To kick-start the LeadSquared webinar series for 2016, we had award-winning viral video marketer Aashish Chopra from ixigo, share his expertise on viral video marketing. The webinar also threw light on how to approach content for virality, including closing the ROI loop, and future trends of viral video marketing. In case you missed it, here’s a summary of some of the questions asked during the session and answers to them. You can also find the link to the webinar recording below:
Question 1
I liked the webinar presentation on viral video marketing. But how far will it (video marketing) work for a B2B market?
A friend asked me the same question saying the video is great for B2C but what about B2B? The only difference is in the measuring yardsticks.
For B2C, if a video hits a million views, it’s a hit. But for B2B, if say a thousand CEOs see that video or that piece of content, it’s a hit. The benchmarks are different.
This friend works in software (sales); his company provides software solutions to other businesses, a typical B2B business. What are the problems of these customers? Figure that out and solve it. Make a how-to video perhaps. Celebrate the life of your users. It’s not that the fundamentals are different, just that the measuring yardsticks are different.
For example, an article I wrote recently.. ‘Content Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2016’ went crazy on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is to B2B what Facebook is to B2C. When it got crazy numbers in views and shares on LinkedIn, it validated my focus about providing ‘value’. If the content provides value, it becomes worthy of sharing. Your users can change, platforms can change, benchmarks can change, but the idea about providing value stays as a fundamental, in my opinion.
Question 2
What kind of video can we create for the branding purposes?
I feel every video is a branding video. When you are making a video, you want to make sure the video impacts millions of people. And in every such video, your branding goes with the video. When brands create videos, the content has the brand DNA, and in content marketing, every such content piece adds to the branding.
It’s like for the movies, entertainment is a given, and for any video brands make.. branding as a result is given. How far that branding impact goes, depends on the quality of storytelling and share-worthiness.
For more inputs on branding, check out this webinar on:
Question 3
We are in the solar energy business. Is it wise for us to make videos for this kind of a business?
Mention the usefulness and celebrate it. How environment-friendly it is! How can it change the world! Use solar energy to show something. Show how it works, even if it’s behind the scenes. Don’t assume people know how it works. A lot of people in smaller towns will have no idea about how solar energy actually works. Make it for them. Make ten videos, two will work.
Question 4
We are an education business and we need to create content to get more students in. What kind of videos can work for us?
If you have to enrol students, make sure you have a distribution base, as to where will you share that video. Make sure your Facebook page has enough fans/followers. If you don’t have enough, spend money and generate that audience.
If you are making a video for students, get into the lives of students. India has the biggest student market in the world. Problem-solving is one, but if you celebrate the nuances, little things in their lives like, 10 worst things you have heard from your dad or 10 things every psychology student has to listen to etc then you will have a different impact. Make a simple video that every student can identify with, for example.. decision making about your career in 2 simple steps.
The content can fall under a couple of buckets.
- Is your content useful?
- Is it inspirational – is it inspiring any action?
- Celebrate their nuance. Celebrate their life.
- Topical– which is news jacking (Breaking news + Brand DNA)
- Change the world –If you do something really big, it might become a movement.
Question 5
Can I use UTM tags to track WhatsApp shares?
In my experience, it hasn’t worked yet. On WhatsApp, whenever we post anything, say I post a video and with that video I post a link. In that link you can have that UTM tag or you can have a bitly link to measure the clicks, but WhatsApp strips the link when it’s shared again. I say keep experimenting and wait for WhatsApp (Facebook) to release an insights tool or content monitoring tools for WhatsApp.
Visit our blog for more webinar recordings and marketing blog posts.
