Viral Video Marketing Techniques which help your business to grow
While viral video marketing has certainly received a boost through social media, social media virality and video virality are not exactly one and the same. Just by their very nature, videos allow brands to make longer-form content that touches audiences in a deep way. The methods for making viral videos varies slightly from social media. In this article, I’ll break down 4 unique tips to help your next viral video marketing campaign succeed, as well as examine 4 strong example of viral video marketing and their key takeaways.
Top 4 Viral Video Marketing Techniques
Making a video go viral is never guaranteed, but there are some techniques you can use to help boost its chance of achieving success. These are 4 of our top viral video marketing techniques:
Don’t Forget About Video SEO
Use Emotions
Experiment With Different Formats
Optimize the Video Across All Channels
- Video SEO
Much like traditional SEO, video SEO is important for making your viral video as easy as possible to find. Take a look at the title of your video. Does it include the campaign’s hashtag, the name of your business, or the purpose of the video? Video SEO also includes the thumbnail of the video. When creating video thumbnails make something that will hook the audience in yet also be easy to understand what the video is about.
- Emotions
The most valuable aspect of viral video marketing is the ability to touch emotions on a much deeper level than in any other form of viral advertising. Emotions like hope, inspiration, humor, shock, or even anger can trigger the seemingly rapid-fire spread of virality. Viral video marketing doesn’t always have to be expensive either. A frequently cited example of a successful video marketing is GoPro’s Fireman Saves Kitten video. This video not only expertly caught the attention of millions of viewers, but it also subtly shows the durability of GoPro cameras. As Disruptive Advertising puts it, this video works because “It wasn’t an emotional video about GoPro – the GoPro just kind of happened to be there.”
- Formats
Viral video marketing can take on many different forms. Some are simply traditional advertisements that take on a new life online (think of any major Superbowl commercial or Dos Equis’s Most Interesting Man in The World ads). Some viral videos are actually part of a larger series, like Blend Tec’s popular Will It Blend? videos, and some are simply stand alone knockouts, like Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches. Decide what kind of format you want your viral video marketing to take and what its overall impact on your brand’s message and voice will be. As the Dove and GoPro examples show, video marketing campaigns can serve as a good way to show, not tell, what it is your brand stands for and believes in.
- Optimize Across All Channels
Often times the goal in viral marketing is to “break the internet.” But, in order to do so, you need to ensure that your content is as spreadable as possible and that you are optimizing the content for each platform’s unique delivery method. For a viral campaign to be all-encompassing and truly like a virus, we recommend posting on all of the major platforms: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. But, this should be done strategically.
While this may sound like a no-brainer, this simple strategy is often easily missed by many brands.
When promoting a viral video, be aware of the maximum video times on each platform, and optimize the shorter platforms (TikTok, Instagram stories) by using fun and enticing clips that link to the longer version (like including the option to follow through to IGTV in an Instagram post).
