4 tried and tested ways to get your customers to market for you

19 Aug 4 tried and tested ways to get your customers to market for you

Whether you own a restaurant, run a hotel, manage your company’s events or market a particular service / product, your ultimate objective is always the same: generate more customers*.

So how do you do this? Well, a strong ‘marketing mix’ is always the best way; achieving a balance between things like print marketing, advertisements, digital marketing, point of sales etc. but this has all been done before. So, how else can we truly engage with potential customers to bring in new clients for our businesses?

Here are 4 tried and tested ways to do just that, and ultimately allow your customers to market your business for you:

 

  1. Create a personal reason to buy: Coca-cola

Coca-cola’s #Shareacoke is arguably one of the most successful marketing campaigns of recent times. Not only has it created an increase in brand advocacy – data from marketing analytics firm Networked Insights has shown 45% of consumer sentiment has been favorable towards the campaign – but it succeeded where other brands fail, in working the brand right into everyday conversations.

As Will McInnes, chief marketing officer of social media listening and analytics company Brandwatch, says: “We are in an era of personalisation and vanity. This kind of ‘Oh my God, it’s me!’ hook just works fantastically well whether you like it or not.”

As people found their names on bottles and cans, for example, they promptly snapped the pic and posted it to the one place brands want to be – the consumer’s own social media accounts!

The whole campaign has created a huge amount of ‘conversation’, both online and in person, and more recently we have even started to see videos emerging where everyday people have used the brand to announce pregnancies and marriage proposals!

Q: How could you personalize your offering to encourage people to ‘get involved’ and buy?

 

  1. Create a club: 2-4-1 Orange Wednesdays

Human beings are social creatures…we like to belong! Loyalty cards and brand benefits play into this need by creating bespoke rewards for people who show loyalty to the brand.

Orange Wednesdays (previously 2-4-1 Wednesdays) might not be the first one you think of here, but that’s because you weren’t thinking about going to the cinema – which is exactly the point!

Orange Wednesdays is a great marketing tactic because it caters to needs: (1) It provides the brand ‘Orange’ with another reason for customers to stay with them, or choose them in the first place and (2) it provides cinemas with a way to drive in more visits in their quietest day of the week.

More recently, Orange has moved into providing discounts and freebies for things like events, music and comedy. The ‘idea’ behind it, lends itself to any sort of giveaway.

Q: What ‘benefit’ can you give away that is not directly linked to your own offering?

 

  1. Create a demand – Apple

Apple is one of the foremost brands in computer and tech innovation. The company dramatically revolutionised the PC, phone and even the tablet market and with every new product, they created such a buzz which lead to queues around the corner for their latest releases. But how do they do it??

One of the most fundamental ways they do it is by enriching customers’ lives. When the iPhone first came out, it was so different, so intuitive and so life changing – it became the benchmark for the smart phone market.

Taking this idea, they made some of the most original TV adverts going. Their messaging was always around ‘new, innovation, for your life’ and the videos were often promptly searched out and shared via You Tube with headers like “Can’t wait”. Apple is the kind of product people wanted, and then wanted to tell people when they had it.

Q: What is it about your proposition that would make people want to boast about being a part of it?

 

  1. Create a game: Three

Dancing ponies anyone? I’m sure we all remember that campaign. It was daft but fun and it conveyed its message beautifully, exploiting the growing surge of ridiculous and rather pointless videos circulating the internet: ‘Internetting is fun’.

The dancing pony’s video was successful for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was ridiculous but universal – it was fun and silly and everyone could ‘get it’.

Secondly, it involved you! The makers of dancing pony created a site where you could visit and make your own dancing pony, dressing it in a range of clothing and dedicating it to a friend to make them smile.

Q: Could you invent a game that would engage people in your brand?

 

Even if your marketing budget doesn’t quite stretch to those of Coca-Cola’s or Apple, that shouldn’t stop you; the internet has leveled the playing field and even the campaigns with the smallest funding can have the biggest impact!

*We have specified ‘generate more customers’ here because your ultimate goal is rarely to raise brand awareness or generate more leads. Yes, these are all strong reasons to ‘market’ but the purpose of delivering on these goals is to generate an increase in customers.

 

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