I recently went to a conference put on by ConvertKit. Nathan Barry, the founder of ConvertKit, and his team put together a spectacular lineup of experts. Two of my favorites were Sam Parr, founder of the Hustle, and Stephanie, aka Sam’s secret weapon… They talked about going viral, exploding your reach, and converting attention into profit.
I listened and took copious notes while both of them were speaking, and I bought Stephanie’s book, Doing Content Right. Over the past week, I’ve been studying their success and the success of others. Here’s what I’ve learned:
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What the top marketers know about going viral and what you should know too
I recently had the life-changing opportunity to learn about marketing from some incredibly brilliant people: Sam Parr and Steph Smith.
Who the F are they?
I had no clue who these two people were until a couple of weeks ago. However, I feel like learning from them is going to be a pivotal turning point in my (and now your) life and career. Yes, what they shared was that good! Here are their deets:
Sam Parr
Sam Parr is the founder of the Hustle. In 2021, his company was valued at $27 million and acquired by HubSpot for an undisclosed amount. He’s funny, honest, entrepreneurial, and rich! I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a great person to take business advice from.
Steph Smith
In her bio, she states she’s a growth marketer, writer, and indie maker. She’s also a podcaster, author, and the head of Trends.co. She’s kind, humble, and a total brainiac. And you know what else, she’s one of Sam’s secret weapons.
Seriously, while Sam was speaking in front of hundreds of people, he called back to Steph multiple times and asked her questions, to which she gave brilliant answers. She’s a certified badass and brilliant woman, and we’d all be smart to listen to what she has to say.
Ok, now on to what you’re here for. Grab a pen because you’re going to want to take notes.
7 Tips for Going Viral to Explode your Reach and Your Profit
Here are 7 tips for going viral based on what I learned from Sam and Steph, mixed in with my observations from studying positive psychology and getting media attention that got over 1 million views.
1. Do A+ Work
This was one of the major points Steph drives home in her book, Doing Content Right (which I highly recommend). Here’s the thing, in today’s world, we’re in an information overload. As consumers, we have information and content coming at us from all directions. It’s overwhelming! So what do we do? We ignore 99% of it.
Well, as a business owner that wants to get people to buy our stuff, people ignoring our ads makes marketing HARD. But here’s what I see most business owners doing: they just try doing more. More mediocre work. They decide they’ll just post more on social media. They’ll run more ads. They’ll test another marketing idea. And 99% of the time, nothing works because they’re doing more instead of better.
But Rachel, I hear so many people saying I need to do more!
Yeah, I know.
Here’s why: more can be successful when it helps you improve. Doing more works when you test ideas, learn from them, and improve your skills along the way. Sometimes more can lead to better.
But that doesn’t change the fact that if you want to go viral, you must create top-quality, grade-A content.
Also, remember that top-quality, grade-A content does NOT necessarily mean highly-produced, large-budget content. If you’ve been on TikTok or Reels lately, you know some of the best, most viral content is low-budget and simple. BUT, it has that special something that makes us just have to share it. It’s usually unique, and it usually makes us feel something. This leads us to our next tip for going viral…
2. Incite Strong Emotions
During his talk, Sam shared with us one of the secrets he leveraged to get his content in front of millions of people: incite strong emotions.
Why Should We Incite Strong Emotions?
We are emotional creatures. Case in point, Fast Company reported that “campaigns with purely emotional content performed about twice as well (31% vs. 16%) as those with only rational content (and did a little better than those that mixed emotional and rational content).”
If I ask you to think about something, you can decide not to. But if I make you feel something? Now I have your attention.
Liron Cron, Wired for Story
Which Emotions Should We Incite?
According to Sam, the best emotions to incite if you want to go viral are anger and awe. The worst emotion to incite is sadness.
How Do We Incite Emotions?
Stories are a great way to inject emotion into anything. Humor helps too.
Here’s an example: My whole life, I hated history. I always thought it was so boring, and I have a terrible memory, so it was torture for me to try to memorize dates and names. However, when I was in college, I had a flamboyant history teacher that taught history in a way I’d never experienced before. Going to his class was like reading a gossip magazine published in the 1700s. He would hilariously spill the tea and give us all the juicy tidbits no other history teacher had ever shared with me before (like that fact that Benjamin Franklin literally had skeletons buried under his home). I loved history because he told me stories instead of just facts, and I felt something when I heard those stories.
3. Deliver Real Value
Everyone and their mom is trying to monetize their knowledge these days. The creator economy is growing rapidly; everywhere you look, someone claims they can help you make 50 trillion dollars by monetizing your passions online. As a creator myself, I believe in the model of online business. I believe in online courses. I believe in affiliate income. I believe in supporting creators.
However, there is a lot of crap out there too. Some creators don’t know what they’re talking about. They are great at selling a dream and taking people’s money, but they laugh all the way to the bank without driving real results for their customers.
