Search

Improving Your Visibility Online

Realistic Optimism In Your Online Ad Campaign: Can A Small Slice Of Viral Pie Satisfy Your Marketing Needs?

16 November 2020

Diana Owens

While going viral in the extreme sense (acquiring an astronomical number of views) is optimum in most cases, the true value of viral can also be measured in less dramatic ways. For example, you don't need a gazillion shares to sell more products, and you don't need to be famous to improve your customer experience. There's so much to be gained from a well-executed, successful ad campaign, that even a smaller slice of that viral pie can produce a phenomenal experience.

What Your Video Begins As

Of course, it would be nice if the video your business comes up with went viral, but every campaign begins with basic concepts and ideas that serve a specific marketing purpose, no matter how glorious (or inglorious) the results. These concepts and ideas, along with technical aspects of the video campaign, must represent or convey: 

• Your brand
• The purpose of the product or service you're advertising (even if it isn't the star of the video)
• How viewers can connect with you (via social media, a link, or other detail)
• Images that provoke thought, laughter, feelings, and other content that viewers can't resist sharing
• Something memorable that viewers can recall long after they've left their viewing devices

Without making a concrete connection between your business and the video, as well as being able to capitalize on the entire campaign itself, the virality of any production is virtually moot. Your video begins as an idea, flourishes with creativity, and comes together when the end product really connects your company to customers.

How Your Video Is Effective, Even If It Doesn't Go Globally Viral 

The success of your digital marketing campaign is not necessarily measured by an astronomical number of shares, likes, and views, but by the measurable effect it has on your business, such as:

• Significantly increasing traffic to your site
• Boosting your number of followers on various social media platforms
• Improving the conversion rate of visitors to your site
• Lowering customer acquisition costs (because the video should, by default, collect customers en masse, as opposed to individually)
• Expanding your brand awareness

Thus, in your realistic optimism, the cause and effect of your video is more important than the number of views it ultimately receives. After all, even if the number of views is astronomical, if it doesn't benefit your business line in terms of sales, search engine rank, and more, what was the point?

Why A Digital Marketing Agency Is Needed For The Entire Video Initiative (Viral Or Not)

Even if you're the creative type, a professionally-polished video, accompanied by a professionally-managed campaign, is immeasurably more effective than any in-house production. A digital marketing agency brings to your table, among many other perks and benefits:

• Sharp analytical skills to measure every metric
• Strategy-minded individuals with an outside perspective
• Tools of the trade you might not be familiar with
• Project-management experience, to put the entire package of an ad campaign together, not just produce a video
• The ability to create cohesive, useful data from interactions with all those viewers who are, essentially, your potential customers 
• Expertise in the search engine optimization methods (SEO) that bring all the results to your front door (your actual website or brick-and-mortar business)
• Collective creativity that converts to powerful video production

Your creative genius can still influence your digital ad campaign; however, when it's tempered with seasoned professionals, it's going to be far more potent. There's also so much more to generating an influential video than meets the eye, especially the technical factors. Whether or not the final production garners viral status, if it doesn't yield positive repercussions, all your company's time, money, and other resources were not well-spent, period.  

Although the marketing world is obsessed with virality, don't lose sight of the small-scale gains your company can achieve, especially on an ongoing basis. Your piece of the viral pie can, indeed, be small, so long as it's successful and not a one-off snack.

Share