You Need to Quit Your Viral Obsession (And How to Actually Make Sales With Your Content)

If you’re a business owner trying to make sales on social media, you’ve likely been fed the same advice over and over again by your algorithm. But something about that advice isn't sitting right with you.

Trying to contort your business into the latest trending video, focusing on trying to go viral and anxiously waiting for the dramatic increase in likes and followers overnight is slowly taking over your life.

You’re bored. Bored of trying to create content to get results instead of content that actually feels enjoyable to create. Bored of being told the only way to grow your business in 2026 is to go viral. Bored of putting more time, energy and effort than you’d like to into content that isn’t increasing your revenue.

And now you’re questioning: “do I even need to go viral to make sales?”

I’m here to tell you no, you don’t. And I’ve got the evidence to back it up. So if you’re ready to quit your viral obsession and learn how to actually make sales with your content, you’re in for a treat with this blog post.

The viral reel that made me how much?!

I’ve been working as a social media manager and marketing strategist since 2017, and I’m also a certified Life Coach (might seem unnecessary for you to know this, but bear with). In 2018, I started working as a Confidence Coach alongside social media management.

By April 2024, I felt I’d outgrown my current brand and wanted to create a new one. I launched Your Confident 30s, (what’s now) a content brand designed to empower 30 somethings and help them live their most confident lives.

With my marketing experience and having studied the trends that were performing best at the time, I knew the exact type of reel to create to grow the brand quickly. My goal was to grow the brand whilst also promoting a low cost, self paced training I had. The training was priced around £47 (I think). Easy, no brainer offer, right?

The reel I created had over 6 million views. More viral than I’d ever gone in my life. It had over 12,000 likes, 1,400 comments and gained me 6,776 new followers. I had people in my DMs commenting and asking for the link to the low cost training. I’d never had so much interest in one of my offers before.

Wanna guess how much money that viral reel made me?

£0.

I’d achieved the thing everyone wants: my business had gone viral. And I’d still made ZERO sales.

Rewind to 2021. My podcast, The Confidence Show, was about a year old but none of the episodes at the time had reached more than 50 downloads. My marketing was semi-regular posting on Instagram plus weekly-ish episodes of the podcast.

And from that, I signed a £999 client. Why? Because I wasn’t pouring my energy into going viral. Instead, I was doing the exact same things I’m about to share with you below.

Why the viral obsession is costing your business

You’ve been led to believe that going viral equals sales and increased revenue, and whilst yes, the more eyes you get in front of, the more opportunity you have for sales, if the content isn’t perfectly aligned to your target audience, you end up in front of people who will never buy from you. Which in the long run, actually hurts your reach (and therefore, business).

If you’re a content brand/influencer/content creator who relies on reach, views and engagement for revenue (I’m looking at you brand deals & sponsorship), then absolutely tailor your content to trends and chase that virality. (You go Glen Coco!)

But when you’re a business with something to sell, it’s not about getting eyes on your posts. It’s about making SALES through your posts. And that doesn’t come from millions of views.

Content creators monetise attention but business owners make money through building trust.

What actually builds sales on social media

You know yourself, you don’t buy from brands you don’t trust. So your job as a business owner who wants to make sales with social media, is to build trust through your content. Your target audience needs to know who you are (brand awareness), like who you are/your business (connection content) and trust you enough to buy from you (authority building content).

It’s marketing 101. You don’t need complicated, viral focused, overwhelming strategies.

Every single post you share needs to have a purpose. It doesn’t have to do all the things in one go (though it can), it simply needs to either be telling people who you are, connecting with them so they can decide whether they like you or not (it’s ok to not be liked), and building trust with them so by the time you’re ready to present your product or service to them, they’re excited to hit the “purchase now” button.

Going viral might tell people who you are in the most basic, surface level way, and sure, some people could like the viral post, but they’re highly unlikely to trust you enough to buy from you. If a long term, sustainable, high customer retention business is what you’re after, going viral isn’t where your focus should be.

The brick by brick approach

Instead, think of your content like this: every post shared with intention is a brick in the trust foundation. Some bricks introduce you (know), some bricks build connection (like), and some bricks are the ones that make someone finally think “omg I need to buy from them!” (trust).

When you think of your content strategy in this way, the results compound over time. Your posts don’t expire, they accumulate. Then when someone lands on your profile for the first time, they have a whole catalogue of posts they can binge that all work together to build the know, like, trust.

