Do you watch viral videos and think ‘how they managed to do it?’ And what exactly is viral content anyway?
Put simply, a piece of content that’s circulated rapidly and widely from one web user to another. In other words, content that spreads on the web within days or even hours (literally, like a virus).
Here’s what you need to know about the art and science of Viral Marketing.
1. Novelty
Research says that our brain feels rewarded with novel ideas, and when people feel like they’ve been led to a new idea, their brains and bodies release dopamine, a pleasure inducing neurotransmitter.
Ofcourse, new ideas don’t come around easy.
A more practical approach is to improve already successful content pieces (with new information, data and facts, maybe).
You could also club two unrelated concepts. Can you imagine campaigns with fashion and food? Piecing together trending topics with intriguing spins makes people take a creative leap of imagination. In content marketing, this exploration translates into readers spending more time on your site and sharing your content.
2. Triggering curiosity
When people feel there’s a gap between ‘what they know’ and ‘what they want to know’, they are compelled to fill the gap with information related to it.
If you offer users this chance of filling the gap, they feel motivated to not just read your content but also share it on platforms for others to learn.
3. Evoking emotion
Plenty of case studies exist that claim emotions are key to virality.
1. Fear: Content that warns and increases awareness has more chances of becoming viral.
2. Sadness: A sad video can go viral because people empathise with the story.
3. Anger: Causes people to react, express their outrage and fuels others to join in the conversation.
While great content is shared for many reasons, content that stimulates positive feelings tends to perform better than those with negative feelings, boasting a higher click to tweet rate. And content that evokes emotional reactions such as awe, excitement or amusement have been getting more shares than low-arousal content that evokes contentment or sadness.
Interestingly, content evoking negative emotions such as anger and anxiety are ‘highly’ shared if the reader is given an opportunity to express his/her stand and share his/her views.
4. Age matters
Studies show that although millennials share music, articles, and videos, they are less surprised and lack emotional connection with their content.
The same age group, though, is excited to explore and share dynamic, personalised, interactive content that entertains them.
By all means, if you’re trying to get to millennials, make sure your content is a combination of emerging trends filled with novelty, curiosity and surprise.
5. Storytelling matters
People love a good story, and the idea of a narrative voice i.e. embedding a human quality into the tale, makes the latter immediately identifiable and easy to understand. You can effectively make a point and engage others if you know how to tell a good ‘human’ story.
6. Readability
Technically, your content should aim for reading-comprehension of a ninth-grader if you’re targeting a wide group of people. However, keep in mind, content that’s simple does NOT mean simplifying your content.
idea is to let people spend enough time on your content. If you manage to do that, it’s an indication that you are successful in making an impression within a short span of time (which is very short – say the speed of a swipe or a scroll), and the next obvious thing for them to do is share, tweet or forward.
7. Valid criticism
People will get engaged in conversations with you if you supply them with valuable content that makes them ponder, concur and develop opinions.
These silent conversations build long-term relationships, and when you offer critical thoughts that can possibly lead to debates, analysis and discussions, you are creating unique content that adds to your value proposition.
It will also lead to a series of binge sessions on what you’ve previously produced.
8. Usefulness of content
Jonah Berger’s survey found that highly practical articles were 34% more likely to go viral.
People share content that’s useful and practical in a bid to help friends, develop themselves, and for social acceptance.
No wonder ‘How-to’ listicles and infographics are popular – they offer clear, instantly applicable advice that can make everyone’s life simple.
9. Making people look good
NY Times found that people share content if it makes them look good. In addition, people feel that when they like or share creative, thought-provoking content, those attributes (creativity, intellect, artistic) become associated with their personas as well.
10. Interactivity
Written text can be made conversational with visually enthralling images, designs, parallax scrolling, infographics and other multimedia elements.
Some websites and apps also employ user-generated content.
Others, like interactive quizzes, are gaining popularity in social-media because of their share-worthiness and ability to allow users to learn more about themselves.
