Viral Content Marketing: Meaning, Examples, and Strategy

Quick Summary

• A viral piece of content marketing is a video, meme, post, infographic, challenge or story that is shared on social media and through online communities and social groups.
• The usual reason content goes viral is because it elicits a powerful response: a joke, surprise, inspiration, curiosity, nostalgia or strong sense of relatability. The stronger the reaction, the more likely one is to share.
• It is important to have a business objective in mind when you're working on the viral content strategy (such as brand awareness, website traffic, engagement, lead generation, product visibility, or community growth). There is no value in views if they do not support the goal.
• Simple, timely and easy to share content, coupled with a good hook, clear message, platform-appropriate presentation and a reason for people to comment, tag friends, repost or join the conversation is the basis for the most shareable viral content.
• While there's no guarantee of going viral, there's plenty a brand can do to increase its odds by comprehending its audience, jumping on the appropriate trends, leveraging emotion, inviting engagement and monitoring the right metrics (shares, saves, comments, clicks).

What Is Viral Content Marketing?

Viral content marketing is the creation and dissemination of content that is widely shared by people in social media, video sharing platforms, blogs, emails and online communities and so on.

“Viral” refers to the way this type of content spreads: one person sees it, shares it with their network, and those people share it with their networks, and so on, until a much larger audience is reached than might have been reached through paid or organic promotion alone.

Viral content can appear in many forms, such as:

• Short-form videos
• Memes
• Social media posts
• Blog articles
• Infographics
• Challenges
• Emotional stories
• Interactive quizzes
• User-generated campaigns
• Funny brand responses
• Educational threads

The common thread is to provide content that is valued, relatable, entertaining or significant enough for others to share.

Why Viral Content Marketing Matters?

One of the most valuable things that brands can have is online attention. All businesses are fighting for clicks, views, comments, shares and saves. Viral content is a powerful tool for cutting through that clutter that you won't get from paid promotion as often.

If done right, a brand can benefit from viral content in the following ways:

• Attract a lot of traffic without spending much on advertising.
• Create memorable and quick brand awareness.
• This is a call to action to get more people to engage on social media platforms.
• Send a massive amount of traffic to a Website or landing page
• Enhance long-term brand recall.
• Emotionally engage potential customers.
• Invite users to create content and share their experiences and perspectives.
• Initiate meaningful conversations relating to the brand.

Nonetheless, content intended to gain views should not be viral. The best viral marketing campaigns tie directly to a specific (brand) objective: awareness, trust-building, community-building, lead generation, or sales.

A WOM marketing study revealed that sign-up elasticity was 0.53 – or around 20x more powerful than event marketing, and 30x more powerful than media appearances.

How Does Content Go Viral?

An immediate, strong reaction is common and often leads to content going viral. They share content because it evokes an emotion, makes them feel something, or offers value to someone they know.

1. It Creates Emotion

Emotion is a powerful and consistent motivator for sharing. There's a much higher likelihood of people sharing content that leaves them smiling, inspired, in awe, proud, curious, or feeling righteous indignation than content that leaves them feeling "okay. People want to make their friends laugh, so a funny meme spreads. An emotional brand story spreads because it's human and meaningful.

2. It's really relatable.

Relatable content is when people think, "This is me" or "I know someone like this. That's why workplace humor, parenting issues, student-life scenarios and frustrations can go viral so quickly: When people see themselves in the material, they feel compelled to share it – and it becomes personal.

A study of approximately 1 million Instagram photos with people's faces revealed that photos with faces garnered 38% more likes and 32% more comments.

3. Easy to Understand

Viral content is typically very easy to make. The message needs to sink in without a long explanation. When it comes to user consumption and sharing, short videos with bold captions, clear visuals, and straightforward storytelling always prevail over dense or complex content.

4. It really adds value.

Not every viral content is based on humor or emotion. Some spreads because it's actually helpful — checklists, downloadable templates, step-by-step instructions, shocking stats, or myth-busting posts that address a real issue. If a piece of information is beneficial to someone, he or she shares it to provide benefit to others.

