What Aashish Chopra teaches about B2B marketing

Many people asked me at the events that you know, I have to viral video. I am like, these are all flying. You know, everybody today wants to create a viral video. One, do you believe there is a concept today still called viral video? If yes, you know, what are the right success metrics in that? And how do you actually achieve them? See viral is very, such an abuse word in the industry. Everybody wants a viral, they don't want to spend anything. It's almost like a category in the videos. We'll have, you know, two information, you know,

videos which are about information, education and a viral category. As if viral is in our hands. Yeah. Somebody asked me, many people asked me at the events that, you know, a video viral. I'm like, this is how many of you are going to be. So, it will be viral. But the thing is, that's entirely wrong focus about viral content. Because viral, I do not do it, viral is people. Right. So the operating word for viral, which I obsess about over the last four years, we built, you know, a process behind it is share worthy.

If somebody shares your content and that spreads like wildfire, then we achieve that, you know, viral effect. Like for different platforms, it could mean different things. Yes. But viral to me is not about technology or platform. It's about understanding and giving a shit about the user experience. You know, giving a shit about the user behavior. For example, we say, okay, the content has to be worthy of sharing. Now, what is worthy of sharing? Right. And so we've done tons of experiments in the last five years

to figure out which category worked, which category didn't. Right. So we have like five categories, which I obsess about. Either the content, the video has to be inspirational. People get inspired and they want to share it. Or it's useful. It's driven from obsessing about the pain points. Because as a product, we can solve one pain point of the user. But as content, we can actually solve all those pain points, which our product doesn't solve. So now that makes useful content.

So for example, if we take a pain point of, say, a traveler traveling in trains, and we creatively try to solve, for example, in trains, my biggest pain point is, you know, I really want to wash my hands. You know, and the soap is not. Can we figure out, you know, hacks which actually address that pain point in a creative way? That's useful content. And the pain points which we can't solve, then that makes relatable content, you know, where we celebrate their life. The fourth is topical content.

If something is happening in the news and we align our brand DNA with that, and that's topical. And the last is change the world. If you do something really authentically, I believe everybody, every post on Facebook, every tweet is an attempt to make the world a better place. So if your video gives them that vehicle, then it gets the wings and it flies. So to me, the viral operating world, because viral is, like, my mind goes dark when I think viral. When I think share worthy, then there's a process. Share worthy is why would anyone share it?

And we reject 95% of the ideas in our brainstorming, if somebody will share this or not. You know, you've been a content marketer. And today we have Facebook, we have Twitter, you have Instagram, you have LinkedIn. How do you distinguish the kind of content you, you know, share, customize, you know, tweak on these platforms? Because I think everybody's kind of figuring that out yet. Right. Right. See, at the end of it, it's not about the platform, it's about the user. Where is that person spending a lot of his time? Right.

And all these platforms are in the business of reach. For example, you know, how Facebook works is, imagine there's a giant concert, and I have the mic in my hand, and there are a million people there to listen to what I have to say. But Facebook controls the volume of the speakers. So only the first row, and only two, three people in the first row, that's the organic reach, will actually listen to what I'm saying. Until you pay Facebook or the platform, and then it gives you the reach, right?

But what I'm saying is, these platforms, any platform, were built on the premise of content sharing. So if what I'm saying is so awesome, that the first row is compelled to share with the other row, and the other row, it spreads like wildfire, and nobody can control that, right? And when it comes to Facebook, or Instagram, or WhatsApp, or LinkedIn, the platforms are different based on how much time people, for example, a video on Facebook will have longer shelf life compared to Twitter. Twitter has a very real-time thing.

But that real-time thing also applied to live videos on Facebook. Instagram is like, so many people are using, I was having a chat earlier, that Instagram is not working for some brands, in that specific case. I'm like, who gives a shit about what you think? If everybody is spending so much time engaging with content on Instagram, then we need to experiment, and figure out that. Even like LinkedIn is big on videos now. LinkedIn content is different, the benchmarks are different. Yeah, and so professional. So professional.

Like B2B has been the most boring category when it comes to video. B2B content has always been like, this is Bob. Bob has a problem. Bob uses our product, and Bob is happy now. I'm like, nobody gives a shit to Bob anymore. Let's experiment this space, right? Because if LinkedIn, when any platform comes up with a new feature, they give you incremental reach, because they want that feature to become mainstream. Like Facebook came out with videos, suddenly it was a competition to YouTube. It came out with live videos.

A video we made went to half a million reach in like half an hour. Why? Because Facebook gave it a lot of reach. Now, LinkedIn is going gaga on videos. So if you experiment more in video storytelling on LinkedIn, you'll have more reach. I can see you're really excited and high on energy. So how do you stay creative, excited about what you do every single day? You know, one thing which really drives me is brainstorming with the teams. Right. And that is the holy process of creativity.

And because like every office, like we have a team of four, and I'm really proud of them. And, but when we operate for creating video content or brainstorming, we work the strength of the entire company. Everybody has different worldviews. So brainstorming is the holy process. Second is having fun, because there's so much pressure that we have to kill the game every day. Right? But you stop enjoying the game. Because when you play the game, then, you know, that's when you keep learning a lot. So learning is important, but having fun is so underrated.

Creativity is so, like having fun at work is so underrated. Because, you know, I read this book by Sean E. Corp, Happiness Advantage. And I love that. He says that success revolves around happiness. Right? It's not the other round. I'll be successful, then I'll be happy. If I'm happy right now, if I'm happy about what I'm doing, if Monday morning are the best days in the week, then success will follow, because I'm doing it for the right reasons. I tell my team that you're not working for the company.

You're working for your own careers to make a dent in the universe with, you know, why you were here. So when the company and your purpose gets aligned, that's when magic happens.