Author: Lorenzo D’Amore
In the ever-changing digital landscape, creating viral content has become one of the most sought-after strategies for companies that want to expand their visibility and engage their audience in an authentic way. But what does ‘viral content’ really mean in 2024? With the rise of new social platforms and the evolution of algorithms, being able to create content that spreads quickly requires more than just numbers. You need to combine creativity, timing and a deep understanding of your target audience. And in this context, content marketing plays a key role. But what is content marketing? Content marketing is the branch of marketing that encompasses various strategies to create and distribute content, both textual and visual, that is relevant and of value to a brand or product/service. The goal is to engage the audience in a way that also influences their purchasing decisions.
Whether your passion is creating a blog for your website, posting useful tutorials on YouTube or writing eBooks and guides, you too can use content marketing to grow your brand. This article will give you a comprehensive explanation of content marketing and how to do it well, as well as some examples and tips to guide your content marketing journey.
How Do You Attract Customers? The 3 Phases of Content Marketing
A key part of engaging with your audience is to develop a content marketing plan aligned with the different stages of the buyer's journey, i.e. the process customers follow when searching for, evaluating and ultimately purchasing a product or service. This journey consists of three main stages:
1) Awareness: At this stage, content marketing is all about creating awareness for your brand and your products or services. Your potential customers are just realizing that they have a problem. And your goal is to get their attention. You should create content that provides high-level education and has broad appeal in order to attract as many relevant people as possible. Effective content types for this phase can include Blog posts, Infographics, Ebooks, Social media posts.
2) Consideration: In the consideration stage, you can nurture leads and push them to consider your business, because your audience is actively looking for solutions. The best solution is to create in-depth content that is persuasive and explains what makes you stand out from the competition. Effective content types at this stage are comparison articles and webinars.
3) Decision: In this third and final stage, leads are ready to buy. Therefore, provide leads with content that solidifies your value to give them the final push towards action. You need to create content that instill a sense of urgency, addresses any objections and makes it easy to take the next step. Effective content types: success stories, product demos and customer testimonials.
How To Create Viral Content: 3 Techniques
Technique 1: Create content that solves problems
People are always looking for practical solutions to everyday problems, and if your content offers a clear and well-structured answer, it will not only increase the likelihood that it will be read, but also that it will be shared and mentioned, thus improving your authority and visibility online. Indeed, content that solves problems tends to be shared more frequently than content that is merely informative or promotional. When a reader finds a useful solution, they are more likely to share it with their network, either on social media or through other digital channels. This kind of organic sharing can generate a ripple effect, allowing your content to reach an ever wider audience.
Technique 2: Use catchy titles and strategic keywords
A catchy, keyword-optimized title not only attracts users' attention, but is crucial for making your content easily findable on search engines. When creating content, e.g. for a blog, the title is the first element that captures the user's interest and determines the initial impact. For a title to stand out, it must be able to combine creativity and technical precision. The inclusion of long-tail keywords is one of the most effective strategies for improving organic visibility and reaching a specific audience. These keywords can be used to create content that responds to precise needs and well-defined search intentions. This allows you to intercept a target audience, i.e. people more likely to convert than users searching for generic information.
Technique 3: Exploiting visual and interactive content
Visual formats such as infographics and videos are particularly effective for a reason explained by neuroscience: the human brain processes images much faster than text. This is why visual content is able to capture attention immediately. Infographics, videos and interactive content create greater engagement because they offer a more dynamic and stimulating experience than simple text. These types of content encourage the user to interact, click and share. At the same time, entertainment also plays a key role: funny, surprising or unusual content tends to go viral, as it breaks the routine and offers a moment of entertainment.
The Netflix Case: How to Create Viral Content Through a Customized and Interactive Marketing Strategy
An example of highly successful content marketing is Netflix, one of the world's most popular streaming platforms. Netflix has distinguished itself not only through the quality of its content, but also through a marketing strategy based on a deep understanding of its audience and the use of targeted and creative content. Through a mix of personalisation, use of social media and engaging storytelling, Netflix has revolutionized the way content marketing is done, becoming a benchmark in the industry. The main strategies behind this success have been:
Creation of Original and Viral Content: Netflix has been able to exploit the popularity of its original series, such as Stranger Things or La Casa de Papel, not only by producing high-quality content, but by promoting it in a creative way. For example, for the launch of Stranger Things, Netflix released engaging and interactive teasers on social media, stimulating curiosity and encouraging users to share speculations and theories.
Personalization of the Experience: Through advanced recommendation algorithms, Netflix personalized each user's experience, suggesting content based on their tastes and viewing behaviour. This type of personalized marketing helps users discover new series or films, improving retention rates and digital word-of-mouth.
Involvement Through Interactive Experiences: In addition to classic trailers, Netflix has introduced interactive experiences such as episodes where viewers can choose the course of the narrative (e.g. Kaleidoscope). This type of content not only creates a unique experience, but also generates strong media attention and online discussions, increasing virality.
Netflix has therefore shown that creating viral content in 2024 is not only about producing quality videos or posts, but also leveraging social dynamics and digital culture to create meaningful connections with audiences, stimulating sharing and engagement.
Final Considerations
As we have seen in this article, creating viral content in 2024 therefore requires a deep understanding of new digital dynamics and evolving audience preferences. While social media algorithms become increasingly sophisticated and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality offer new opportunities, the core of a winning strategy remains the ability to authentically connect with people. Looking to the future, content marketing will have to be increasingly focused on personalisation, creativity and real-time interaction to not only capture attention, but turn that engagement into lasting relationships with the brand.
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