What exactly could trigger virality is something that almost every company is searching for.
If you ask me, this is the purpose of a marketing strategy overall; to spread your product so much into the audience that it will start spreading it around like a virus by itself.
I’ve been heavily involved with referral marketing lately, so I came up with 7 secrets that ensure that you’ll increase the K-factor of your product or service.
Shall we begin?
1. Stay Ahead of the Curve with these “Trending” Tools
Sometimes you need what is in trend so you can follow that and surf the cool kids wave to success. For me, there is another road as well.
Some people have the gift of being “clairvoyant” when it comes to marketing trends. I do not think I am one as such but if you regularly keep yourself updated you slowly grasp the concept of what could easily go viral.
Time to upgrade your toolkit and know what is going around the hood. You know like these creepy guys with the coats, but you do not actually have to be a pervert or belong to the GOTHAM city gang.
Whatstrending.com
Well ever wondered what could be trending right now? I think we got the answer for you. In fact, this is not just about let’s say marketing trends but generally what people are into right now.
One thing you should keep in mind about Viral Marketing is that you have to focus closely on why something is going Viral. Figure out human behavior more than any other marketing tactic.
As Douglas Van Praet, author of Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing, wrote in Fast Company,
The most startling truth is we don’t even think our way to logical solutions. We feel our way to reason. Emotions are the substrate, the base layer of neural circuitry underpinning even rational deliberation. Emotions don’t hinder decisions. They constitute the foundation on which they’re made!
NewsWhip Spike
This is a Viral News aggregator which has news that is mostly shared on social. If something is shared on social then we bet, that as a marketer, it needs your attention too.
It does not matter if it silly or not, all it matters is that it produces value for you and your future campaigns. Content like that is exactly what you viral marketing campaign needs.
What is popular on youtube
We all know that Videos is one of the dominant content forms right now. It is something that will surely catch the eye and if you are aiming for virality videos are a must.
According to Garth Haley, Video Producer:
[clickToTweet tweet=”87% of online marketers use video content @HyperfineMedia” quote=”87% of online marketers use video content @HyperfineMedia” theme=”style3″]
Of course where else could you get an inspiration if not from the treasure trove of videos?
Always seek ways to take advantage of the video format.
P.S. if you see a cat video JUST DO NOT OPEN IT.
Snip.ly
This is where shit actually hit the fan guys. The reason I am telling this is that this tool is a very sneaky way to stay on trend but also boost your own viral marketing or pre-launch campaign.
So what you do is actually find Viral content. You promote it and get into the frenzy, but from now on that shared piece of content can have AN EFFIN CTA LEADING BACK TO YOUR OWN CONTENT.
Popurls.com
Well, there is not much to add here, this is a news aggregator that features the most shared pieces of content from all the major web platforms. E.G. Reddit.
Especially if you aim to focus your Viral efforts on specific channels then this will surely come in handy.
2. Figure out & Segment your target audience
Of course, we are dead serious with no.2 on this list. Viral Marketing means that you actually find the right people, who like the right content and want to tell all their friends who are actually their crew, aka a carbon copy of them, about it!
So, in the beginning, we need to focus on segmenting our customers, a small base in the fact that could, later on, ignite a viral boom.
There are a lot of criteria on which you can base your segmenting:
- Demographics
- Geography
- Type of customer
- Psychographics
- Lifestyles
Likely although it a really qualitative choice, in our days you do not have to go out with questionnaires to figure out things like that.
I would strongly suggest experimenting with Social media for a while and see what performs better with parts of your audience.
In fact, you can:
- Post different times throughout the day.
- Experiment with different pieces of content & promotions of your product.
- Use features like Global Pages on Facebook.
- Slowly and steadily drive the audience to that content through paid ads.
With good research on your industry, metrics from all the above and a little bit of intuition, you would be ready to start injecting virality into your life or better let the right people inject it ;).
Tip: While your Viral Marketing is in motion if you do your segmentation right, then targeting, retargeting and positioning will be a piece of cake.
3. Use an All-In-One Viral Marketing Platform
Oh come on, don’t act so shocked (and in Spanish if I may add)
You knew this one was coming.
Of course, VIRAL LOOPS was going to be here. BOOYAAA.
On its debut on Product hunt made it among the three top tech products (other ones being slack & Snapchat) with 1200+ upvotes.
