Everybody understands the power of YouTube. To increase their online video presence, companies put up video testimonials, product demos, and informative content. But there is nothing like viral videos when it comes to increasing brand awareness, creating strong brand loyalty in the customers, and boosting sales.

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In the times when traditional media is losing its audience or readers to online video platforms, young people and potential customers crave for relevant and personalized content. Viral videos help you capture their attention and become a part of their world.

Here are some of the ways how companies have successfully created online videos and used them to increase their businesses:

Cute Always Works

Classic videos that have gone viral have one thing in common. They are cute and funny. Babies, animals, or baby animals dominate the viral video world. Humor videos get shared and attract viewers easily too.

Then, videos related to trending topics also garner more eyes and a higher number of shares.

James Corden, for example, created videos that went on to become a mega sensation online after they were aired on TV by roping in favorite stars and icons at the time.

James’ videos also have ‘personality’ which is another thing that viewers love.

Online video genre allows you to experiment as much you like. Today, people have so many choices that to grab their attention; you have to show them something different and unusual.

Short videos with gripping content can go viral even if they have a low production budget. In fact, very high-quality videos may seem ‘inauthentic’ and may not as many shares as you want them too. So, focus on the content of the videos.

Free Educational or Informative Videos

Here’s a case study for you:

An online tutoring company called askIITians has recently diversified into NEET Coaching services (earlier, it was only offering JEE Main and Advanced coaching). To popularize its new product, it started providing free video lectures to the engineering and medical aspirants.

AskIITians co-founder Aditya Singhal shared, “From January 1, 2018, to March 31, 2018, our online tutors made around 650 videos (across 130 chapters from NEET syllabus) live. These videos have led to the acquisition of around 1000+ new customers for us – which is a good number considering that we target a particular type of customer (medical aspirants in India and NRIs doing NEET preparation with the technical know-how and resources to look for study support online).”

The strategy of offering online video lectures for free has helped the company to showcase the competence of its teachers and the quality of education it provides to students, increases its brand awareness, and also increases its sales.

Don’t Forget the Search Engines

Search engine optimization (SEO) will always be your friend – if you want your viewers (or potential customers) to find your videos and share them. There are a few things to remember though:

Do not mislead: Use titles that give a clear idea of what is there in your video. Misleading titles can repel your audience as they may feel tricked.

Call to Action: Video descriptions are a right place to use business-related keywords and to direct your viewers to your website or social media page.

Keywords and Backlinks: Just like textual content, you can generate traffic to your videos by using the right business-related keywords in different sections when you upload your videos, such as titles, descriptions, and tags. Do not forget to share your videos on your social media platforms and connect with other bloggers for high-quality links. Many professional video marketers add the video links to their email signatures to leverage their professional and personal contacts and generate more views.

Check the Appropriateness of the Content

While it is easy to entice the business clients with the kind of viewership viral videos can generate, it is crucial that one remembers the impact a video can have on the brand image. Stupidity, gross-factor, and off-color or politically incorrect statements can only damage the image of a brand. Hence, the type of content you use in your viral video should be in sync with the brand identity and values you are trying to promote.

We also need to remember that today viewers are quite smart and can smell marketing endeavors from miles away.

It is a rare case when videos like 'Chocolate Rain' by Dr. Pepper go viral.

And then too, the edginess of such a video may not be something you want to associate with your brand. So be very careful in planning the video content.

If you want to make your brand go viral, viral videos and viral marketing are excellent ways to catch the attention of viewers and give a boost to your brand awareness campaign. They work in short bursts. Hence, if you have short-term business goals to achieve implement these tips and see the difference.