead list in less than a month?

Take a look through these 6 viral marketing tools, get creative, and align your strategy with your brand, and you’ll be well on your way. I’ve broken them down by the following:

1. Make Facebook posts go viral
2. Sweepstakes and rewards
3. Contests and giveaways
4. Sponsored messages and chat blasts
5. Ecommerce store referral engine
6. SMS text message blaster

#1. Viral Marketing Tools to Make Facebook Posts Go Viral

Facebook Comment Guards are a great tool to make all of your organic posts go viral. And marketers have had nothing but success with Customers.ai Facebook Comment Guards. 

They’re easy to set up once and then have it run fully automated on all of your Facebook posts. 

Let’s say you just wrote a blog post and now you want to promote it. Here’s all you have to do:

1. Ask a question related to your post
2. Have people guess the answer in the comments
3. Auto-send a private response with your Customers.ai chatbot via Messenger

The more people that respond, the more visibility the post will get in your news feed. The best part is that you automatically capture a lead and user data every time someone replies to your private message. Additionally, those contacts have now opted-in to receive promotional messages from your Messenger chatbot.

Next time you create some content that you would love to see go viral, try the following:

• Ask a click-bait like question, such as, “Name your 10 favorite bands, go!” People love answering questions about themselves, it’s in our nature, and this always works. 
• Then, when engagement one of your posts is well above average, boost your Facebook post to ensure that it goes viral.

So, once you find a question with super high engagement, get it in front of as many people as you can by boosting it, and you’re guaranteed to capture a ton of leads in a very short period of time.

Customers.ai Comment Guards also work great if you want to run a Facebook giveaway or a Facebook contest using Messenger chatbots.

#2. Viral Marketing Tools for Sweepstakes and Rewards

UpViral is a sweepstake, rewards, and waitlist campaign platform that reminds me of Queue. 

The platform is known for sweepstakes and comes with pre-built campaign templates, automated trigger emails, real-time fraud detection, and unlockable milestones to keep participants motivated.

A couple of other features that tell me UpViral has taken the additional steps to create a legitimate sweepstakes platform is that the campaigns are optimized for mobile and it supports all languages. 

Interactive leaderboards that involve gamification in addition to legal and fraud detection features are time-consuming for developers. So seeing that they’ve gone the extra mile with other features tells me a lot.

UpViral users can also access sales tools on the platform, which is great. This helps to increase ROI and lower ad costs. 

Tips for running a successful contest or sweepstakes

On a side note, remember that if you want to run a great online contest, you need to already have an audience. You can’t expect to generate enough campaign velocity and social sharing from just a few hundred people. 

Ideally, you want to be able to front-load your campaign with at least 5 thousand participants. That means you should be very confident that you have at least 5 thousand contacts that will jump into the sweepstakes without hesitation because they love your brand.

And here’s the strategy behind my online contest secret: Only invite your most valuable and engaged customers into the campaign in the first week or two. Tell them that they’re getting a free head start on the rest of the competition because you value them as customers. 

This strategy works great for a few reasons:

• You’re building a stronger relationship with your most loyal customers.
• The campaign will get off the ground quickly with an engaged audience.
• When you invite the remainder of your audience into the campaign one to two weeks after it has started, it will look like a ton of activity is taking place. They don’t know that it started a week ago, so people must be going crazy for your brand, and the contest must be worth their time.
• The velocity of your campaign will skyrocket because all the new entrants and referrals will desperately try to catch up to the competition.

So, remember to front-load your campaigns with your best customers, then invite the rest of your contacts into the campaign to make the contest go viral.

#3. Viral Marketing Tools for Contests & Giveaways

Gleam is a contest and giveaway platform that makes it simple for entrants to follow your brand on social media, visit your YouTube channel, subscribe to your newsletter, and more.

Gleam does a few things that other contest platforms don’t, such as verifying that actions have taken place. 

The biggest problem with contest platforms is the amount of people trying to cheat the system. So, by verifying the entries to social networks (where allowed). This reduces the number of steps required to enter, saves you time & drives higher quality entries into your campaign.

The other issue that’s plagued platforms like Gleam, Vyper, and others, is that social media channels really came down hard on third-party platforms like my own at Queue. So the amount of actions you can actually have people take has become increasingly limited.

So, if you’re okay running a contest on Facebook as opposed to on your own site, or a hosted services site, you should seriously consider using Facebook Messenger to run a contest or giveaway. 

You’ll be sacrificing some of the engagement on other social media platforms, but I promise it’s just as effective, costs less, and can be launched much faster.

#4. Viral Marketing Tools: Sponsored Messages & Chat Blasts

The next time you have a piece of content or you’re running a campaign that you want to go viral and you want to activate your audience, Sponsored Messages via Messenger is a super-effective way to do it.

You can send Sponsored Messages to your audience via the Facebook Messenger Promo Blaster by Customers.ai whenever you want. 

So, next time you need to rally your audience to help a campaign go viral here’s how to do it with minimal spending and super high engagement.

