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Going viral is the dream of every marketing team. With more than 4.7 billion active social media users worldwide every day, the power of virality from even a single post can revive a struggling product or brand almost overnight.
But creating content takes time, energy, and creativity, and even the best doesn’t always guarantee the kind of viral spread that helps sales. Going viral is more art than science.
To help outdoor businesses improve their chances of hitting the jackpot, we spoke to four brands about their viral experience and what they learned along the way.
Get started with experimentation
One of SheFly’s viral videos has a fingerprint on the camera lens. Another is only two seconds long. The boutique brand, which makes women’s pee-zip pants, has mastered the art of going viral with low-budget videos, racking up millions of views on its TikTok videos and Instagram Reels.
“Every time it happens, we can see a direct increase in sales,” said Charlotte Massey, one of the co-founders of the brand.
At first, they were caught off guard by the attention and didn’t know exactly why their content worked. But over time, the brand has focused on a style that leads to success: short videos that focus on one of three goals: make users laugh, follow a trend, or teach something useful.
But the brand could never have arrived at that formula through research alone, said Hailee Boyle, senior manager of community and partnerships. Experimentation is what is at stake for any brand trying to create its own unique formula for virality.
Boyle sees TikTok as the top of the funnel for experimentation, where people who don’t already follow the brand are introduced through the magic of the social platform’s algorithm. TikTok then turns curious people over to Instagram, where SheFly has an informative landing page that answers questions about the company’s unique products.
Touch Influencers
With a $40,000 investment from his father, Levi Conlow founded Lectric eBikes, an Arizona electric bike manufacturer, in 2018. The brand seemed poised to capitalize on the growing electric trend in the cycling industry, but at Conlow’s first trade shows , no one was interested in the products. “The first model turned out to be a disaster,” said Conlow.
After the failure, Conlow decided to reinvent his marketing strategy. In 2019, an RV trade show inspired him to send the next model of bikes with YouTubers on the road for a summer. He asked them to share details about the bike with his followers and to give him direct feedback if they hated it. It was a huge risk; one bad review could have killed his chances. But it turned out that the YouTubers were fans. “There’s something about the dynamic between influencer and fan that feels more genuine, like a friend telling you about something amazing that they just bought,” Conlow said.
That summer was a major turning point for Lectric. Within three weeks, Lectric reached $1 million in pre-orders. Channels like Fate Unbound and CheapRVLiving reviewed the electric bikes and garnered a total of 300,000 views, putting the brand on the radars of thousands of people. In less than three years, Lectric sold 200,000 units, making it the fastest growing e-bike company in the U.S. Conlow was also named an industry leader on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list this year.
“People don’t recommend dumb things,” Conlow said. “That is the power of influencer marketing and nurturing true brand ambassadors.”
Lean on the humanity of your brand
Mallory Ottarano was new to TikTok as of March. The Youer Apparel founder had just 20 followers on the platform, as opposed to her largest following on her Instagram, which served as her company’s main connection to her audience. The low stakes of the TikTok channel gave Ottarano the courage to try something bold: to be deeply, almost uncomfortably, authentic about a frustration facing the company.
@shopyouer Here’s the story of what happened in 2019 when REI invited me to feature Youer’s stuff at their headquarters. Spoiler alert: You won’t be finding our stuff on your local REI anytime soon. #outdoorsygirls #outdoorgals #outdoorretail #hikergirl #granolagirl #fairfashion ♬ Yacht Club – MusicBox
In a candid video posted on the platform, he told a story about why REI doesn’t carry his brand. “In 2019, REI’s head of marketing personally invited me to visit his headquarters and present my products,” he says in the post. “I showed up to my meeting, but there was only one buyer: a purchasing assistant. I gave him my speech and then he said, ‘We don’t do copies.’ Well, prints are my thing. The entire video is of Ottarano speaking directly into the camera. Uncool.
When he opened the app the next day, the 56-second clip had thousands of views and his account had 10,000 new followers overnight. (The post now has 1.2 million views.) On a typical weekend, she said, perhaps 1,500 people would visit Youer’s website. The weekend of the TikTok post, that number skyrocketed to 50,000 and the style of dress she wore in the video sold out.
“My strategy has been to just present myself as a real person,” Ottarano said.
@shopyouer Yes, full transparency, this is exactly what it costs us to make our Do It Dress in a small factory in California. #supplychain #fashiondesigner #apparel #madeinusa #smallbusinesstok #fashiontok #fashioninfluencer #fairfashion ♬ original sound – Youer
His secret sauce: building trust by being completely transparent. That means everything from dancing in your basement office to letting off steam over greenwashing.
Instagram remains the brand’s safe place, Ottaiano said: Their followers tend to be more engaged there, while TikTok can be an unpleasant place. He navigates the unforgiving nature of this latest platform by following a strict personal policy around content creation: “I try to create content that fuels my creativity and makes me feel good. The things that I feel really good about are actually the things that attract attention.”
As for the business benefits of leaning on authenticity on a new platform, Youer’s TikTok videos have spawned several new wholesale accounts, Ottarano said.
When in doubt, focus on building community
In March 2020, Solo Stove began going live on Facebook every week to host virtual campfires, giving people stuck at home during the pandemic something to watch that made them feel part of a community. On live streams, the company was able to showcase its glowing fire pits in a way that seemed authentic rather than contrived. Thousands of fans joined the streams, drawn to the virtual version of sitting around a roaring fire.
@solostove Everything is better together. Elevate all your special moments with the Solo Stove Table. #solostove #girlsnight #tabletopfirepit ♬ original sound – Solo Stove
It was the feeling of community that really sold the videos to customers, said Sabrinna Lugo, the brand’s content coordinator. While the brand frequently gets millions of views on TikTok and hundreds of thousands on Instagram, they haven’t abandoned Facebook because that’s where they see the most engagement. Loyal fans interact both in private Solo Stove groups and on the public feed. Lugo says the marketing team focuses on platforms that customers gravitate towards.
Between product launches and social impact campaigns, Solo Stove also relies heavily on user-generated content submitted by its community. Content ranges from polished professional clips to candid amateur videos, like the all too relatable video of a client frantically running through the rain to cover his backyard fire pit.
@solostove I could feel the panic through the screen! Glad everything went well! 🙌🙌🙌 #solostove #rain #panic ♬ original sound – Solo Stove
Source: news.google.com