5. It is "Top of Mind" and "Top of Heart"

Topics, cultural moments, seasonal events, breaking news and current conversations can all make the content go viral. Brands that are creative and quick to catch on to a trend before it's too late generally have an edge in shareability.

Examples of Viral Content Marketing

Here are some well-known types of viral content marketing examples and why they worked.

1. Challenge-Based Campaigns

Participation challenges involve having their audience produce their own version of the content, making viewers active contributors. A good challenge is straightforward, enjoyable and replicable! Once they get involved, they share the campaign with their own networks. These campaigns are effective because people love to be part of a trend that is social, fun and culturally relevant.

2. User-Generated Content Campaigns

User-generated content (UGC) is when customers create content for the brand, such as reviews, photos, videos, testimonials, or social posts that use a specific hashtag or prompt. If the idea is interesting and the incentive is strong (e.g. to be on display or included in a community), the number of participants can grow to a large scale. The reason UGC is effective is that people believe authentic customer insights over slick ads and it provides strong social proof.

3. Funny Brand Social Media Posts

Brands go viral when they have a personality, or they are in on the humor, or they make witty comments to comments or trending conversations. A smart answer or meme type posting can have thousands of shares if it's not forced. This is effective as consumers like brands that sound like people and not like a corporation.

4. Emotional Storytelling Campaigns

Campaigns that are rich in a story and include real people, customer transformations, social causes or individual struggles can make emotional connections. People remember stories much easier than product descriptions and that is why these campaigns are effective. Emotional content also creates a greater degree of trust than traditional advertising does.

5. Educational Viral Content

Educational – how-to videos, quick tip lists, infographics, case studies and myth-busting posts are all regularly shared by some of the best, as they teach something that is truly useful (and easy to share) in a simple, but visually interesting way. That means that this kind of content is something people have reason to save, share and revisit, giving it a value beyond the first time around.

Viral Content Marketing Strategy

Virality cannot be left to chance. A well-crafted, well-thought-out plan significantly increases the likelihood of creating content that will actually gain traction.

1. Know Your Audience Well

Don't create anything without taking the time to learn more about your audience, their interests, and how they interact online. What are some of their common issues? What do they already have in common about the content? What is it that makes them comment or tag a friend? Which platforms do they use the most? What trends do they have, and are they following?

So viral content works because they know the audience's feelings, interests and the way the audience consumes content, and not because it's optimized for an algorithm.

2. Select One Obvious Business Objective

Each piece of viral content should have a certain goal. Some content is developed to build brand awareness. Other content is meant to get people to sign up for email, make people aware of products, build a community, or promote a sale or promotion. Having a clear objective will help you define the content you produce and what success looks like.

In an arousal experiment 75% of the people who had been jogging for 60 seconds shared an article by email versus 33% of the people who were sitting still.

3. Develop a single strong idea.

Viral content is seldom a success when it's comprehensive. It's plain; that's how it works. It's usually easy to share something funny, useful, surprising, or moving with other people—one great idea is much more shareable than something that is attempting to communicate multiple messages. Too general, and they will scroll on by.

4. Deliberate Use of Emotional Triggers

Powerful, targeted feelings drive the circulation of content. There are a number of themes that always inspire sharing, such as humor, surprise, curiosity, inspiration, nostalgia, fear of missing out, empathy, pride and excitement. The important thing is to pick the right emotional register for your particular audience and then to put it on with conviction.

An analysis of 6,956 New York Times articles revealed that anger boosted the chances of being shared by 34%, awe by 30% and anxiety by 21%, while sadness lowered the chances by 16%.

5. Don't get too complicated when it comes to sharing.

Even the best content can fail to spread if there's any friction in the sharing process. Viral content: Easy to repost, send to friends, save, embed, remix. Use clear captions, keep videos short, use subtitles for videos, use videos in the platform they are designed for, ensure the message is immediately apparent, provide something for people to tag a friend.

