This document provides research-backed methods for creating highly engaging content. It discusses how certain positive emotions like surprise and amusement can make content go viral. Data-driven content is more likely to succeed if it has an emotional hook. The document also outlines steps for developing shareworthy content campaigns, including gathering data, packaging it visually, and pitching it to popular websites. Publishers prefer visually interesting content on trending topics that is brief, error-free and pitched at optimal times by email. Case studies demonstrate how following these methods can generate thousands of press mentions and social shares.

1. RESEARCH-BACKED METHODS FOR CREATING HIGHLY-
ENGAGING CONTENT
Kerry Jones | A4 Advanced Analytics & Advertising, May 24, 2016 | kerry@frac.tl | @snarkandpepper

2. MEET FRACTL
WESPECIALIZEIN
CONTENT MARKETING
CAMPAIGNS THAT
GET MASSIVE
EXPOSURE
• Our clients’ content has received thousands of
press mentions and millions of social shares
and impressions
• Data-driven approach to content creation and
publisher outreach
• Research on viral marketing, influencer
marketing, and content marketing

4. YESTERDAY’SMARKETING

5. TODAY’SMARKETING

6. THE CONTENT MARKETING BOOM

8. SUPPLY HAS OUTPACED THE DEMAND
50% of articles
received less than 8
social shares

9. ISMORECONTENT REALLY THEANSWER?

10. ONECAMPAIGN =
100S OF PRESS MENTIONS

11. “PERCEPTIONS OFPERFECTION”CAMPAIGN
http://frc.tl/1MGRnEU

12. THE RESULTS WERESHOCKING

13. HOWITSTARTED

14. DURINGTHEFIRST WEEK…

15. CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS

16. TRADITIONALMEDIAREACHED OUT

17. High-Authority Press Brand Awareness Consumer Engagement Inbound Leads Conversion
High-Authority Links Increased Organic Rankings Inbound Traffic Inbound Leads Conversion
WHAT ARETHE BENEFITS?

19. Our highest performing client
campaigns are 8x more likely to
have a strong emotional hook
than low performing campaigns.

21. “INTHELANGUAGEOF THEVISUAL WEB,
WHEN WE SHAREAVIDEO ORANIMAGE,
WE’RE NOTJUSTSHARING THEOBJECT,
BUTWE’RE SHARING INTHEEMOTIONAL
RESPONSE ITCREATES.”
– ABIGAIL POSNER
HEAD OF STRATEGIC PLANNING

22. PART 1:THE EMOTIONSTHAT MAKE MARKETING
CAMPAIGNSGOVIRAL

26. ISA BARBIEBODYPOSSIBLE?
56,000+ Social Shares
250+ Publisher Stories
6,000 Comments
Is a Barbie Body Possible?
CASE STUDY

29. THE HORRORSOFMETHAMPHETAMINES
CASE STUDY
3.9 Million Views
The Horrors of Methamphetamines
1,200 Publisher Stories
750% Organic Traffic Increase

31. RESEARCH
THEEMOTIONS THAT
MAKE CONTENTGO
VIRAL
Key Finding: Certain emotions are better than
others at driving people to share.
• High-arousal emotions are the most essential
piece of shareworthy content.
• Complex or contrasting emotional experiences
result in higher levels of arousal.
• An element of surprise is a key ingredient in
shareworthy content.
http://research.frac.tl/viral-­emotions-­research

32. Top 10 Emotions
CERTAIN EMOTIONS
WEREEXTREMELY COMMON.

33. Bottom 10 Emotions
WHILEOTHER EMOTIONSWERE
EXTREMELY UNCOMMON.

34. 98%
OF THEIMAGES EVOKED A
POSITIVE EMOTION, ONLY
2% WERE NEGATIVE.

