1. Making your Video
go Viral
Creating a Viral Video for Small
Businesses

2. Why should your small business
advertise with a viral video?
O What will cost your
company $50,000 to
develop for TV, you
might develop for the
web with $500.
O On Facebook alone,
you have 500 million
involved contributors
ages 12 to 65.

3. Why should your small
business advertise through a
viral video?
O Promotional elements meant for web
based use will be faster to produce
compared to other media.
O There are not complex preparations
necessary or legal documentation
needed.
O Your business cannot develop a viral
video however.
O You can only create an awesome video
and hope that it goes viral.

4. #1: Extremely targeted
content
O It will be critical to start out by
understanding who your projected
audience is and what they are interested
in, just like you would do when creating
new merchandise.
O When you construct a video without any
consideration of who will see it, you are
wasting your effort.

5. #2: Do not lie to your
audience
O Awhile ago a viral video picked up well
over five million visitors.
O It involved a man in a wet suit heading
down a man made waterslide, launching
himself in the air and landing in an
inflatable kiddie pool.
O A few days after it launched, people
wondered if the stunt was even possible.

6. #2: Do not lie to your
audience
O In the end, they proved the stunt was
faked.
O The creators of the video eventually
admitted that the whole event was
computer generated and took the video
down.

7. #2: Do not lie to your
audience
O There was a variety of undesirable
commentary on YouTube.
O Shoppers do not enjoy getting tricked.
When making a viral video, state right
away that the video is promotional.

8. #3: Customers don’t mind if
a video is promotional, if
they are entertained
O Old Spice and Evian have videos that
started on Television but became
successful on the web.
O Both are visibly promotional yet also
entertaining which means that potential
customers are willing to watch them
anyway.

9. #4: Find a way to connect
O The easiest way to persuade anyone to
circulate a video to family and friends is to
stir up feelings, whether it is making them
laugh or sob.
O In addition to emotion, you can find other
common characteristics exist in many viral
videos -- music, dancing, attractive
women, Candid Camera-style pranks,
babies and pop culture and political
references.

10. #4: Find a way to connect
O When implementing video as a marketing
strategy, you truly need to understand
your market and what would be of the
most interest to them.
O The video should be smart and add to the
virtual space, rather than interrupting
it, which is often the effect of comedy or
shock value.

11. #5: Make it Quirky
O Predicting what will go viral is almost
impossible, but a common characteristic
of viral videos is "quirkiness.”
O There needs to be something new and
different and maybe even a little weird to
get the average individual to share a
video.

12. #5: Make it Quirky
O Piano-playing cats, finger-
biting babies, the Star
Wars kid – many of us
have viewed these viral
videos on YouTube,
chuckled and then
distributed them to people
we know.
O That is exactly the
response marketer’s are
looking for from potential
customers.

13. #6: Keep it short and sharp.
O A video needs to be easily
viewed by a multitasking
generation.
O It is best to persuade
people early on, be
interesting, not exceedingly
promotional and don't
abandon your marketing
message towards the end
because they may have
clicked away by then.

14. #7: Do not devote a lot of
time or finances.
O The more funds spent putting together a
video, the more viral it must be for your
business to get a return on your
investment.
O So make it cheap.

15. #8: Circulate it
O When you have the video get it out
there.
O Friday at noon is the best time slot
to launch a video -- many people
are just returning from lunch and
you can get a lot of views at once.
O Upload to web sites such as
Facebook and Twitter, where
sharing videos is both easy and
expected.

16. #8: Circulate it
O Test several types of content, launching it
weekly and distributing everywhere.
O The goal will be to build a greater
relationship with consumers through the
use of engaging information,
O Instead of hitting individuals over the head
with obvious hard sales practices.

17. Going viral will not always
generate money.
O A video may be watched by 5 million
young adults, but if the merchandise is
meant for the elderly, the views will not
translate to actual sales and profits.

18. Still not convinced?
Here are several results
which might compel you
to contribute video posts
to your marketing
campaign:

19. Still not convinced ?
O Internet video is considered the one
advertising platform with a growth rate of
forty to sixty percent per year.
O More common media, such as television
and print, have level or decreasing growth
rates.

20. Still not convinced ?
O Internet video viewing is on the rise
across all demographics.
O A greater video readership may mean you
can target additional potential customers
and turn them into purchasers.

21. Still not convinced ?
O The Return on investment of getting face-
to-face with customer eyeballs through the
use of online video is significant, due to
affordable development and submission
expenses.

22. Still not convinced ?
O A video is about 10 times more prone to
land in the top 10 search engine rankings
over articles on the same product,
because search engines seek to broaden
their results.
O In other words, videos get preferential
treatment, and there is a much better click
through rate compared to text articles
because videos appear with a hard-to-
miss thumbnail.

23. Still not convinced ?
O Video is easily the most visceral and
interactive form of social networking,
which makes it the most beneficial and
engaging marketing tool.
O People recall video a lot more than, say, a
banner ad.

24. For more internet marketing
tips and tricks visit
www.ithinkanidea.com