Content Marketing: Cracking the Viral Content Code
“It’s gone viral!”
This is the most popular and sought after statement of the 21st century.
For a piece of content to “go viral”, it must be well received and widely shared. B2B viral marketing is an avenue that is being explored by a growing number of B2B marketers, as a stab at an innovative internet marketing technique.
The goal of any content marketing strategy is to reach a large, rapidly expanding number of prospects at a faster rate and at a lower cost. For this purpose; Viral marketing is one of the most powerful strategies.
When it comes to virality, the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by brothers Chip and Dan Heath, comes to mind. This book offers six important components to making an idea stick in someone’s mind. They believe that the key components of sticky ideas can be summed up in SUCCESS, which is an acronym for Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Believable, Emotional and generates Stories.
Easy
Produce ideas that are easy to understand and don’t require a full review. Simple does not mean dumbing down. It’s all a matter of prioritizing. Make sure the core of your message is being communicated correctly.
Unexpected
Your content should be able to start conversations and provoke reactions from more of your target audience. But remember that your idea still needs to be connected to your brand in some way and should include elements worth sharing. In case you end up with any backlash, prepare calm and collected responses ahead of time.
Concrete
Striking images increase viral potential. If you want to generate social shares, you need attractive images.
Credible
One of the main advantages of going viral is the ability to “own” your niche. You can position yourself as an industry leader with the help of credible data in your content. This will help create a lasting impression.
emotional
Highly emotional content is vital to any marketing strategy. The best way to incorporate emotions into an existing content marketing strategy is by promoting it during emotional events like holidays or world issues.
Stories
Stories drive action. Create content that seamlessly crosses between different audiences, bringing more people to your website. Your content should be able to fit more than one vertical.
There are many factors that are essential to the success of any viral marketing strategy and this SUCCESS blueprint points to 6 key elements. In the last couple of years, many B2B marketers have broken the mold and created content that has gone viral and continues to do so. here are some b2b marketing campaigns that can be measured on the SUCCESS scale above.
vertical response
There are many companies that offer email marketing. Vertical response is just one of them. When they joined the SalesForce.com AppExchange, they needed to advertise the same thing to people without getting lost in the clutter. To do this, they created a rap video that parodies an old Dr. Dre song.
App thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq4m2JnCTo4
SUCCESS model:
Simple – the video promotes your email marketing services and that they are now on a new platform. Your core marketing message is clear.
Unexpected: It’s entertaining and definitely original.
Concrete: a rap video that shows the ‘fun’ and ‘quirky’ side of a company that doesn’t
Email marketing is definitely a visual treat.
Credible – They effectively incorporated their marketing message into the viral video.
Emotional: It definitely elicits strong emotions as it’s fun for people and nostalgic for Dr. Dre fans.
Stories: The format of the video is such that anyone who watches it can watch and enjoy it. Plus, anyone who watches it knows exactly what the video is about.
Solid work
As an engineering software company, SolidWorks sells primarily to engineers. So, to reach their target audience while also going viral while doing it, they started a video campaign that answered a single question: “What if great engineers used SolidWorks?”
What would happen if Thomas Edison used SOLIDWORKS Electrical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U95P_Ldd9GI
SUCCESS model:
Simple: The video promotes all the benefits of using SolidWorks electrical wires and comes directly from the creator of the light bulb. Your core marketing message is clear.
Unexpected: It is intriguing and captures the viewer’s curiosity from the question posed by the title of the video.
Concrete: For a mechanical engineer, seeing Thomas Edison talk about wires is definitely visually appealing and attention grabbing.
Credible: Who better to hear about the benefits of using a SolidWorks cable than the creator of the light bulb? His marketing message is loud and clear.
Emotional – It definitely elicits strong emotions as it creates a sense of curiosity and interest.
Stories – Everyone knows about Thomas Edison. So it’s a story that can fit into any vertical.
knorr
Known for its dehydrated soup, Knorr, a food and beverage brand owned by Unilever, produces gluten-free foods. They used this aspect of their food brand and refocused their content marketing strategy. They looked at UK caterers and chefs. The reason for this was simple.
Their customer research showed that gluten-free consumers had difficulty finding caterers that accommodated their dietary restrictions. Knorr then discovered through caterers that the reason they didn’t offer gluten-free options was simply because they had uninspired gluten-free recipes.
As a solution to this problem and as a modification to its content marketing strategy, Knorr published a collection of gluten-free recipes. They also educated chefs about gluten-free cooking through conferences and webinars.
SUCCESS model:
Simple: Knorr has a clear marketing message: to be the brand people think of when they think of gluten-free foods. This message is conveyed with crystal clarity throughout the campaign.
Unexpected: Instead of just targeting customers, they targeted businesses that use their customers. This was an innovative tactic that took people by surprise.
Concrete: Gluten-free cookbooks, cooking classes via webinars, and conferences are compelling and stick in the mind for longer.
Credible: Since Knorr has gluten-free foods on their product list, they can use that platform to become thought leaders in their niche.
Emotional – It definitely elicits strong emotions as it solves a problem many of their gluten-free customers face.
Stories: Your campaign crosses different customer universes as it targets caterers, their chefs and their customers.
In conclusion, based on the case studies above, here are some ideas for creating your own B2B viral content:
A well-produced video that is easy to understand but includes complicated technical concepts related to your industry.
White paper that analyzes exhaustively and in depth the state of your sector
Blog posts that are original and likely to take a controversial approach to a common problem can be mentioned.