What would happen if 3,483 people shared your website on Facebook today?
You would get…
More website traffic.
More email subscribers.
More customers.
But how do you get your content to go viral?
Most people think that viral marketing is a fad and something that requires you getting lucky. So I thought I’d test to see.
Is it possible to make your content go viral?
Are there repeatable and reliable methods you can follow that consistently produce 1000s of visitors and shares?
Yes, there are!
And in this article we’re going to dissect 4 highly effective viral marketing campaigns and give you the tools and best practices you need to increase your traffic and shares.
Let’s jump in.
Campaign #1: Viral Facebook Campaign (by I Heart Sweet Life Planners)
Before I started researching this topic, I was looking at the I Heart Sweet Life Planners Facebook page when I came across a post that had 3,483 shares.
What was weird was that all of the other posts on the page had 2 to 5 shares each.
But this one had gone viral and had 1000s. Why?
I did some digging and what I found impressed me so much that I spent the next month researching every campaign I could find.
Check out what they did:
Step 1: Laura, the owner of the Facebook page, set up this landing page.
Step 2: When people subscribed, they saw this thank-you page. It asked them to share a Facebook post (the one with 3,483 shares) in exchange for a few bonus items.
Step 3: People shared and the post went viral.
- Create a Facebook post and design it to send traffic to your product page.
- After your visitors opt in to your landing page, ask them to share that post.
- Incentivize them to share by offering a bonus.
Why did this work?
I Heart Sweet Life Planners got 3,483 shares by simply asking and incentivizing people to share their Facebook post in exchange for a few additional bonuses.
Genius!
Not only that, but the post they shared has a link directly to their product page. This means they are getting direct traffic to the highest ROI page on their site (the one where people pay them money).
These basic principles are ones I saw being put into action over and over again by the companies doing the best job at viral marketing.
Those principles are:
- Incentivize people to share.
- Focus on people who have just given you their email address.
- Make it really easy for them to share.
Campaign #2: Viral Home Page Funnel (by Jeff Goins)
As soon as I saw the success of the I Heart Sweet Life Planners viral campaign, I wanted to try out the concept myself.
So I pinged my friend Jeff Goins and told him my plan:
1. We’re going to create a viral share page.
2. We’re going to show it to people after they opt in to your homepage.
3. They’ll get a few cool bonuses if they share.
Then we quickly coded up the software to execute that exact plan.
Result = 7,439 people shared his website on Twitter. 😱
Check out how it works:
Step #1: Find the most popular landing page on his site (his homepage).
Step #2: Create a viral share page that people see after they subscribe to that page.
Step #3: Ask them to share this tweet with their audience in exchange for the bonuses.
- Go to your Google Analytics account and identify your most popular page.
- Create a simple viral share page that you show to people after they subscribe to that page.
- Create a tweet for your visitors to share.
Why did this work?
Simple: The people Jeff showed this viral share page with had already shown interest in the bonus material he offered.
All he needed to do was to make it easy for them to share and receive the bonus.
Campaign #3: Viral Webinar Funnel (by Steven Johnstone)
Once I saw the success of Jeff’s campaign, I knew we had to tell our students about this framework.
So we started sharing it within our community and course.
Soon after, we saw all types of viral campaigns that were working, one of which was the viral webinar funnel that Steven Johnstone used.
Check out how it works:
Step #1: Register for his webinar.
Step #2: Get an offer of a free e-book on the thank-you page.
Step #3: Share the link to his webinar in exchange for the e-book.
- If you run webinars, give your users a bonus on the thank-you page.
- In exchange for the bonus, have them share the webinar registration page on Facebook.
Why did this work?
We’ve tested this approach on 5 live webinars that we’ve hosted, and every time the result is the same. TONS of shares.
In fact, if you are running live webinars, we recommend that you make the thank-you page a viral share page. Don’t link to it on the thank-you page; instead, make the thank-you page itself the viral share page.
This increased shares by 65% in our testing.
Campaign #4: Viral Email Funnel (by Michael Hyatt)
The last campaign we’ll break down is a viral email campaign by Michael Hyatt.
Michael runs Platform University and recently published a resource, The Ultimate Blog Headline Swipe File (99 Proven Formulas for Crafting Irresistible Headlines).
His team saw the success of these other viral campaigns and thought they would try their hand at it to see what kind of traffic and shares they could generate.
Check out what happened:
Step #1: They emailed their Platform University list.
Step #2: To get the resource, they had to share it on Facebook.
Step 3: 527 people shared it on Facebook.
- Create (or use an existing) free resource to give away.
- Tell your email list about the resource and ask them to share to get access.
Why did this work?
This is by far the quickest and most effective type of viral campaign we’ve run at Videofruit. It works because you’re sending high qualified traffic directly to a resource that they want.
You don’t want to overuse it or your audience will get sick of it. But having an email > resource campaign 4 times per year is highly recommended.
How to Create Your Own Viral Marketing Campaign
Going viral can produce great results for your business.
We’ve outlined 4 campaigns above that all got 100s of shares and 1000s of new visitors to their sites.
My recommendation:
1. Pick the 1 campaign from above that most resonated with you.
2. Create a GoViral account (it’s free forever) to set up your viral share page.
3. Run the campaign.
When you do, share the results with me in the comment section below. I would love to add your campaign and case study to this article.
Want us to find the best 2-3 growth opportunities for your business?
Book a free Strategy Call with our team. We’ll look under the hood of your business, identify your best growth opportunities, and show you the action plan for taking advantage of them.