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When content goes viral, it blows up on the web—getting shared, posted, and retweeted millions of times. If your company’s content goes viral, it can get you in front of millions of new customers—and boost sales both immediately and over the long term, in ideal situations. Viral attention can feel like a lightning strike—but it’s more than just magic. While there’s no specific formula, there are a few things you can do to make it more likely your content will go viral. Here are a few.

Don’t sugarcoat anything. Be honest. In marketing, it’s usually a hard-and-fast rule never to draw attention to anything negative about your industry as a whole or your company in particular. But in some situations, you need to acknowledge reality. Know what your customers are thinking—keep on top of discussion trends via Google Alerts—and if something less-than-stellar is relevant, be forthright in addressing it. There’s tremendous charisma in honesty.

Use humor. Another marketing trope that’s fairly common is to avoid using humor—as it can easily turn off some prospects if not done exactly right. But viral video is all about humor. Don’t be afraid to highlight what’s funny about your company, your industry, or the situations the people in your audience face every day. And bear in mind that, while not everyone will get your humor, if you do it right those who do will feel like they’re members of a secret club—and boost their social currency by sharing.

Get emotional. Strong emotion draws clicks, likes, and shares. Tugging at the heartstrings, sharing personal stories, or getting people riled up can all have the same effect. Look for subjects and themes that generate high-impact emotions.

Be useful. If your content is useful to a lot of people—it’s an in-depth guide, real talk about insurance coverage, or an easy step-by-step how-to article regarding some aspect of insurance that mystifies a lot of your customers, it has the potential to go viral.

Promote it everywhere. Get the word out there about your content in a variety of places—not just on your website and social media platforms, but in niche publications as well as those for a more general audience. The more opportunities your content has to get seen, the more likely awareness will build.

Be human. People want to work and do business with other people—not faceless companies. Look at building your content strategy as a way to humanize your business, to put a face to the logo, and don’t be afraid to let your personality show through. This is the type of thing that keeps audiences engaged, and if it’s done with humor or feeling, it can boost your chances of going viral.

You can never predict with certainty what will and won’t generate a lot of attention on the web, but you can raise your content’s chances by making a few strategic choices. Be honest, be useful, do it with feeling, or make people laugh—and give your content as many chances to take off as you can by publicizing it heavily—and you’ll raise the likelihood that lightning will strike.