Viral marketing isn’t an exact science, and what makes tactics that employ it succeed in the social media space relies on many different variables. And while a lot of people can claim to be experts in the subject matter, there really isn’t one winning formula that can ensure a brand’s online marketing strategies can get massively viral.

However, there are good qualities successful viral marketing campaigns and even massively popular memes have in common.


Easily Identifiable and Relatable
Making concepts, characters, and experiences in your viral campaign easy to identify, and relate with is a great quality you can employ. When something is relatable, it easily raises curiosity which draws people in for a second look, and based on the quality of the viral content, it will also motivate them to stay, and engage with the brand. And that familiarity is a great motivation for people to share your content with their family, friends, or just about anyone they know who could also identify with it.


Can Elicit Strong Emotions
Eliciting strong emotions is another common denominator among successful viral marketing campaigns. This is something that’s very apparent when you log into the social networks, you’ll encounter hilarious YouTube videos that make fun of popular movies and personalities, audios parodying chart toppers, inspiring stories of struggles and triumphs, footages of painfully embarrassing epic failures, and images of kitties that make you go “Aawww.” All these spread like wildfire online, especially on sites like Tumblr, Pinterest and Twitter.

Image by Anonymous Account

Easy to Share
Obviously, “going viral” means producing content intended to spread massively across the Internet and reach people whether they’re your initially targeted demographic or not. And content here naturally needs to be easy for your audience to share, which means two things:

• The context must be short and simple enough to be translated into other content forms and, replicated into other platforms.
• It must be published on a social platform that’s easy to share online, and makes use of that site’s capabilities. It’ll also be better to use multiple social media sites to boost the content’s presence online. For instance, posting your video on YouTube, putting it in your blog and then linking to that blog post on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Digg and LinkedIn.

Offers Good Value Proposition
A good value proposition gives your audience a reason to start and complete their experience with your brand’s virally driven campaigns. It gives them a good reason why they should exert any effort to view and finish a video, read a post, follow any included call-to-action prompts, or share your content to people they know online. You can offer to give away free products and other goods, or at least offer people opportunities to win them.


Informative and Educational
When creating content, meant for viral marketing or otherwise, it’s always been recommended to always aim to provide value to your targeted demographic. One of the best ways to do this is by ensuring that your content educates your followers about things relevant to your niche or industry. You can share the latest research and survey findings, tips, and tricks that would enrich their lives. And depending on the treatment, how you created the campaign strategy, and the networks where you posted your content, the rich information will be the main driver for people to share it online.


With Little or No Sales Pitch
One of the things we learned in the advertising and marketing fields is that sales pitches can be polarizing. Put up a product, let lose buy this now statements and you can leave a bad taste in your demographic’s mouth. Hard sell and you run the risk of losing your audience. Instead, focus on providing value in your viral-intended content, and create a quiet sense of urgency. This can drive them to directly engage with your brand and maybe even avail of what you have to offer.

Tags: content creation, internet marketing, social media marketing, Viral Marketing