A 5-step plan for explaining ‘viral’ content to wide-eyed clients

So, how do you handle the situation?

Tell them the truth

Once you hear their requests for your project, let them know up front you can’t guarantee anything going viral. Of course, they may not want to hear that. You need to have examples if necessary. To do this, show them examples that have and haven’t gone viral. If both pieces are the same quality, it might be a good visual for them to see how being viral is something that doesn’t just happen.

Ask what ‘viral’ means to them

In the case of marketing, viral usually means grabbing a lot of attention and drawing lots of visits to your client’s website. But what is that metric? Having a discussion about how much traction you would like with the piece of content they are promoting can make both your lives easier. If you’ve created an infographic, determine how many sites you want to pick it up. More important, determine what types of sites are you targeting. Infographics are great, and they can give your client a lot of juice, but if the client also wants exposure to the brand, you want the right audience to see it.

Tell the client what you can do