Art or science? Or just a lucky accident?
[Image courtesy of Idea at FreeDigitalPhotos.net]
I was recently chatting with a fellow writer who told me a client of his had asked for something that was going to ‘spread like wildfire and light up the world’.
In other words, to go viral.
But the problem is that things that go viral generally tend to do so of their own accord. If there was a sure-fire formula, we’d know about it by now. But there isn’t.
Funny videos flop. Clever ideas disappear without a trace, and killer copy falls flat. Sometimes.
And sometimes, they don’t. But that’s just the point: viral copy doesn’t do command performances, and takes most people by surprise. Including the people who wrote it.
So what are you to do? Leave it to chance? Well yes, ultimately it’s all down to a roll of the digital dice, but you can increase the odds by focusing on the basics:
- Add value. It’s a trite phrase that everybody uses, but what it really means is be useful. Don’t just write for the sake of writing. Put something out there that makes a difference and gets people excited.
- Strike a chord. Things go viral when they chime with what people are thinking. So stay in touch with what’s happening in your market. Find out what’s important to your target audience: the problems they have, the solutions they’re looking for, the tips and tricks they need, the niggles they need un-niggled.
- Say something that’s useful and that people will want to pass on. Everybody likes to be the bringer of good news, the sharer of a top tip, or the solver of a problem. So give them something they just can’t keep to themselves.
- Write for one person: the ideal reader. Give him or her a name and define their basic characteristics. The more real they feel to you, the more real your copy will feel to them.
- Be different – and that means being yourself. If it’s true that people do business with people they like, it’s even truer that they connect with people they like. So pour yourself into the copy, and connect with your reader.
- Take your light-bulb moment and share it. Whenever you have an aha! experience, get it down in writing. If it lit up your imagination, chances are it’ll do the same for somebody else.
- Pump up the volume. Instead of focusing endless energy into making one piece of copy go viral, spread it around a bit. Hedge your bets by communicating often through as many channels as possible. If it’s a numbers game – and ultimately all marketing is – then push the numbers up and stack the odds in your favour.
On a practical level, make sure your copy ticks all the usual boxes:
- Write a great headline that captures people’s imagination.
- Structure your copy so it’s easy to read for scanners and skimmers (i.e. everybody in our attention-strapped virtual world).
- Make it easy and obvious what you want them to do next.
- Ask yourself why am I writing this? What’s the one thing I want it to achieve?
- Give something away, even if it’s just knowledge. Especially if it’s knowledge.
- Keep it short and simple. Keep it even shorter if you can.
And what else can you do?
Well you could try downloading and digesting Copyblogger’s viral copy report, subtitled Trading words for traffic. It’s got some great pointers to help you get started with copy that gets noticed. Though it’s been around for quite a while (it came out in 2006) it’s packed full of practical tips and sound advice that still hold true today.
And get writing right now. Crank up the handle and get your copy out there. Because the more you do, the greater the chances of it lighting up the world.
And just one last tip: never, ever aim to write viral copy. Because you can’t. And what makes it viral isn’t the writer, it’s the reader – which is what my friend told his client.
Let’s hope he passes it on.