6. Use the Right Platform

Different platforms reward different types of viral content.

Choose the platform where your audience is most active. A viral TikTok strategy may not work the same way on LinkedIn.

7. Add a Hook in the First Few Seconds

The first few seconds are critical in video. The first line of written posts is what makes people read on. With picture-based content, the headline or photo needs to catch one's eye.

Effective hooks include:

“This is one of the most common errors that most brands commit…

"Here's why your content is not getting shared…"

I attempted this strategy for 30 days — here's what occurred…

“This one idea turned our marketing efforts upside down…”

“Viral content is not something that anybody tells you…”

A solid hook provides a reason for people to pause or stop scrolling and engage with the content.

8. Encourage Audience Participation

People are more likely to spread viral content when they have a clear path to participate in the conversation. Encourage your audience to add their own comments, personal stories, tag someone who would be interested, include a hashtag, remix the content, vote in a poll, take part in a challenge or submit their content.

The more interaction people have with the content, the more visibility the platform will likely spread.

9. Use Trends Carefully

The spread of any piece of content can go super viral in a flash, but brands need to be proactive and not reactive in their approach to trends. Prior to joining any trend, ask: Does this fit our brand voice naturally? Will the reference be obvious to our audience? Is there something we can do different from copying? Is the trend still on or has it already reached its peak? Do they think that this could draw unwanted attention?

The most effective trend-tailored content is one that appears to be a logical extension of the brand – rather than an attempt to be ‘trendy.

10. Measure Performance and Learn

Viral content marketing should be measured. Even if a post does not go viral, it can still teach you what your audience likes.

A study of 46.9K posts on Instagram from 59 brands revealed that the emotional visual appeal garnered more likes and comments than most informative visual appeals.

Track metrics such as:

• Views
• Shares
• Comments
• Saves
• Click-through rate
• Engagement rate
• Follower growth
• Website traffic
• Leads or conversions
• Brand mentions

The most effective trend-tailored content is one that appears to be a logical extension of the brand – rather than an attempt to be ‘trendy.

Common Mistakes in Viral Content Marketing

Many brands try to go viral but make mistakes that hurt their results.

1. Too Hard to Feel Trendy

People can tell when things aren't authentic. Trying to make a trend happen that doesn't fit the brand seems like empty marketing and could ruin brand credibility rather than add to it.

2. Separation of the Content and Brand Message

Views can be enormous on a post, with no real business value, if there is no real connection to the brand, its products, or its audience's needs.

3. Going too much “on the sell” with content.

Few people are willing to post anything that looks like an ad. Viral content needs to entertain, educate, inspire, or help and then the brand comes second, not first.

4. Writing Without a Strategy

Sporadic big numbers from random posts are not a basis for sustaining growth. Audience research, strategic planning, intentional testing, and continuous iteration are the sources for consistent results.

5. Don't Ignore Engagement After Publishing

Not responding when people comment, share, or ask questions is a missed opportunity.

Benefits of Viral Content Marketing

Viral content marketing can yield significant rewards when used in conjunction with a clear strategy and meaningful goals:

• Much greater brand exposure on various platforms
• More organic reach with less advertising spend
• More social proof with public involvement and sharing
• More effective and genuine audience connections
• Increased Website traffic
• Creating a more memorable brand over time.
• Reduced CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) than paid ads.
• More involvement from the community and brand advocacy
• Journalists and industry analysts can give it a positive mention in the media

Viral content can be a game-changer, especially for smaller companies, helping them reach audiences that could only be reached through costly paid campaigns.

Can You Guarantee Viral Content?

No, even the best-crafted campaigns can fail to go viral due to factors such as platform algorithms, timing, content competition, and audience engagement, which a brand cannot fully control.

What brands can do is make their chances count: they can develop content that is emotionally engaging, truly valuable, well-timed, easy to understand, and “share-worthy” as much as possible.

The more sustainable target is not to go viral once, but to develop content systems and audience knowledge that regularly create shareable content.

