It’s hard enough for expert speakers to create compelling and inspiring content – but, what does it take to meet both of these goals via business videos AND for these to go viral too? And…Should you want your videos to go viral?

While creating content for a brand new Video Challenge for SME owners, my missus asked me a tough question: So what makes a video go viral anyway?

Of course, this piqued my interest.

Why Chasing Viral Marketing Video Success is Folly (And What to Pursue Instead)

But before I delve into what you can learn from viral videos, I want to caveat anything I might say on this subject by issuing this warning:

In most every case, don’t make going viral a goal for any marketing videos

Why not, I hear you ask?

Well, that’s because it’s incredibly difficult to know in advance what will go viral AND even if you’re one of the ridiculously few who are successful (and the odds of going seriously viral are minuscule says Buzzsumo’s Steve Rayson in a terrific interview with Mark Schaefer and Tom Webster), demand for viral videos are typically like shootings stars or fads which are super hot for a really short time and then fizzle out.

And if you want your content to help your specific, ideal target audiences (versus all comers) to find you online, to be perceived as really useful by these folks, and to inspire them to both place more trust in you and  to take actions, again and again…

…Honestly, building a reservoir of ‘consistently’ valued content is a far more worthy (and achievable) goal.

What Every Marketer Can Learn From the Few Business Videos That Go Viral

But, that aside, I liked the question because I figured it might help to shine a light on some lessons which could be applied to business video creation, in general.

So, I scoured the Internet on your behalf and found, per Adweek, viral videos tend to come from 7 topic areas: music videos, kids and babies, surprising talents, WTF! (sorry, I know that’s rude – but I’m just reporting the facts), offensive comedy, sex (there we go again!), and pets and animals.

You’ll notice that business stuff doesn’t feature a lot in this list!

That said, Adweek also created a really interesting review of the top 4 business videos in 2016 – who achieved excellent, if not stratospheric, success.

And having examined each of the videos (and I’ll exclude the notable exception of the Coca-cola video, which was a slick celebrity and music based production), I noticed three common threads in the other videos that could usefully be added to any SME’s marketing video planning goals – which can subsequently and neatly be translated into a single, over-arching tip:

1. Favour emotional ahead of logical appeal in your videos (you’ll win more hearts if your audience cares more)
2. Include personal stories (which will help audiences to personally identify with your ideas)
3. Celebrate the power of being authentic (aka ‘the real you’)

And here’s the over-arching tip you can take from these to boost the chances that your marketing videos will be hits:

Make every marketing/business video ‘authentically relatable’ and story-centric

If you’d like to learn how to tell a better story for you or your business, contact me at eobrien@thersc.ie. I’ll be delighted to help you.

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