35. CONTRASTING EMOTIONSINCREASED THEEMOTIONAL IMPACT

36. EMPATHY ACTS AS
AN EMOTIONAL
MULTIPLIER
FORCONTENTTHATELICITS
NEGATIVEEMOTIONS.

37. INTEREST, SURPRISE,
ANDAMUSEMENT ACT
as emotionalmultipliersfor
positiveemotions.

38. ADMIRATION
WAS COMMONLYFOUNDIN
HIGHLYSHARED IMAGES,
AN UNEXPECTEDRESULT.

39. PART 2:THE ELEMENTS OFSHARE-WORTHY CONTENT

41. ORIGINALORNEWSWORTHY

42. ORIGINALORNEWSWORTHY

43. Total Domain Authority: 32,012
Publisher Stories:
1,860
Social Shares:
91,741
MOST POPULAR CONCERT DRUGS
Notable Pickups:

44. PROVENSUCCESS
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ashleyperez/global-beauty-standards

45. Total Domain Authority: 28,603
Publisher Stories:
590
Social Shares:
Over 1 million
PERCEPTIONS OFPERFECTION
Notable Media Pickups:

46. TRENDINGSTORIES

47. Total Domain Authority:
5,758
Publisher Stories:
120
Social Shares:
4,350
Asset:
Parallax
DIGITALVANITY:A STUDY OF100 CELEBRITIESAND THE #SELFIEREVOLUTION
Notable Media Pickups:

48. VISUALLY ENGAGINGORINNOVATIVE
Whattypesof contentdoyou wish you sawmore of?

49. Total Domain Authority:
1,627
Publisher Stories:
245
Social Shares:
13,872
Asset:
Interactive Map
AVERAGEREADINGLEVEL OF PEOPLEBY STATE
Notable Pickups:

50. BROADLYAPPEALING IDEA
BROADLYAPPEALING IDEA

52. COMPARISONOR RANKING

54. POP CULTUREREFERENCES

55. POP CULTUREREFERENCES

57. RELATED TO YOURBRAND/INDUSTRY

59. PART 3:HOW TO COMEUPWITH SHARE-WORTHY IDEAS

60. Does this content need to fit within a
certain section of the sales funnel?
Are we looking for social engagement,
traffic or both?
How much time and budget do we
have to produce this content?
BEFOREYOUCOMEUPWITHIDEAS, ASK…

61. RESEARCH: WHAT’S EVERYONETALKING ABOUT?
Research popular content using these tools:
ü BuzzSumo
ü Reddit
ü BuzzFeed Trending Content
ü What’s Trending
ü Facebook Trending (right column in your News Feed)
ü Twitter Trends (left column of your stream)

62. WHAT’S EVERYONETALKING ABOUT?

63. WHAT’S EVERYONETALKING ABOUT?

64. WHAT’S EVERYONETALKING ABOUT?

65. WHAT’S EVERYONETALKING ABOUT?

66. WHAT’S EVERYONETALKING ABOUT?

67. MAKE SENSE OFYOURRESEARCH
What sub-topic is the most talked about?
Can we tie a popular topic to recent news?
Any topics that have been covered that still have
questions?
Any content that we could execute better?

68. LOOKFOR GREAT IDEASTHAT FELL SHORT
Sometimes poor production or lack of promotion kept a
great idea from gaining traction.
Can you improve upon the idea with:
• Better data: More current, in-depth, or authoritative
information
• Better visual assets: Higher quality or more detailed

69. EXAMPLE: WEALTHIEST PEOPLE CAMPAIGN

70. ISYOURIDEAEMOTIONALLY APPEALING?
The idea should have a strong emotional hook
that incorporates one of the top 10 viral emotions.
Also incorporate at least one of these:
• Interest: Is the idea engaging and clever?
• Amusement: Is the idea entertaining and fun?
• Surprising: Is the idea unexpected or novel?