Final Thoughts

Viral content marketing is all about producing content that viewers want to share without being asked. It is most effective when a brand has a clear understanding of its target audience, utilizes emotional intelligence in the creative process, selects the appropriate platform to fit the creative concept and aligns all creative output with a specific business goal.

A viral post can bring immediate attention, but real and enduring value can be achieved by transforming that attention into trust, engagement, Website visits, leads, and sales. The best brands don't seek views for the sake of views; they seek to produce memorable, truly helpful, perfectly message-compatible, and audience-ready pieces of content.

Your content has the opportunity to spread when it makes people feel something real, offers something they can learn, or prompts them to start the conversation.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Viral Content Marketing

1. Is virality a guaranteed thing in terms of content?

No, because virality is based on content quality, emotional connection, the timing, the behavior of platforms, how the audience responds, and a degree of unpredictability. A better and more attainable objective is to create a repeatable content system that consistently creates the conditions for powerful engagement.

2. What is it about content that makes it go viral?

Content has to be relatable, moving, understandable and easy to share to spread the word most reliably. Factors that most consistently emerge are humour, surprise, well-reasoned and strong opinions, usefulness and early engagement.

3. Will ‘going viral' be an effective marketing tactic?

Viral is not a strategy, it's a result. A true strategy involves several elements such as audience research, regular creation of content, strategic testing of hooks and angles, performance tracking, and content-business goal alignment.

4. Does the viral content work as a reliable sales driver?

It can, but if the content is attracting the right people, in the first place. If the likes of these people don't like the product, they could see high traffic numbers, but no leads, conversions or revenue.

5. Why do certain unedited unpolished posts gain going viral fame while costly campaigns fail?

Authenticity is an important element. Often the simple and candid content is more effective than the highly produced campaign, as it looks natural, like a human and like something to be trusted. If a campaign does not feel like it's really from the heart, or if it is too “salesy” and “salesy”, it will not work.

6. What are the ingredients in a short video that will make it "go viral"?

A good hook that will keep viewers from scrolling, high completion rates, replays, early comments and shares, and fast engagement all tell the platform that the content is worth putting in front of more viewers. The algorithm will prefer content that people are engaging with in the first few hours after posting to it.

7. Do brands need to copy viral material from their rivals?

It's important to learn from what was successful — and what wasn't. It is not direct replication. Instead, it is better to discover the reason behind the mechanism (the emotion induced, the angle applied, the format utilized) and replicate that with a novel version that is more appropriate to your brand, audience, and offer.

8. What role does early engagement play in a video's performance?

Very important. Positive engagement, such as likes, comments, shares, and saves, within the first few hours indicates to the platform's algorithms that the content is engaging and useful to its audience, which generally leads to greater opportunities for distribution to others.

9. What to do when a post goes viral?

Use your profile or bio to capitalize on these new visitors; include a call to action that will get them to the next step, reply to comments in a way that keeps the conversation going, produce follow-up content to keep the conversation going, and encourage the new traffic to visit your Website, offer, newsletter or product page. Viral attention is short-lived; infrastructure to capture it shouldn't be built on the fly.

10. What is the way to use Reddit to get ideas for viral content?

Go to subreddits where your target audience is. Identify the questions that are asked again and again, the emotional complaints with numerous answers, the posts which have many more comments than their number of views, as well as the posts with very strong opinions which are very unpopular. The patterns show unwaveringly what people are interested in – and this is what effective viral content speaks to.

11. Does controversy work to go viral?

This can be, but it needs to be done with great care. When relevant and respectful, a bold, well-reasoned opinion can spark thoughtful and engaging conversation and strong shareability. But controversy for the sake of controversy can hurt brand credibility and bring the wrong kind of attention — and is a high-risk strategy that seldom brings business value.

12. What is the one thing that brands get wrong in viral content?

View chasing with no business reason. When you're getting viral reach that has nothing to do with your brand message, target audience, or marketing funnel, it's only surface-level attention. Any piece of content, no matter how widespread, should have a specific strategic goal and represent one thing about the brand.