Content Marketing: Cracking the Viral Content Code
It’s now-viral!
This is the most desired and famous statement of the 21st Century.
A piece of content must be shared widely and well-received in order to become viral. As an innovative method of internet marketing, B2B viral marketing is a famous avenue that B2B marketers are exploring.
Content marketing strategies aim to reach large numbers of prospects quickly and at lower costs. Viral marketing is one of the most effective strategies to achieve this goal.
The book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive, And Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath is an excellent example of virality. Six key components are included in this book to make an idea stick in someone’s head. The key ingredients to sticky ideas are, according to them, simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and generate stories.
Simple
Make sure your ideas are easy to understand. Simple doesn’t mean dumbing down. Prioritizing is key. Be sure to communicate the essence of your message clearly.
Unexpected
Your content should spark conversations and provoke responses from people beyond your target audience. Your idea must still be related to your brand and should include share-worthy elements. If you are faced with backlash, be calm and composed.
Concrete
The viral potential is increased by striking visuals. You need to create compelling visuals if you want social shares.
Credible
You can ‘own’ your niche, which is one of the significant perks of virality. With credible data included in your content, you can be positioned as an industry leader. This will make a lasting impression.
Emotional
Marketing strategies should include highly emotional content. Promoting content during holidays and other dynamic events is a great way to have emotions in your existing content marketing strategy.
Stories
Stories drive action. You can create content that is easily shared between audiences and drives more people to your site. Your content should be flexible enough to fit into multiple verticals.
A successful viral marketing strategy requires many elements. This SUCCESs model highlights 6 of these critical factors. Many B2B marketers broke the mold and created viral content over the past few years. These are just a few examples of B2B marketing campaigns that can be measured against the above SUCCESs scale.
Vertical Response
Many businesses offer email marketing. Vertical Response is one example. They wanted to make sure that people knew about their new partnership with SalesForce.com AppExchange. They created a rap video mocking an old Dr. Dre song to accomplish this.
An App Thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq4m2JnCTo4
SUCCESs model
Simple – This video promotes their email marketing services. Their core message is clear.
It’s unexpected – It’s entertaining and certainly out of the ordinary.
Concrete – A rap video that shows the fun and quirky side of a company.
Email marketing is definitely a visual treat.
Credible – They successfully integrated their marketing message into the viral clip.
Emotional – It elicits strong emotions because it is both fun for people and nostalgic to Dr. Dre fans.
Stories – Anyone can watch and enjoy the video. Anyone who has seen it will know precisely what it is about.
Solidworks
SolidWorks is an engineering software company that sells primarily to engineers. SolidWorks sells mainly to engineers and has a viral video campaign.
What if Thomas Edison had used SOLIDWORKS Electrical instead? : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U95P_Ldd9GI
SUCCESs model
It’s simple – This video promotes the many benefits of SolidWorks electrical wiring and comes straight from the person who created the lightbulb. Their marketing message is simple.
Unexpected – The video is captivating and captures the viewer’s curiosity right from the title.
Concrete – Watching Thomas Edison speak about wires is visually appealing and attention-grabbing for a mechanical engineer.
Credible – The light bulb creator is the best person to tell you about the advantages of SolidWorks wires. Their marketing message is clear and loud.
Emotional – It elicits strong emotions because it stimulates curiosity and sparks interest.
Stories – Everyone is familiar with Thomas Edison. It is a story that can be used in any vertical.
Knorr
Knorr, a Unilever food and beverage brand that produces gluten-free food, is well-known for its soup dehydrated. This aspect of their brand was used, and they retargeted the content marketing strategy. They began to target UK chefs and caterers. This was because they knew what to do.
According to their customer research, gluten-free customers had difficulty finding caterers that met their dietary requirements. Knorr discovered through catering companies that their inability to offer gluten-free options was due to uninspired gluten-free recipes.
Knorr published a list of gluten-free recipes as a solution and modification to their content marketing strategy. Through webinars and conferences, they also trained chefs in gluten-free cooking.
SUCCESs model
Simple – Knorr’s marketing message is simple: Be the brand people think of when thinking about gluten-free foods. The campaign conveys this message clearly.
Unexpected: Instead of targeting customers only, they targeted businesses that their customers use. This tactic was utterly new and caught people off guard.
Concrete – These are engaging and last a long time.
Credible – Because Knorr offers gluten-free products in its product line, they can use that platform to be thought leaders in their niche.
Emotional – It elicits strong emotions because it solves a problem that many gluten-free customers face.
Stories – The campaign targets different customer universes, including catering companies and their chefs as well their customers.
Based on the above case studies, here are some ideas to create your own viral B2B content.
A video that is clear and understandable but also includes complex technical concepts relevant to your industry.
Whitepaper provides a detailed and comprehensive look at your sector.
You can bring up blog posts that are unique and possibly controversial in their approach to a common problem.
Valassis | B2B Marketing | Lead Generation
