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Your viral content needs to be easily shareable if you really want to see how far people can take it. For example, viral YouTube videos: if you upload a video to YouTube, anyone can share it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Blogger, Tumbler, LinkedIn, Pinterest, embed it on any website and share it on many other platforms.
If you write the content on your website, include options to share on social media, such as social buttons in any piece of written content, as well as buttons to forward your content through email and instant messaging services like whatsapp.
Follow up to successful viral campaigns
If your content goes viral and becomes a trending hit for a prolonged time, take a serious look at it and see if it can be reinvented or amplified. A lot of times, viral content can be resurrected thanks to any added element of surprise that entices the very same people that started sharing it to keep the conversation going even after the first bout of viral sharing.
The intention is to create viral content that not only gets shared and forgotten, but to create viral content that resonates with time, content that people will remember and share years after it made headlines all over the place. Your goal should be to make your viral content a future water cooler moment.
Make an emotional connection with your content
To our previous point, to really stand the test of time and become future proof, a piece of viral content needs to hit an emotional button on people. Remember, what people like to share with others are things that hold an emotional value to them, and emotional value can be created not only by making people smile or cry, but also by making them associate your content with something cool.
Try to remember the most successful pieces of viral content that you've seen and examine what exactly makes you feel that way. Do they remind you of someone close to you or a fun activity? Did they make you laugh in a specific situation? That is the kind of emotional responses you want to stir in people with your content!
Use relevant keywords
Keywords that are relevant to your content will make a huge difference between getting a little traffic or a lot. Granted, having content that appeals to everyone is the first step, but using the correct string of keywords will help you to really get where you need to go, so don’t use just any headline. Also, optimize your campaigns for attracting traffic from as many sources as possible!
Use a Call to action
Using a call to action is one of the most effective strategies in online marketing, and that applies even more so with viral marketing. Invite visitors, viewers and consumers to take action with an attractive call to action and make the excitement infectious!
Show your prospects how to use your products
If you’re in the e-commerce business and you really want to grow your sales, you'll need to teach people how to use your products in a way that is so entertaining to them that they will have no other option, but to show your method to the world.
A nice "how to video" works wonders if done in an entertaining, unique way. Other ways to teach your clients how to use your products include running giveaways, contests or suggesting the creation of user made videos with ideas that can be implemented with your product. The idea is to fuel viral sharing through promotional learning!
Do something unexpected
Everyone wants to see their product look perfect and nice, right? You can do that and more! If you want your marketing campaign to be noticed and become a hit, you'll need to make a difference. Get creative and think about ways in which you can make your product or content stand out, use your imagination and get inspiration from the success of others. Don’t be afraid of trying new things!
Use Promotions and Coupons
Everyone wants to buy something for a lesser price than usual, and a good discount will always be tempting to anybody. Using promotions and gift coupons can motivate people to spread the word about anything. This is a strategy that many online marketers use today. Using the word “free” is especially powerful if you want something to spread quickly!
Chapter 13: 10 don’ts to avoid
Don’t restrict access to your content
By restricting access we don’t mean prohibit or block certain people access to your viral content, which you would find sooner than later impossible to pull off. We mean that access to your viral content should be as easy as a simple click.
You might ask how is it possible to restrict access to a piece of content if you just want to make it go viral and monetize it? Well, the easiest way to restrict access to a piece of content is to put it behind a pay wall, and many marketers do not realize this until it is too late.
To force people to subscribe, pay or give away any type of information in exchange for access to your content might work for other types of marketing campaigns, but not for viral campaigns, because it will slow down or entirely stop your content from going viral really fast. Remember, viral marketing is not about exclusivity, so you should allow everybody easy access your content!
Don’t expect it to go viral immediately
The results of your viral marketing campaign will not be immediately apparent. In fact, it might not be all that exciting in the first few hours after you launch your campaign. Like we mentioned in our previous chapters, viral marketing spreads just like a computer virus when a group of people is exposed to your content or product through an initial group of people, and so on.
The internet is huge and there are millions to billions of active people just in one social network alone, so can you imagine how much time can it take for any type of content to go viral and reach the edges of the World Wide Web? You have to be patient and not let your guard down by thinking that your campaign is not viral just because you’re not in the news two hours after launch!