So it is obvious that a lot more people than just our client’s think that we are talking about a very promising tool that anyone should integrate to their viral marketing campaigns.
How does it work?
It is a tool that follows various referral models like the dropbox one and allows you to build quickly & easily referral and milestone campaigns.
These campaigns come in the form of sweepstakes, giveaways competitions and demand people to share their participation via social or email and get their friends into the fun to increase their winning chances.
Why go for Viral Loops
Some things that quickly pop into my mind are:
- User friendliness
- Customizable widgets/templates to fit your brand
- Metrics
- Awesome support
4. Ever heard of the Skyscraper technique?
This is one of the things you should aim for, to be honest.
The reason is that especially if you are a little bit good with content marketing you can work miracles with this one. If it adds courage to your process, this was my core technique when I first started writing content.
One of the best case studies I have read recently is this guy who managed to generate 17,584 visitors in one day with Viral Marketing via Brian Dean. One of his core methods in doing so was the skyscraper technique.
What you actually do is take a piece of content that nailed it online. But you do not just copy it:
- Upgrade with other sources as well
- Add your own value & experience
- Curate the content visually with your own personal style
- New Killer title based on keyword research
- SEO optimize the shit out of it
There are many ways you can do this, but I would strongly suggest going for the following tools, that you might recognize especially if you are an SEO freak. These tools will help you find most shared content, keyword ideas etc.
- Buzzsumo
- Google Search (duh!)
- OpenSiteExplorer
For example, when it comes to Buzzsumo, you enter the keyword which you want to aim for and what you get are the most shared content pieces. You can crossover your results with Google search and even use Open Site Explorer to see which keywords some sites ranked for.
Make a collection of the best ones, find that aspect of the theme they are missing to touch and get to work baby!
5. Emotions can be as sweet as coconut flavored chocolate
I know we should make assumptions based on data, and that emotion is a huge ‘no-no’ in growth marketing, but that is how the world is going round these days and you have to go with the flow.
Not that kind of feeling, but there are various emotional reactions which your content can trigger.
- Amazement
- Curiosity
- Humor
- Interest
- Admiration
So people rapidly share emotionally charged content. But what if I told you that you can emotionally charge someone not only by the content itself but also the way you present it.
The best way to achieve that is through headlines. Be inventive with your titles and try to invoke curiosity. The funny thing here is that people might share a piece of content just by the headline without even opening it.
That is Viral Marketing for you!
Caitlyn Dewey presents an example of this when presenting a study that was conducted.
[clickToTweet tweet=”6 in 10 people will share a piece of content just by reading the headline” quote=”6 in 10 people will share a piece of content just by reading the headline”]
Another thing that would help you, would be to touch some issues from various unique angles.
Instead of saying “The 7 things that will save your business”
You can say “7 reasons why your business will fail”
6. Good Timing & Good Distribution
Let’s say I launch a new feature for my program, and I am starting to distribute it on Social Media. If I do it around 3 AM who the hell you think is gonna share this?
There are 3, time-based, criteria which you can use for your strategy:
- Time of day
- Specific Day of week
- Around Certain Eventful periods
The folks over at TrackMaven have an amazing guide of when to post and tips specifically broken down for 75 industries.
Last but not least, as for distribution remember to always use all possible channels and outlets. There is a ton of different things you can try for distribution:
- Email Marketing
- Social
- Widgets withing site
- Paid Advertisement
- Affiliates
- Communities
7. Make your content shareable and why not downloadable?
Ok, you all get why the content needs to be shareable. Especially if you like to use platforms like Wordpress, there is a vast majority of plugins to go around and add flashy sharable buttons to your content.
But why downloadable?
I can not start to describe you all the times that someone here at the office shared with the rest of us something and quoted “Look this is lit + you can download it as a pdf”.
We love free sh!t. Personally, I’m addicted in downloading stuff.
Before you go
Viral Marketing is, in fact, something that businesses aim for, whether they are a B2B or a B2C. Times change, but word of mouth is still there, so do not let any chances of triggering that pass by.
Do you know any other viral marketing secrets? Let me know!
Cheers 🙂
Theodore has 20 years of experience running successful and profitable software products. In his free time, he coaches and consults startups. His career includes managerial posts for companies in the UK and abroad, and he has significant skills in intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship.
2 Responses
Excellent Marketing.. Techniques For Viral Marketing To Drive Lots Of Traffic…Cheers!!
Excellent viral tips. Thank you