The word “viral” often conjures up images of doom and gloom for a CMO. Every client wants their campaign to go viral, but not every company or brand can achieve it. It’s a unicorn: rare, majestic, awe-inspiring, and something everyone wants to share with their social networks. But it’s also extremely difficult to obtain.

Wiithout experience, time, creativity and engagement, a viral marketing campaign can fall flat. But if you combine these elements (and with a little bit of luck) you could put your client’s campaign on the road to viral marketing success.

Plan of Attack

Viral marketing must have a simple plan that can adapt to changes in the creative process. Learning how to attract theright audience takes planning. DIscover your target audience’s likes and dislikes, and research the ways in which they interact with different types of media.

You will also need to plan how you will captivate them at every stage of your campaign including email, social media, display, content marketing, mobile and video. With the proper plan of attack, and the right amount of research, anyone can a create viral marketing campaign.

Maximize and Hypnotize

Many viral marketing campaigns often nclude a hypnotizing effect – something that delights the senses and emotions of the audience. Agencies and companies that chose to push the envelop and connect with audiences in a meaningful, engaging way are the ones whose campaigns stick out in the public’s mind.

This is similiar to the way radio jingles would get listeners into singing along because advertisers chose simple, catchy tunes. To maximize campaign efforts, you need to create something that hypnotizes the audience with what they know and love, and isn’t too complex.

Create Something Unique

This may sound like a tall order, but it is perhaps the most important part for a CMO to understand about viral marketing. Consumers love something new and exciting which is why you’ll need to perform some hardcore of-the-box thinking – which is becoming harder to do.

Brands often create the same ol’ ads and commercials that they feel their audience is comfortable and familiar with. This is a very large reason why would-be-viral campaigns fail. The most exciting ads are the ones that guide your audience to a new experience.

Increase Visibility

After you create your masterpiece for your clients, it is very important to gain exposure. That means promoting your content in the right places at the right times. The first viral campaigns began on YouTube which was a new horizon. Then Facebook provided increased visibility and word of mouth advertising which exploded into a new marketing frontier.

Always be ahead of your audience and watch for trends to see where they want to go next. To beat out competitors and increase your campaigns exposure, it’s crucial that you study where you should be and how to be there first.

If your client says that want you create a campaign that will go “viral”, don’t run away or sound the alarm. Explain to them the number of factors that need to be considered for a marketing campaign for toilet paper or catfood to go viral, and then layout the framework of how you envision viral marketing success. Whatever you do, don’t back away from this new and exciting challenge.