The dream of every video maker is to have their content go viral in some way. Only a rare few videos truly go viral, but you can take the marketing principles from those videos and apply them to your own brand to create demographically viral content that will increase your profitability. Video marketing by itself is a powerful marketing tool because it creates the foundation of a relationship. When you add viral video techniques, you’re simply making that video engaging and memorable.
It all begins with the story that you tell. In order for a video to go viral in any way, it must relate to someone at a core level for them to want to watch it and then share it. Refine your story before you shoot and then weave that story into every element of your video to help it produce the desired result. Although a one-shot video can go viral and could help your business with branding recognition, you can do better than that with a story that tells of your mission.
Viral Marketing Strategies That Work
1. Get Emotional
A video will never go viral unless it is able to create some sort of powerful emotional response. It doesn’t have to be a happy emotion for a video to go viral, but happier emotions will create a better interaction with your brand than a video that spurs anger… unless that anger can be steered toward your competition, that is. Think about the videos that you’ve seen or shared on your social media feeds. Recall the emotions that were stirred in your soul. Now work to recreate that in your viral video marketing.
2. Use Humor
A vast majority of the viral videos on the internet today are humorous in some way. Humor can create a lot of good feelings, but the danger in a funny video is that it is bound to offend someone at some time. The fine line that must be walked is that a majority of people must find your video funny instead of offensive.
3. Limit the Hard Sell
Your logo or branding needs to be included in the video, but not in such a way that it overpowers the viral nature of the video. If your video has a good concept and is memorable, then the branding will be memorable as well. Make sure it is present, is seen enough so that it can be recognized, but don’t oversell it and make it the featured part of your video.
4. Have a Plan
The reason why most viral video marketing strategies fail is because there is no follow-up plan for them. It’s all good to have a video that is memorable and engages your target audience, but you’ve got to communicate with people to really make a sale. Whether you engage with comments, select a sample of people, or plan a full press campaign, make sure you do something.
5. What’s the Intent?
Viral videos tend to be uploaded not because they have a quality sales pitch or are intended to increase profitability, but are purely for personal enjoyment. If you’re entertaining and that’s the sole purpose of the video, then that’s going to give you a better chance for brand exposure.
6. Identify the Target
You can keep sharing a video all by yourself, but you’d likely be the only one to see it. You’ve got to identify your target audience in order to have someone be able to share it. It’s pretty simple: the best product that has ever been created in the history of mankind will never sell even once if no one ever knows about it.
7. Be Consistent
Realize that viral video marketing is just the first step in a multi-stage process so that you can be successful. If you’ve spent tons of cash on your video and it leads people to a website that provides a terrible user experience and doesn’t allow any purchases, then the millions of hits you’ll get on a viral video are essentially worthless. Before releasing your video, make sure that your other marketing efforts will be able to handle the potential of increased traffic.
8. Don’t Expect Organic Results
Organically viral videos tend to provide the best results, but most videos go viral because of additional marketing efforts. Promote your video just like you’d promote any other product or your brand to any demographic or community. Bring eyes to the video and make them want to watch it. When you do that, you’ll be able to leave the impression that was wanted.
9. Keep It Short
Most viral videos are less than 30 seconds in length. Why do they tend to follow this trend? Because that’s the amount of time that a majority of people need to pre-judge the value of your brand. If it is too short, say under 15 seconds, then you force a decision and that’s generally not to your favor. Make it too long and people might just get bored.
10. Watch the Linkbait
People ultimately want value for their clicks. If you are using headlines to promote your video that don’t live up to the expectations that people have for the video, then you’ll automatically create a negative impression. The best links inspire an immediate emotional response, but then surprise the viewer in a pleasant way afterward.
11. Sex Always Works
If you’re struggling to get any forward momentum for your viral video marketing efforts, then consider hiring lots of beautiful women. Sex always sells in some way, whether it is the anticipation of personal success in this area or it is just visual eye candy.
12. Make Your Thumbnails Worthwhile
Your video thumbnails have to be interesting and competitive in order for them to compete against other videos. Take the extracted video thumbnail, have a good title, and make sure the video is of a high enough quality that everyone can watch it on their own time and at their preferred quality level.
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