With Sponsored Messages, your potential audience is automatically narrowed down to users who’ve already engaged with your brand or bot in Messenger. 

If you haven’t already done so, start by growing your Messenger contact list with the following easy to use tools from Customers.ai: 

• Facebook post autoresponders
• Click-to-Messenger ads
• Coupon lead magnets
• Add Messenger live chat widget to your website

Once you have an audience, they’re at your disposal via Messenger for all your big campaigns. 

Facebook Sponsored Messages can go viral because there’s a high probability of your audience seeing and engaging with your content, which many of them will subsequently share with their audience.

Additionally, don’t forget that Sponsored Messages are sent out via Messenger, meaning it’s a chat experience. Create a fun and automated chatbot dialogue along with a Messenger drip sequence to guarantee you’ll get the engagement needed to go viral.  

Learn more about how to energize your audience for your viral campaign here: Facebook Sponsored Messages ads.

#5. Viral Marketing Tools for Ecommerce Referrals

Word of mouth is the most viral marketing tool your brand can have going for it. 

A recent study by Nielsen reported that 92% of consumers are influenced more by suggestions from family and friends than they are from ads. And that’s why ReferralCandy has had enough success to make our list of viral marketing tools.

ReferralCandy is a referral generating platform that encourages your customers to tell share your products and services with their connections. And it does so by utilizing the power of incentives.

Here’s how ReferralCandy works…

When a customer buys a product from your ecommerce store, they automatically receive a referral code that they can share with their connections. Additionally, when a referral makes a purchase with that referral code, two things happen:

1. The friend gets a discount on their purchase, and 
2. The referrer earns rewards from your online store.

That’s a win-win that never gets old.

As for the rewards you give your customers, you can choose either coupons or cash. Both work great.

ReferralCandy is best suited for small to medium-sized businesses that don’t have the budget for designers and programmers to create custom web pages or custom referral programs.

For more software options in the ecommerce space, check out our list of ecommerce marketing tools.

#6. Viral Marketing Tools: Bulk SMS Text Messages

Similar to how you can use Sponsored Messages to rally your brand advocates for all your biggest marketing campaigns, you can do the same with bulk SMS text message marketing.

Text message marketing is one of the most valuable viral marketing tools you can have in your arsenal due to the velocity and engagement it can provide a campaign.

And the great part about this is that you don’t need yet another tool to execute an SMS blast. Using Customers.ai OmniChat technology, you can engage with your audience with chat blasts in real-time via: 

• Live chat on your website 
• Facebook Messenger 
• SMS text messages
• Instagram 
• And other popular web chat applications.

However, SMS text message marketing is incredibly effective on its own.

And if you’re running a campaign that you want to go viral, one of the key elements to reaching that viral coefficient is velocity. Meaning the rate at which your campaign is consumed and/or shared by consumers will dramatically affect the results.

So, why SMS then? Because SMS has by far the highest open and engagement rates of any kind of media. Take a look at the following SMS marketing statistics which prove this point: 

Additionally, the average response time to business text messages is just 90 seconds. Compare that to an average 90 minute response time for business email, and you’ll understand why I’m emphasizing the importance of SMS for your next viral marketing campaign.

In order to make sure you get all the power you possibly can from SMS, check out these 20 SMS marketing tools at your disposal with Customers.ai.

Need More Marketing Software?

If you’re looking for more marketing tools, we have you covered! Browse through hundreds of more marketing tools in the following lists:

• Free marketing software
• Tools for digital marketing agencies,
• Marketing automation tools
• Trending digital marketing tools
• Social media marketing tools
• Ecommerce marketing tools
• Instagram marketing tools
• B2B marketing tools

Important Next Steps

Ready to start with and/or upgrade your chatbot marketing game?

• Start with SMS marketing campaigns by building a free Customers.ai OmniChat™ chatbot. Get Customers.ai for free today.
• Talk and learn about chatbots with other enthusiasts. Join Customers.ai Island, a Facebook group of over 35k marketers and entrepreneurs that are ready to support you.
• Advance your marketing performance with Chatbot University, a free chatbot tutorial and training area for chat marketers.

See all the tools in Customers.ai’s multi-channel chatbot platform by signing-up for a free Customers.ai account.

Viral Marketing Tools FAQ

What are viral marketing tools?

Viral marketing tools are platforms or software that help marketers create, promote, and track content designed to go viral. These tools support strategies for expanding reach quickly through social sharing, engagement, and audience interaction.

Why are viral marketing tools important?

Viral marketing tools are essential because they enable brands to amplify their message, rapidly increase brand visibility, and reach new audiences cost-effectively by leveraging organic sharing and engagement.

What types of viral marketing tools are there?

Viral marketing tools can be categorized into content creation, social media management, analytics, and engagement tools. Content creation tools help design shareable posts, social media tools manage campaigns, analytics tools track engagement, and engagement tools boost interaction with gamified experiences.

How do viral marketing tools help create shareable content?

