Ask just about any marketing manager what they\u2019d ultimately love to see, and you can bet they\u2019d say it\u2019s to \u201cgo viral\u201d. But what does going viral even mean? If you recall the most virulent marketing strategy of 2014, it would be the ALS ice bucket challenge. And when you walk away from that challenge, even months later, the one thing you can quickly recall of the tip of your tongue is some charity called ALS. That right there is marketing goal and it\u2019s the ultimate goal of any hard working marketing department. How you get there though, is another beast entirely \u2013 and it starts with changing\u00a0your understanding of the word \u201cviral.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consider viral as the three-headed dog in Greek mythology, known as Cerberus. It\u2019s a bold image but it\u2019s also an important one. If you envision viral as Cerberus, it will help you understand that something as powerful inherently has three key heads that you need to feed. In our case it\u2019s the following:<\/p>\n
Rarely does a singular post go viral. It\u2019s possible, if the post is catchy or just very well written with a strong trigger headline. Still, that\u2019s a one off case. It\u2019ll draw traffic and it might even get some conversion, but it\u2019s still a singular case that\u2019s unanchored to your brand. What you need to do instead is to create an entire campaign. A campaign is on-going, with a multi-platform strategy designed to draw attention to your campaign from different portals. Doing this correctly requires understanding what your audience wants, where they\u2019re at (most companies, for example, still don\u2019t consider that Tumblr, Instagram, and Snapchat beat all other social platforms for a youth demographic). Most importantly, it requires knowing what your brand is about.<\/p>\n
When I say, \u201cknowing what your brand is about,\u201d I mean understanding how the campaign message fits into and promotes your brand. I cannot stress this enough. If you don\u2019t have the right brand message, you\u2019re less likely to achieve viral success. If you achieve viral success because of a strategic alliance (which is also head #3), then you lose a prime opportunity for press, brand awareness and conversion, just to name a few.<\/p>\n
Getting your brand messaging down right is also integral to something going viral; because, when you say \u201csomething\u201d goes viral, that \u201csomething\u201d is your brand. Sure, you could say that recognition is propelled by a campaign, but essentially the goal of that campaign is to promote your brand. Even if your campaign\u2019s key goal is to create a call to action to encourage sales, donations, or event attendance, you\u2019re still relying on your brand and message to drive traffic. Understanding this fact also helps you better plan the next the next step, alliances.<\/p>\n
We use to call them partnerships, but now alliances is a much more impactful word choice that also gets across what we\u2019re really trying to achieve in any successful partnership. A partnership is where you work together. An alliance is a union in support of a cause. If you\u2019re viral efforts fall into charitable organizations, public works, government, social issues, or even thought leadership \u2013 then what you need is an alliance.<\/p>\n
Forging a coveted alliance is another thing. You\u2019ll find that an organization is more willing to forge an alliance than a business is. However, to get a business to create an alliance with you, as either another business or organization, you\u2019ll need to find some common ground in either social causes or better yet, in some sort of striven-for ideal.<\/p>\n
When creating an alliance, you\u2019re going to need to be truthful about what you can offer and what you expect in return. Before you reach out to any point of contact, sit with your team to strategize the first two heads and have a brief drafted up that pitches what\u2019s being proposed, what you\u2019re looking to accomplish, what type of alliance you\u2019re seeking, what can be achieved, and what are some expected deliverables along. It might be smart to also include how you\u2019re going to measure success and what deliverables you plan on offering the other party. Perhaps there will be a co-branded case study or infographic? The more you can offer, the better chances your chances of securing a high-profile alliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ask just about any marketing manager what they\u2019d ultimately love to see, and you can bet they\u2019d say it\u2019s to \u201cgo viral\u201d. But what does going viral even mean? If you recall the most virulent marketing strategy of 2014, it would be the ALS ice bucket challenge. And when you walk away from that challenge,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":309,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2171],"tags":[19,109,312],"class_list":["post-4216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beyond","tag-email","tag-marketing","tag-viral"],"yoast_head":"\n