Here’s the thing, customers know this. They may have even been burned a few times too. So most people’s first instinct is NOT to trust people making wild claims. But, you can get past their BS detector by building trust, and the best way to build trust is to deliver real value.
Remember: Cream rises to the top, and so does the best content that delivers real value. The best content gets liked and shared and grows in popularity.
How can you deliver real value?
You’re probably wondering what real value means. So rather than tell you, I’m going to show you.
First, Google a question, and then look at the top organic Google search results. What do you notice? More likely than not, the top search result is probably an in-depth guide. It’s a great answer to your question and gives a long and detailed response. The author doesn’t hold back and leave you wanting more; they deliver real value and answer your question.
Here are some additional examples of viral content that delivered real value:
- Steph’s viral tweet that got over 12,000 retweets!
- A viral TikTok video that got over 2 million views!
- An Instagram Reel that got over 1.6 million views!
What do these all have in common?
They deliver value by giving you great information, helping improve your life, solving a problem, or combining all of these!
4. Do Crazy Shit
Unless we’re on vacation, most of our lives are pretty routine. We wake up, do similar things during our waking hours, and then go to bed. However, when someone says or does some crazy shit, it breaks us from our repetitive routine, and we pay attention.
Attention is the holy grail of any business owner. As a business owner, you need people’s attention to build relationships with them and introduce them to your products or services.
What kind of crazy shit should you do?
I wish I could give you an easy answer to this question, but ultimately it’s up to you to decide. My advice would be to be careful not to break any laws or bones and try to think outside the box. Here are some examples for inspiration:
🔥 Hot Tip: If you don’t want to do crazy shit, consider sharing stories about the crazy shit other people have done that your target market would be interested in (the Hustle does a lot of this).
5. Leverage the Power of Networks
We all have the shared experience of living through COVID, so we should all understand how things go viral. As with COVID, a vital component of getting a marketing campaign to go viral is PEOPLE! People need to engage with and share your content for it to go viral.
Be a Super Spreader
Going viral can start with you. You need to be a super spreader of your own information. Create great content and match that with a personal strategy for sharing your content with as many people as possible. Share it across social networks, with your list, and in forums and online communities you are part of.
But Rachel, that sounds so annoying and spammy!
I thought the same thing, so I brought this up to Sam, and here’s what he said:
It’s only annoying if it sucks.
Sam Parr
If you follow the other tips I’ve mentioned, the content your share will be something that people are genuinely interested in. In case it’s not obvious, you need to know your audience. For example, if you’re sharing knitting tips in a Facebook group for fishermen, it probably would be annoying and marked as spam.
Give Love to Super Spreaders
Another great way to get your content out there is to leverage the power of other people’s networks, ideally super spreaders. These may be experts in a space with a huge following full of your target market. But super spreaders can come in many shapes and sizes. For example, they could be the unassuming soccer mom that loves sharing a great deal or the retired fisherman who knows everyone in town.
6. Convert Attention
If you do everything we’ve talked about, you’ll stand out. Standing out captures attention. Once you have someone’s attention, you have to convert it, or it is all for not. Converting attention can be as simple as an invitation to deepen your relationship with your target clients. The invitation can include but is not limited to: following you, giving you their contact information, sharing your content, or even buying something from you.
Converting attention doesn’t have to be sleazy. Let’s use dating as an example. If you met an amazing person at the club (you know, romance novel soulmate stuff) and didn’t have a way to get in touch with them again, you’d be PISSED!
Giving people an opportunity to take the business relationship deeper with you is simply an invitation for you to continue to serve them. If they like your stuff, they’ll opt-in, but they can’t do anything unless you make a move and invite them to take the next step.
7. Love the Data
Here’s the thing, top marketers love data, and they’re using it way more than you ever expected.
Why?
Because…
Data Leaves Clues
There is a lot of data that can help you succeed, but you have to know where to look. For example, Ahrefs and Ubersuggest are common tools that many internet marketers use to monitor how their content is doing. It also allows them to look at the data of other businesses.
Erank.com is a tool that I use in running my Etsy store. It allows me to identify trends and long-tail keywords so I can rank in Etsy’s search, and it also allows me to see what other top Etsy sellers are doing.
Jungle Scout is a tool that Amazon sellers use to determine which products are in demand on Amazon.
Knowledge is power, and great data gives deep knowledge. So, if you’re running a business, learn to love the data and use it to your advantage.
If you can’t afford to leverage some of the powerful data tools in your industry, at the very least, try to track and monitor your own data. It can be as simple as setting goals, tracking data related to those goals, and then reviewing their impact on your business. This way, you can get valuable data on the strategies that worked well in your business (so you can repeat them) and the strategies that didn’t work.
There you have it, 7 tips for going viral from some of the best marketers I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.