Viral marketing tools offer templates, design features, and social trends insights that help marketers create visually appealing, engaging, and timely content. For example, Canva provides easy-to-use design templates optimized for social sharing.

What are some examples of viral marketing tools for social media?

Examples include:

• Canva: For creating eye-catching visuals.
• BuzzSumo: For identifying popular topics and trends.
• Hootsuite: For managing and scheduling posts.
• Sprout Social: For tracking engagement and mentions.

How do analytics tools contribute to viral marketing?

Analytics tools help monitor how well content is performing, track shares, measure reach, and analyze engagement rates, enabling marketers to see what resonates with audiences and optimize future content accordingly.

What is the role of influencer marketing tools in viral campaigns?

Influencer marketing tools help brands connect with influencers who can amplify their message. Tools like Upfluence and AspireIQ allow brands to find, collaborate with, and track influencer partnerships, helping reach wider, relevant audiences.

How does BuzzSumo support viral marketing efforts?

BuzzSumo helps identify trending topics and popular content by showing what’s being widely shared across the web. This insight allows marketers to create content that aligns with trending themes, increasing its likelihood of going viral.

What are gamification tools, and how do they aid viral marketing?

Gamification tools, like Gleam and Rafflecopter, encourage users to engage with content through contests, giveaways, and rewards. By creating incentives for sharing and participation, these tools help expand reach and encourage organic engagement.

How can social listening tools benefit viral marketing?

Social listening tools, such as Brandwatch and Sprout Social, monitor brand mentions and trending conversations. By staying informed on what’s popular and what audiences care about, marketers can create timely, relevant content that is more likely to go viral.

What are some popular content creation tools for viral marketing?

Popular tools include:

• Canva: For graphic design.
• Adobe Spark: For animated posts.
• Lumen5: For video creation.
• Giphy: For creating shareable GIFs. These tools simplify the process of creating eye-catching content designed for social sharing.

How do scheduling tools like Hootsuite aid in viral marketing?

Scheduling tools help marketers post at optimal times to reach the largest audience. They allow for consistent posting and engagement tracking, which can help increase a post’s chances of going viral.

How can A/B testing tools improve viral marketing campaigns?

A/B testing tools, such as Google Optimize or Optimizely, allow marketers to test variations of headlines, images, and calls-to-action to see which version resonates more with audiences. This helps refine content to maximize engagement.

What is the role of SEO tools in viral marketing?

SEO tools help identify keywords and trends that people are searching for, allowing marketers to align content with what’s popular. Tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush can help create shareable content that ranks higher in search results, increasing visibility.

Can viral marketing tools help with video content creation?

Yes, tools like Lumen5 and Animoto make video content creation simple by offering templates and easy editing. Videos are highly shareable and often perform well on social media, making them effective for viral marketing.

How can interactive content tools aid in viral marketing?

Interactive content tools like Typeform (for quizzes) and Outgrow (for calculators and assessments) engage users actively, encouraging them to share their results. This type of content is often highly shareable and helps boost engagement.

How do viral marketing tools help with real-time engagement?

Some tools, like Facebook Live or Instagram Live, allow marketers to connect with audiences in real-time, increasing engagement and allowing viewers to share live sessions instantly, which boosts visibility and reach.

What are hashtag tracking tools, and how do they support viral marketing?

Hashtag tracking tools like Keyhole monitor the popularity and reach of specific hashtags. This insight helps marketers understand which tags are trending and can help brands align with popular conversations, increasing the chance of virality.

What role do email marketing tools play in viral marketing?

Email marketing tools like Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign enable brands to share viral content directly with subscribers. By including shareable elements, like referral links or social share buttons, emails can encourage recipients to pass along the content.

How does a tool like Canva enhance visual content for viral marketing?

Canva provides templates optimized for social media and trending design elements, allowing marketers to quickly create visually appealing content that stands out and encourages sharing.

How can contest tools boost viral reach?

Contest tools like Rafflecopter allow brands to create giveaways where participants earn entries by sharing content or tagging friends, creating a network effect that rapidly expands reach and boosts brand visibility.

What is referral marketing, and how do tools help in viral marketing?

Referral marketing encourages existing customers to share a brand with their network in exchange for rewards. Tools like ReferralCandy facilitate this process by tracking referrals and managing incentives, helping brands expand their reach organically.

How do landing page builders contribute to viral marketing?

Landing page builders like Unbounce allow marketers to create focused, conversion-optimized pages that support viral campaigns. These pages are often used as destinations for viral content, such as a contest or giveaway, driving traffic and engagement.

What is the importance of analytics in viral marketing?

Analytics tools, like Google Analytics, track the performance of viral campaigns by providing data on traffic sources, engagement, and conversions. These insights help marketers understand what content drives the best results, refining future strategies.

How does content repurposing support viral marketing?

Content repurposing tools, like Buffer or Lately, help brands recycle successful content into different formats, such as turning a popular blog post into social media snippets or videos. This expands the reach of high-performing content and increases the chance of it going viral on multiple platforms.