This can shorten the length of time it takes someone to decide whether to buy from you or not.

And remember, someone might land on your feed tomorrow but not be ready to buy from you until next year. If you consistently show up with intentional content that reinforces your message, you’ll still be top of mind when they’re ready to invest.

Focus on trending and going viral over building trust with your people means you miss out on long term opportunities that ensure your business keeps ticking over.

What to focus on instead of going viral

Now you know why you need to quit your viral obsession and how to actually make sales with your content on social media, let’s look at the practical things to focus on instead of “go viral”:

1) Review your business goals: Understanding your goals first means you can create posts intentionally, that are aligned to your overall business strategy. Skip this step and you’ll essentially have a list of ideas to post vs strategic, purposeful posts that are all doing a job for you.

2) Post with your audience in mind, not the algorithm: When you think about your dream customer, what do you think they’d want to see from you? What can you share that’ll tell people who you are, build a connection with them, and help them to trust you?

3) Focus on what feels good: Instead of forcing yourself to create something you hate, prioritise the content that feels exciting to create. This can be the format of the post (i.e. video, b roll, carousel, static) and it can be the actual topic you get excited talking about.

4) Prioritise quality over quantity: One intentional, high quality post will outperform five panic posts every time. And when I say outperform, I don’t mean in terms of engagement. I mean in terms of building trust with your community.

This is why it’s so important to consider your capacity to create when developing your content strategy…

And if “I don’t know what to post” sounds familiar, this one’s for you.

3 sales in 30 minutes with under 500 views

When you prioritise intentional, trust building content over going viral, you’ll start to see how you can make sales with social media. Just like my property developer client did.

Their posts don’t go viral. They get between 2-5 likes per post, on average. They have under 1,000 followers across Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Yet they sold a house for £800,000 because of their (intentional) social media presence.

And Jade, The Vibrant Celebrant, who within two weeks of implementing the bespoke strategy I created for her during her Robin Intensive, started to see an increase in website visits and even had one of her followers point out how impactful her recent posts had been.

Or the Mindset Coach I worked with who had never gotten sales from Instagram. Thanks to the content strategy I developed for her, she made 3 sales within 30 minutes from a reel that had less than 500 views.

The posts shared prior to this sales reel all had a job: they either told people who she was, connected with her community or positioned her as an authority that created trust with her audience. By the time the sales reel was shared, people couldn’t wait to buy.

That's what intentional content does. It does the work quietly, consistently, brick by brick, so that when you finally ask for the sale, your audience is already there waiting.

Confident content isn’t about going viral. It’s about posting with intention, strategy, and the trust that every piece of content you share is working for you.

And that’s exactly why I designed The Robin Intensive. A bespoke 90 day strategy built for you around the three most important things: your goals, your capacity and your excitement. It's designed to take away the "I don't know what to post" problem for good, leaving you with a confident content plan that genuinely feels easy to implement.

No viral obsession, no jumping on trends that have nothing to do with your business, and no burning yourself out trying to come up with the “perfect” idea.

To learn more about how I can support you with The Robin Intensive, take a look here.

Until next time, remember this: you don’t need to go viral to make sales with your content, you just need to start laying your content bricks intentionally.

Take a peek at The Robin Intensive

Questions answered in this blog post:

Do I need to go viral to make sales on social media?

No. Viral content gets eyes on your posts but it doesn't build the trust needed to convert those viewers into customers. Business owners make sales through consistent, intentional content that builds the know, like, trust factor over time, not through chasing views and likes.

Why did my viral post make no sales?

Going viral puts you in front of a mass audience, most of whom will never buy from you because they’re not your target audience. If the content isn't precisely targeted at your ideal customer, the reach works against you. You gain followers who aren't potential buyers, which dilutes your engagement and hurts your reach long term.

What should I focus on instead of going viral?

Focus on your business goals first, then create content that speaks directly to your ideal customer. Every post should either introduce you, build connection or establish trust. One intentional post a week compounds over time far more effectively than viral content that attracts the wrong audience.

How do I make sales on social media without a big following?

Follower count is far less important than the quality of your audience. A small, engaged community of people who know, like and trust you will convert far better than thousands of followers who found you through a trending video. Intentional, consistent content builds that community regardless of your follower count.