Creating content that captivates target audiences is the best way for businesses to ensure the effectiveness of their SEO strategies. Engaging, meaningful and original content that “goes viral” increases the odds of connecting with relevant audience members while positively impacting the business’s opportunity for success.
This article explains why great content is so important to the SEO strategy of every business and how virality can affect success.
What Is Viral Marketing?
Viral content is that which spreads and is shared by many, similar to the way an actual virus is transmitted from one person to another until a large number of people are exposed.
Although there is no predetermined number of times a post, video or infographic must be circulated for it to be labeled as viral, any piece of content that is shared, viewed and commented upon many times more than similar content is said to have gone viral.
It is often characterized by content that is humorous, heartwarming, or otherwise engaging, and which is easily shared on social media.
There is a mathematical logic behind viral marketing, which can be measured by the following formula:
N ÷ (1- R)
where:
- N is the number of viewers of the campaign
- R is the reproduction rate, or the average number of people that each viewer shares the content with
For example, if a campaign has a reproduction rate of 0.5, then each viewer shares the content with an average of 0.5 people. This means that the campaign is expected to reach 2N people since each viewer will share it with 0.5 people, and each of those people will share it with 0.5 people, and so on.
The mathematical logic of viral marketing is based on the concept of the viral coefficient, which is the average number of new users that each existing user generates. If the viral coefficient is greater than 1, then the campaign is said to be viral, because the number of users will grow exponentially over time.
The formula for calculating the viral coefficient is:
Viral coefficient = (Invitations sent per user) x (Conversion rate of invitations)
The viral coefficient can be increased by increasing the number of invitations sent per user and/or by increasing the conversion rate of invitations.
For example, if a campaign has a viral coefficient of 2, then each existing user will generate, on average, 2 new users. This means that if the campaign starts with 100 users, then there will be 200 users after one cycle, 400 users after two cycles, and so on.
Benefits of Viral Marketing
Obviously, viral marketing gets a company’s name out there. This increased publicity and subsequent search for your website results in increased traffic that can boost your search engine rankings. Even when the content is no longer viral, the results linger.
Viral marketing:
· Increases brand awareness
· Adds social media followers
· Builds brand authority
· Earns more inbound links
· Saves money on promotions
· Grows sales and revenue
· Sets you apart from the competition
Developing a Viral Marketing Campaign
How does one go about creating a viral marketing campaign? Regardless of how hard a marketer tries, creating viral content is out of one’s own hands to a certain extent. Be sure to keep expectations realistic.
· As its name suggests, a viral campaign occurs organically. Marketers don’t decide what goes viral; consumers do.
· The timing, too, is out of our hands. Trends come and go; what is popular today is outdated tomorrow. Don’t delay!
· Shares beget shares. Once content has achieved a certain level of shares, it gets more shares as people jump on the bandwagon.
Although marketers cannot completely control whether their content achieves virality, following a few tips and tricks increases the odds that a marketing campaign goes viral.
Tips for Creating Viral Content
1. Understanding your audience is key. Create content that addresses their pain points, buying triggers, interests and online behavior.
2. High-quality, relevant and compelling content that is well-written and contains no spelling or grammatical errors goes farther than poorly crafted content.
3. Positively slanted content is shared more frequently than negative content. Reword content so it is presented in the most positive manner.
4. Content that causes deep emotional reactions — particularly those related to surprise, excitement, anticipation and trust — encourages people to share. Viral content is more likely to be shared if it is emotionally charged. A study published in the Journal of Marketing Research found that content that elicits the emotions “awe”, “surprise” or “anger” was 28% more likely to go viral. People love stories, so use them to evoke emotions in your audience.
5. Content that offers practical advice or tips useful to many people is shared more frequently than content that doesn’t offer users much of anything.
6. Content or a headline that quickly grab the reader’s attention makes a good share. Controversy is fine, but avoid deeply polarizing topics; leave those to the politicians.
7. Bold, original, witty, unexpected and even somewhat controversial messages capture attention. Timid campaigns rarely go viral.
8. Anything that’s different tends to attract attention and get shared. Consider offering parodies, memes, games and company-sponsored challenges.
Determine the Optimal Format
Marketers must decide how to package content to increase the chances that it goes viral. What are the options? Posts (why, list and how-to types), quizzes, videos and infographics are among the top-performing content formats.
What do these formats have in common? They all present information in a way that is easy to read and helps users find the information they seek.
Here are a few suggestions for marketers chasing virality:
- Images grab attention so be sure to add captivating visual aids to the content.
- While short-form content is easy to read on a mobile device, long-form content receives more shares. In fact, Longer content is 76.8% more likely to go viral compared to short content according to a study on virality, by Professor Dr. Jonah Berger.
- Break up long content with images and bullet points to keep readers interested
Beware of Viral Marketing Pitfalls
Now that we’ve listed the benefits, you must understand that not all viral marketing is good for your business.
Viral marketing can also hurt your brand, and every marketer should watch out for:
· Spam issues that arise due to the repetitive nature of viral messaging
· Not being able to see the forest (demand and revenue) for the trees (likes and comments)
· Misinterpretation of the message by the public that can hurt your reputation
· Ignoring the diversity of marketing strategies by concentrating on going viral
Tracking the Success of Viral Marketing Campaigns
Once you have launched your viral marketing campaign, it is important to track its success so that you can learn from your results and improve future campaigns.
Here are some key metrics to track:
1) Reach: How many people saw your content? This can be broken down into more specific metrics, such as:
- Website traffic: The number of unique visitors to your website.
- Social media engagement: Likes, shares, and comments on your social media posts.
- Media coverage: The number of news outlets or websites that have featured your content.
2) Engagement: How many people interacted with your content? This includes social media shares, likes, comments, and video views.
3) Traffic: How many people visited your website or blog as a result of seeing your content? You can track this using web analytics tools like Google Analytics.
4) Leads and sales: How many leads and sales did your content generate? This can be measured using lead tracking software and CRM systems.
Besides these key metrics, depending on your campaign goals, you might want to track other things. For instance, if you’re running a brand awareness campaign, you might want to track things like brand mentions and social media sentiment.
Here are some tips for tracking the success of your viral marketing campaign:
- Set clear goals for your campaign. What do you hope to achieve with your campaign? Once you know your goals, you can identify the metrics that are most important to track.
- Use a variety of tools and resources to track your metrics. There are many different tools and resources available to help you track the success of your campaign. For example, you can use web analytics tools, social media analytics tools, and lead-tracking software.
- Track your metrics over time. This will help you to see trends and identify what is working well and what is not.
- Analyze your results and make adjustments to your campaign as needed. Once you have analyzed your results, you can identify areas where you can improve your campaign.
In Conclusion
Now that you know the benefits and drawbacks of viral marketing, it’s time to plan and implement your campaign. Use relevant metrics to track the results as the viral marketing campaign proceeds.
Learning what’s working and what’s not working helps you change course midstream and/or develop a better marketing strategy the next time around — one that will not only go viral but also will increase leads, conversions and revenue. Aren’t those the goals of any SEO strategy?
Author Bio
The post is authored by Aaron Wittersheim, who is currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer at Straight North, a digital marketing company. He helped startups, middle-market, and Fortune 500 companies improve organizational structure and grow through his expertise in process conception, task automation, technology, and internal project management.
