How to write a viral blog post: the perfect recipe from Mark Schaefer.

Mark Schaefer is a renowned American marketing consultant who blogs about marketing. He published numerous books and gives conferences.

Hello Mark!

His writings are not really bad, his articles are “just right”, but nothing more. He collects an average of 5 to 10 comments and some shares.

Except on an article titled: How blogging saved my life, Which had a little less than a hundred comments. And about forty shares. That is 10 to 20 times more engaging than the rest of his content.

And not ANY reviews!

From these comments and shares, we can deduce important information: Mark Schaefer has an audience and readers! But on most of its content, they are absent, asleep, unengaged. There, he managed to wake them up, to make them act. As if he sent to them an electric shock.

His post has been cited in other articles as particularly inspiring. Which brought him inbound links, SEO, traffic and reputation. This is the kind of article that brings you back the majority of your subscribers.

What is this blog post? Why has it gone so viral? More importantly, can you get those kinds of results?

Ah, I feel like I have your attention, and I have good news for you.

Yes, you can take inspiration from this post. Better, I suggest you decipher it, so that you understand all the principles… So, you too can create this kind of viral content, tenfold your audience and increase its commitment.

So, my friends, let’s dig in!

The Importance of the title choice.

« How blogging saved my life. »

Just that.

The title is interesting.

First of all, it denotes what we will read in the majority of marketing blogs. We are far from “7 tips to define your marketing strategy”, for example.

There, we are clearly on the register of the emotional and personal history.

“Saved my life”: we imagine someone who is at the end of his tether, and who finds hope in his blog. Schaefer uses influential words here (sometimes called “power words”) to catch the reader’s eye.

This generates in us a desire to know. What is this story? Could this happen to me? Can blogging solve my problems?

There is also a small voyeur side. Schaefer is going to be unveiling some stuff…and we’re loving it all. A good story. A moment of sincerity. A life lesson. It’s irresistible.

What is the lesson to be learned for your article subjects:

Schaefer chose a subject different from what he usually does, going on the emotional and personal register.

Is this the only way to do it?

Nope!

The emotional works very well but you can also stay on informational articles.

You can write long, comprehensive guides, never personal stories… And it will work really well too. You just have to put lots of effort into the quanlity and quantity… between 3000 and 5000 words per post.

But back to Mark Schaefer and his emotional blog post.

Could you apply the emotional in your theme?

I am sure of it. If you have a weight loss blog, you have a story to tell. Maybe yours. A childhood of a chubby kid, who takes up sport late in life, after being harassed…

If you have a golf blog, it’s the story of your biggest loss and the doubts that cames up.

If it’s real estate, it’s this tenant who destroyed your apartment, to the point where financial problems kept you up at night.

Everyone has cracks, right.

It will surely be easier to write than a long complete guide, and above all, it will be unique. Your story. Your voice. No competitor will be able to follow you on this ground. Perfect for building loyalty.

Let’s continue to analyze the article.

This blog post is not even a real one!

I’m not kidding. Schaefer says so. This article is a simple transcription of one of his conference’s speeches.

He noticed that the audience was hooked, and he simply decided to copy his speech on his blog. That’s 1500 words.

When I tell you that the advantage of an emotional article is precisely that it does not take too long to write.

Let’s see how Mark Schaefer presents his article. In fact, there is a trap to avoid.

Write the introduction of your article successfully:

The trap is to throw out your emotional message point-blank… and your audience does not understand it.

I take the example of a real estate blog. If you attack by saying that you haven’t slept in days, your audience may say to themselves: “but what is he talking about? “. You risk scaring off your readers.

Schaefer will therefore propose a link between marketing data and his story. And it is a statistic on social network users that will allow him to make the connection between the world of his readers (the marketing world), and his personal story.

Schaefer will therefore say that 30% of Facebook users would feel jealousy when they explore other’s profiles.

Why? Because you are there, at home, struggling…

…And you see your cousin posting vacation photos in Morocco (how nice the weather was), such an influencer appearing in his new convertible (well, he rented it), and your high school friend talking about her super cute new boyfriend…

Schaefer will put a big blow in the anthill, revealing that infopreneurs also have moments of doubt. Moments of distress. Like everyone. No one lives a 100% dream life. Even if we always try to give ourselves a positive image on the internet. So… you shouldn’t be jealous when you check social media.

This is a very clever communication strategy. Because it generates a colossal identification.

Who has never felt a little jealousy on Facebook? Nobody. (Ah, Brad Pitt manure, with his good looks, his millions and his success.)

Schaefer therefore practices mind reading at the beginning of his article. That is to say, it will describe the emotional state of the reader. “Yes, I know you, I know you sometimes get jealous seeing the good life of others on Facebook. Yet you shouldn’t. Look. I’m a wealthy marketing consultant. I am independent. And yet, despite my image as a winner, I lived through hell”.

The lesson for bloggers

If you want to talk about yourself in a personal tone, always try to make the link with the reader and your topic, from the beginning of your article.

In our example on real estate, we should avoid writing:

“I woke up sweating at 4am. Even the sleeping pill no longer works. I lost weight”.

