Many people think the biggest challenge facing content marketers is coming up with fresh content. As a result, they tend to focus more on quantity, often at the expense of good quality. But the primary goal of any content marketing strategy should be shareability. The more your content gets shared, the better your chances of attracting visitors to your website and customers to your business; and the holy grail of content marketing is having a piece of content go viral. Most people think getting a piece of content to go viral is pure luck, but that’s not entirely true. Here are two content marketing hacks that can improve your chances of producing viral content:

Brainstorm for viral ideas.

The content that gets shared the most is that which evokes high emotions such as anger, fear, loss, pain, laughter, etc. When brainstorming for viral ideas, either individually, or as a group, you should focus on the following questions:

  • How can you make your readers laugh?
  • What can you do to stir controversy in your industry?
  • How can you arouse emotional in your readers?
  • Can you add a unique video, infographic or other attention-grabbing imagery?
  • Of your existing content, which ones typically receive the most social media shares?
  • Does your typical reader prefer short form (roughly 1500 words or less) or long form (more than 1500 words) content?
  • Do you have easy access to industry influencers who would be willing to share your content?
  • When is the best day/time to publish your content?
  • Where is the best place to publish your content?

“Copy” what works.

Another effective approach to creating viral content is to identify content writers, website owners, and industry bloggers whose content tends to dominate their niche. Find and read their best-performing articles and posts, then leverage their topics and headline styles to create your own original content that’s even more powerful and shareable.

Conclusion:

While it’s important that you try to create content that can potentially go viral, it’s equally important to recognize that not all the content you produce will go viral. But if you create content that’s viral-optimized, it will be relevant and of good quality almost by default.

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