Having a piece of content or a campaign go viral is every brand’s dream come true and even the thought of having thousands of people viewing your content is amazing but with such a wealth of content online, it has become harder for brands to ‘go viral’ and engage the audience in the same way it used to. However, in this article you will find some very useful steps which can be taken into consideration to increase your chance of going viral.
But what is viral marketing, anyway?
Well think of it as how virus spreads from one person to another, when it really catches on, it spreads quickly. While that’s not what anyone wants in a public health context, but in viral marketing, that’s exactly what the goal is.
Interesting, isn’t it?
In theory, viral marketing is no different than any other marketing campaign. And as the term implies, ‘viral’ refers to a piece of content – be it a meme, blog, video, infographic or contest – which has been liked and shared innumerable times by a large number of audiences within a short span of time.
So, what makes something go viral?
Answering this question is like predicting when Covid will end.
Many brands hope for a campaign or content to go viral — meaning it’s recognized and widely-accepted by their audience, but there’s no guaranteed formula for it. However, if you recall some of your favorite viral marketing campaigns, you’ll notice some common features and after analyzing the insights of various viral campaigns, we have come to the conclusion of which factors help make something go viral.
Know your audience
In order to create viral content, you must understand your target audience – their likes, dislikes, interests, etc. as it is difficult to create viral content that appeals to everyone, this is the reason why most of the campaigns tend to focus on certain group of people. Once you’ve picked your audience, research on what tends to attract them and what does not.
Create emotional appeal
Try to create emotionally-driven content that people can’t resist sharing with others. Content that evokes emotions of awe, excitement, surprise etc. and that offers immense value to your readers is likely to go viral.
Offer content valuable enough to share
People prefer to share content on their social network that is organic, personable and relatable to them. Focus on breaking down complex information into bits, or into visual content, so that it is easily digestible.
Use powerful visuals
Make your audience understand your content through visuals because it is easy to process and distribute. It will also catch more people’s attention, as a video or an infographic tends to be more interesting.
But let’s be honest – Not every piece of content you create will go viral, you may fail several times before you succeed, but by taking these points into consideration and implementing them you’ll have a much better chance of getting your content shared and going viral!!
But why do you need your content to go viral? why does it matter so much?
The answer seems obvious, doesn’t it?
If you create content that connects your brand to people’s emotion, offers them insightful information, then the chance of them sharing your campaign or content increases.
Otherwise, it is likely to go unnoticed.
And when they do, more people see it, which automatically drives traffic to your website and then eventually these when people become leads, your conversions surge. In other words, it helps your business, revenue, and overall ROI.
Conclusion
There is no roadmap for making your content “go viral” but ultimately, for viral marketing to actually work, it all comes down to the power of people’s emotions and the ability to affect it so that it can be shared with others as well who are like-minded. In particular, create short and simple yet insightful content, keep it highly visual, leverage user-generated content.
In the marketing arena, there is no “one-size-fits all” approach to social media strategies and while creating a viral marketing campaign, Vijaysur – The Media Consultancy Agency understands that the content for your brand must be unique, interesting and should resonate with the target audience so that your campaign or content can go viral and take the cyber world by storm.