We all want our content to be read and shared, but in today’s oversaturated world, it can be difficult to break through the noise. While there’s no tried-and-true recipe for success, you can learn a lot from articles that have gone viral, garnering thousands of views and social media shares. Here we take a look at four popular B2B content marketing articles and unmask their secret ingredients so you can incorporate them into your own content.

1. Content Marketing Tips for B2B Organizations—Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin

This Moz blog post has been shared almost 7,000 times since it was published in January. Why? For starters, it addresses a specific pain point. Knowing that many B2B marketers struggle to find relevant advice in a predominantly B2C-focused content marketing industry, Fishkin narrows in on obstacles unique to B2B organizations and offers helpful solutions in a casual, relatable voice. He also uses a video format and incorporates a whiteboard as a visual aid to ensure that the wealth of information presented is easily digestible.

2. Here’s Why Your Team Should Invest More Time on Content Marketing by Salesforce

This compelling infographic from the Salesforce Canada blog provides a comprehensive overview of the effectiveness of content marketing and how sales teams can implement it in their own B2B organizations. The complex and data-heavy information could have been lost in translation in a more traditionally formatted article, but an infographic enables readers to easily visualize important processes and statistics. Plus, people are three times more likely to share infographics on social media than any other form of content. Considering that this post boasts around 3,800 shares since its debut in February, we’d say an infographic could be your ticket to viral success

3. Content Marketing Will Drive B2B Digital Marketing in 2016 by Prasant Naidu

Naidu’s blog post on his personal LinkedIn page uncovers meaningful insights about the future of B2B marketing, but the key to its popularity is actually the practice of cross-posting content on LinkedIn. A nearly identical version of the article was published on Naidu’s company website a week earlier, but that post received only 254 shares—a tiny fraction of the LinkedIn post’s impressive 3,200 shares. While it’s difficult to drive traffic to a standalone site, millions of people visit the LinkedIn homepage every day. To better reach your target audience, you can join popular groups related to your industry and submit your content to be featured. For example, Naidu’s post was featured in the Social Media and Marketing and Advertising groups, each of which currently has over 10 million members.

4. 4 B2B Content Secrets You Fail to Use by Dan Stelter

In this Content Marketing Institute article, Stelter points out how B2B organizations can identify missed opportunities, backing up his observations with independent research. This alone should have been enough to generate a respectable number of shares. However, the added bonus of the Content Marketing Institute’s prominent, pre-written “Click to Tweet” links embedded throughout the article takes this post to the next level. This powerful marketing tool makes it simple for readers to share content snippets with their networks, which may help explain why nearly half of the article’s shares come from Twitter. CMI makes it a standard practice to include such links in all of its articles.

We aren’t suggesting that following these tips will automatically ignite a viral phenomenon that renders millions of views. When lightning strikes, it’s usually sparked by a combination of good timing, luck, and truly compelling content—whether it’s shocking, fascinating, or funny. However, these techniques will make your content more reader-friendly and shareable, creating a foolproof recipe for garnering more views.