11. Trustworthy research
At a time when people are listing authenticity as their top most requirement, it is important to publish exclusive content such as survey results and original data-driven articles. Jeff Bullas suggests free survey tools to conduct informal studies, public API’s, and an internal database to disseminate information concerning your field.
Collaborating with experts and opinion makers also makes for credible, share-worthy content. And while personal stories are a great way to build connections with people, backing up stories with expert opinions gives you much needed credibility.
Marketing trends are changing at lightning speed, and it’s mandatory to keep an eye on statistics to maintain competitive advantage. Here are relevant statistics to help you build your brand, understand your target audience, generate leads and boost conversions.
1. Content Marketing Statistics You Need To Know In 2020
1. 70% of companies are investing in content marketing
2. 24.26% companies will increase their content budget
3. 78% of companies have 1 to 3 specialists in their content marketing teams
5. 94% of marketers leverage social media for content distribution
6. 65.36% of all social media traffic is delivered by Facebook
7. Stock photos are most used visuals of 40% of content marketers
8. 25% of marketers spend 10-20% of budget on visual content
9. The top metrics B2C marketers track to measure content performance are conversions (81%), website traffic (80%), website engagement (79%), social media analytics (76%) and email engagement (75%)
2. Facebook Statistics You Need To Know In 2020
10. Facebook has 2.45 billion monthly active users
How much visual content did marketers use in 2019 and how much should you budget for in 2020? Here’s stats to guide that decision.
Visual Content for Marketers
70% of companies invest in content marketing, which could include visual marketing strategies. (HubSpot)
Among B2B marketers, 51% are prioritising the creation of visual assets as a key element of their content marketing approach. (Content Marketing Institute)
The use of visual content increased by 10.5% between 2018 and 2019. (Venngage)
88% of marketers use visuals in more than half of their published articles, while 56% use visuals all the time. (Venngage)
How Users perceive Visual Content
The Social Science Research Network found that 65% of people learn better through visuals. They resonate better with images, videos, memes and other visuals than text.
Visuals increase the viewers desire to read by upto 80%. (Office Xerox)
Top Visual Content Formats
Video
84% say that videos have helped increase traffic to their website. (Wyzowl)
69% generated more leads with the help of video content. (Renderforest)
Cisco projects that global internet traffic from videos will make up 80% of all consumer internet traffic by 2021. (Cisco)
Marketers experience a 65% increase in clickthrough rates and 19% in open rates by including the word “video” in their email subject line. (Campaign Monitor)
55% of the total video consumption time on mobile phones involve videos that are 20 minutes or longer. (Ooyala Global Video Index)
Live, Native and 360-degree Video
More than two-thirds (67%) of consumers globally have streamed live video content and 52 % of that group prefer free, ad-supported live streaming over subscription and à la carte services. (IAB)
Consumers have a low tolerance for a bad stream. For many, 90 seconds is the most a viewer will tolerate a spotty stream. (TechRadar)
Facebook users spend 3X times more time watching live videos than traditional videos. (Facebook)
92% of the videos on Facebook are published as Facebook native videos. (Quintly)
Average percentage viewed was 28.81% higher with 360-degree video, and double the viewers watched the video to 100%. (Magnifyre and StoryUp)
Infographics
40.2% of marketers who were surveyed said that the visuals which performed best were actually original graphics such as infographics and illustrations. (Venngage)
Infographics have had the biggest increase in usage among B2B marketers in the last four years — now at 65%. (Content Marketing Institute)
Images
Facebook posts with images witness2.3X more engagement than those without. (Buzzsumo)
In an analysis of over 1 million articles, BuzzSumo found that articles with an image once every 75-100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images. (Buzzsumo)
Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without. (Buffer)
Stories
Businesses on Instagram get up to 37% of their total impressions from Instagram Stories. (Social Bakers)
Of the Instagram Story formats people prefer most, 35% say they engage with short narrative-styled Stories most often, followed by interactive Stories centered around quizzes and polls. (HubSpot)