It would be better to do something like:

« I read in the real estate newspaper that 5% of tenants return the apartment to you completely ransacked. Well, I have a secret to tell you. I, the investment genius, had it too. I almost lost everything because of a tenant who confused “house” with “dump”. The results? Financial and health consequences. I’ve suffered insomnia for months even sleeping pills couldn’t help, etc… »

Obviously, you can vamp, contextualize. The more you set the scene, the more influence words you use, is better.

So. After explaining this, Mark Schaefer will reproduce his conference speech. Let’s continue the analysis.

Write the development of your blog article successfully:

Step 1: Setting up

We will decrypt it in broad strokes.

In this part, the author explains the starting situation.

Mark started out working for a top 100 company. He didn’t like it that much, because his boss was evil. After 6 months of hesitation, Mark decided to quit that job and create his own business. His lifelong dream. So he started working hard on the project that meant so much to him.

At that time, he had to face a tragedy: a horrible divorce.

This divorce is a tipping point in this story, which takes us to part 2 of this blog post.

Step 2: undergo

In this part of the article, Mark explains how the storm is unleashed.

Mark tries to create his company. But he and his alcoholic wife begin divorce proceedings at loggerheads. What is very hard for him is that she leaves him to go with his drinking mate. And that she takes away her children. As a stepfather, Mark has no rights over these children, whom he nevertheless loves as his own.

The troubles continue.

He has serious health problems. A spinal cord problem. Mark, who already has to give half of what he owns to his ex, finds himself faced with insane medical bills. Plus the fear of passing away.

And as if that was not enough, during these 18 months of hell, three of his friends died. Two from sickness, and the third shoots himself.

In his article, Mark tells about his terrors and despair. He is sincere. He recounts without making tons of it. It’s just touching. And anyone who’s ever been through this kind of shit in their life (a lot of people, in this case), feels close to him. Identification, again and again. Readers feel where he comes from.

But then something happens that he hadn’t foreseen. While his doctor asks him to measure his blood pressure throughout the day, Mak Schaefer realizes that it is when he blogs that his pressure returns to normal.

Writing on his site does him a lot of good, it’s his only respite of the day.

This transition brings us to the third part of his story.

Step n°3: Take things in hands.

Things are starting to get back in order for our friend Mark. (Yes, now, after having exposed his problems with such sincerity, we feel compassion).

When blogging, three things happen to him:

First of all, writing does him good, and contributes to his healing.

Then, his blog starts to be read, and he feels this connection to his audience. And what is great is that in these articles, he does not talk about his difficulties. He simply talks about marketing, business, entrepreneurship. His favorite subjects. He makes new “virtual” friends, and he presents himself to them in a new light. A bit like when you change companies. You arrive in a new work environment, and everything that happened in your old company no longer counts, no longer exists. For them, he is Mark, the expert. Not Mark, at the bottom of the hole. And that pulls him up.

And finally, third point, Mark realizes that having had so many problems makes him a better person. When we’ve had so much of it, we listen better. We judge less. We understand. And so he draws strengths and lessons from it…

These three lessons bring us to the final step of his highly successful blog post

Step 4: the confrontation and the epilogue

In this last part, Mark explains that to be human is to suffer. And that people who post a dream life on social media suffer, just like you. And that suffering forges a character, a resilience, a soul. And that even if today you are swimming in problems, at some point something will happen. You’ll want to bounce back, and you’ll start something. In short, it is at this moment that he positions himself as a wise old man who has learned the lesson of his trials.

And that it is precisely these ordeals that have allowed him to succeed in blogging.

The question is: why does this blog post resonate this much?

I read it several times before understanding what was underlying it. And I found it! We can make the connection with two great universal principles, which I am going to describe to you now.

What’s great is that you can follow the “recipes” that I’m going to give you, so that you too can build this kind of differentiating blog post.

This article in 4 steps is based on a precise diagram.

These four steps are those that Larry Brooks describes in his book Story Engineering.

I’ll explain.

Stories are very powerful levers for your content. Because stories, tales resonate in all human beings. We identify with the hero, we vibrate for him, we get attached, we want him to succeed. Mastering the art of transforming content (a blog post, a YouTube video, or an ad) into a story is called storytelling.

Marketers have understood this, and ads are full of storytelling.

Does this seem complicated to you? Not that much.

The little secret is to understand that storytelling obeys structures. I’m interested in this subject, and the simplest structure I know is the one developed by Larry Brooks in his book Story Engineering which I will summarize for you now and explain in detail in a future article.

• Part 1, setting up: we present the hero, the setting, who the people are, their character, their lives.
• Part 2 is when the hero undergoes the events
• Part 3 is when the hero takes over.
• Part 4 is the final showdown and lessons learned.

It’s up to you to write now!

I showed you why Mark’s article had 10 to 20 times more engagements than his other content.

It is empathy.

It is based on precise storytelling elements, deciphered in the story engineering book.

It is universal because it follows the Hudson cycle, which promotes identification.

I am convinced that this kind of models can be applied in all themes. You have the keys to write it too.

The next question will be from your audience. If you already have a list of subscribers, you will see how your audience will react. And that will change everything: from readers, they will become fans.

If you do not yet have an audience, you will need to add a few elements to your article. For example, quoting blogs, videos in your content, putting links, and then asking the people quoted if they would like to share your content. A simple way to prime the traffic pump.

So, are you going to get started? We can chat together in the comments, just below.