71. PART 4:HOW TO TURN YOURIDEAS INTOCAMPAIGNS

72. STEP 1: GATHER DATA
• Internal data: for example, a recruitment company could release
their data on trending jobs)
• Surveys or polls: Crowdflower.com, SurveyMonkey.com, and
Amazon Mechanical Turk)
• Public data: combine datasets to reveal interesting trends and
findings

73. Google Data Search
Engine
Data.gov
/r/DataSets
/r/OpenData
Science.gov
Datahub
Europeana Labs
FINDINGDATASETS

74. BUILDINGYOUROWNDATASETS
Survey Tools
SurveyMonkey.com
CrowdFlower.com
Mturk.com

75. THINK OUTSIDETHE BOX

76. STEP 2: PACKAGE YOURDATA INVISUALIZATIONS

77. TABLEAU PUBLIC

78. GOOGLECHARTS

79. CARTODB

80. MAPS

81. GIFS

82. GIFS

83. LIVEMAP

84. PART 5:HOW TO GET YOURCAMPAIGNPUBLISHEDON
POPULAR WEBSITES
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” – Benjamin Franklin

85. PUBLISHER
RESEARCH
ASURVEY OF OVER 500
TOP-TIER PUBLISHERS
“Too many submissions we get are
clearly just pitches for a company,
attempting to masquerade as thought
pieces, a press release dressed as a
guest post.”
— TechCrunch guest post policy

86. VOLUMEOFPITCHES
Some top-tier writers receive up to
26,000 pitches per year.
About how manypitchesdoyou receive per day?

87. ONLY 5 STORIESPUBLISHED A WEEK
45% of writers publish one story per
day on average.
how manystories doyou writeon average?

88. THE ODDSAREAGAINSTYOURPITCH
Only 11% of writers said they “very
often” write a story based on content
that was sent through pitches.
Hoe oftendoyou writea story based on
somethingthatwassentthrough a pitch?

89. WHAT THEY’RELOOKINGFOR
Other common phrases included:
unusual angles, interesting data,
compelling content, and trending
topics.
Whatcharacteristicsdoesthe
perfectpieceof contentpossess?

90. TYPES OFCONTENT THEY WANT
Articles, infographics, mixed-media,
data visualizations, images, and
videos are the most-wanted content
formats.
Whattypesof contentdoyou wish
you sawmore?

91. EMAIL YOURPITCH
81% of writers prefer you send your
pitch through email.
On whichof thefollowing channels
doyou prefer tobe pitched?

92. NO ROOMFORMISTAKES
85% of writers are likely to delete a
pitch based on spelling and
grammar errors, regardless of the
content’s quality.
How likely areyou todeletea pitchbased on a
spelling/grammar error, regardlessof the
content’squality?

93. HOOKTHEM WITHAGREAT SUBJECTLINE
85% of writers said that they open
an email based on its subject line,
so your subject line is your best
call-to-action.
Doyou open anemailbased onitssubject line?

94. PUBLISHER SURVEY
More than 50% of publishers are
looking to be pitched with a subject
line that is descriptive, specific, and
above all, tailored to their beat.
Greatsubjects linesare…

95. KEEP ITSHORT
Almost 90% of publishers want a
pitch between 100-200 words
Whatemaillengthdoyou prefer?

96. SEND PITCHES INTHEMORNING
Almost 70% of writers want to be
pitched in the morning hours.
whattimeof daydoyou preferto be pitched?

97. NO MORETHAN 2 FOLLOWUPEMAILS

98. PUTTING ITALL TOGETHER: CASESTUDIES & KEY
TAKEAWAYS

99. 6-MONTH CASE STUDY:MOVOTO

100. 1-YEARCASE STUDY: REHABS.COM

101. SHAREWORTHY CONTENT ISNOT ASILVER BULLET
Be realistic about what this type of content can accomplish.
• Garner high levelsof brand awareness
• Attract “top of funnel” prospects
• Generate interest in a product or service (harder to do, but not
impossible)

102. KEY TAKEAWAYS
ü Certain emotions and emotional combinations are vital (Remember: positive,
contrasting, surprise, amusement,interest)
ü The right idea is crucial (newsworthy,emotional,relevant to your brand, proven
success)
ü Taking a proven, systematic approach can greatly increase your content’s
potential for success

103. QUESTIONS?
KERRY@FRAC.TL
TWITTER:@SNARKANDPEPPER
OUR RESEARCH:HTTP://FRAC.TL/RESEARCH