3 Innovative Marketing Strategies that you can apply *right away* to make more money.
3 Innovative (yet time-honoured) Marketing Strategies | The Visionary Method
Today, we're talking about 3 innovative ways to ensure that your business's online marketing strategy stands out!
As you know, the online marketing world continues to become more saturated and it requires us as business owners to adapt, innovate, and continuously look for fresh ways to get in front of our dream clients.
The difficulty that most business owners have in mastering their marketing strategy is that there is no 1 right formula, and no one can give you the exact blueprint to grow to 10,000 or 100,000 followers or to triple your revenue in 6 months. It’s not that simple!
The 3 innovate (yet time-honoured) marketing strategies that I’m going to introduce to you today include…
Experiential Marketing and how to build an experiential component into your marketing strategy
Positioning yourself differently than your competitors (rather than copycatting and being the same!)
Promoting the shareability of your content (i.e. what is driving people to talk about your business) since duplication of our business is done more easily when others help us to share!
Strategy #1 – Add an experiential element
Social media is an online platform that business owners can use to connect with prospective clients, which can make the traditional version of experiential marketing (creating in-person experiences to deepen relationships) difficult to cultivate!
That’s where we need to get creative as internet marketers!
When we look at traditional experiential marketing, we think of trying samples… interacting with a street team in a busy city center… or get a free yoga class at your local studio.
These forms of marketing work SO well because you have an opportunity to connect with a real human while sampling the product or service that is for sale.
Oftentimes, just 1 experience can lead to the development of a lifelong customer!
You try the cookie at Costco, and you buy them weekly for the next 10 years.
You interact with Pepsi’s street team and become a Pepsi buyer for the next 10 years.
You try the Yoga class, and become a Lifelong Paying Member!
See what I mean?
Our challenge comes in how we can replicate this through social media. How can we deliver an experience, using channels like Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn?
For starters, try to make your interactions on Social Media more personal!
Use the voice note & video messaging features to send private messages to some of your loyal and engaged followers.
Allow them to experience your voice, your energy, and the enthusiasm you possess towards your product. This is different than blasting generic messages and content to all of your followers. This is a 1:1 interaction that allows you to curate a unique experience with 1 person.
Another idea would be to invite people off of social media & onto another platform like Zoom where things are a bit more personal.
Offer people an experience of one of your classes or signature workshops (maybe you do tarot readings 1x per month) and once they’re on the call, try to have some direct dialogue with them. Say their name, give them time to speak, listen, and write notes on who attends. This becomes a much more personal experience than blasting content to social media.
You could also consider offering people private “discovery sessions” with you (many coaches & consultants offer these types of meetings) but instead of making it so generic, you could brand it as a “coffee date” where you’re getting to know each other. You show up, coffee in hand, ready to interact on Zoom as if we were meeting for the first time in person!
Things to consider…
What experience are you offering to your followers beyond your content? Many of you have amazing content. It is beautiful. It's bright, there's great captions, but is that really delivering the experience of your offer?
Is there an easy way for prospective clients to experience your magic?
How can people take a test drive with you? Once people take a test drive, their likelihood of buying goes up.
Remember, it's easier to give someone a trial and to have them experience your magic than for you to convince them that they should take a trial of it, right?
Strategy # 2 - Do something very different and go hard on it.
This is something that all businesses should be problem-solving for: what makes us different!? I always say that the same is lame, and to remember that people talk about what's different and ignore what is average.
When you do something different, people talk about it because it stands out in their mind. It makes your brand really referable.
Here are some examples of brands that do things differently…
No Frills Grocery Story
No Frills sells groceries… cheap, simple groceries. But about six months ago, they decided to launch a No Frills clothing line (brander as the Hauler Line) and they launched a whole campaign around discount clothing (it’s tacky, bright yellow, and so basic).
The clothing line sold out within an instant.
Part of the wild success was because No Frills combined two things that normally don't go together: grocery shopping and apparel. Not normally things that go together, but it worked magically! People felt so connected to the brand and loved the irony of the long sleeve shirts for sale that literally were logo’d with “love sleeve shirt”
Could you look outside your industry to create something different?
Alli Walker
(past Visionary Life Podcast Guest) is a country singer and she always wears her hat on stage. It’s her signature look! This is an example of doing something (strategically) to be different!Gelina’s Dental Studio.
This is my dentist. It’s amazing and I love going (said nobody ever, lol) but I truly do mean it.
She’s created a space that looks like a gorgeous gift shop or retail store, but it’s actually a dental clinic. She's painted it a bright teal green and inside it looks like you’re walking through a California inspired home.
She's taken that sterile clinic feeling away, which most dentists have not done! That’s different!
What choices are you making for your business that are differentiating you?
Strategy # 3 – Is your business talkable?
Want to know something crazy?
Most of my private business coaching clients found out about the visionary method because a current client shared a photo of a visionary method workbook that they were working on and then tagged me.
Often, a friend will DM my client asking them “what are you working on” and then they talk about my course and coaching program. That makes my business talkable!
What makes your content talkable or shareable and what makes your followers actually want to share your content?
The easiest way for anyone to double or triple their business is to have your followers do the growth work for you. You create content, they share it!
But what makes a business talkable?
I always share this example of the Cheesecake Factory, which is straight from Jay Baer’s Book Called Talk Triggers (which I highly recommend). They have made some strategic operational choices so that every single customer leaves their dining experience and talks about Cheesecake Factory!
The 75 items that contain chicken on the menu list? Talkable!
The 30 page menu? Talkable!
The portion sizes? Talkable!
The # of cheesecake flavours? Talkable!
**Thanks to Jay Baer’s Book for these examples. Go grab a copy!
Those are not accidents. They're strategic choices that the restaurant made so that their brand was really shareable.
Now it’s your turn to brainstorm. You are the marketing lead on your team, so think about what makes you talkable and what makes you shareable?
Maybe what makes your business talkable is that you share funny memes or you deliver information in an easy-to-understand manner, such as my 1&5 Method (shared here).
This is simply a social media and content creation strategy that I teach inside of The Visionary Method, and it’s often shared because I’ve named it and taught it so many times in a simple format. Can you teach your audience something in a really simple, digestible manner that they feel confident sharing forward?
Another idea would be to send your clients snail mail or hosting on online giveaway! Both of these strategies compel people to share!
You can grab the #visionarymethod Instagram Giveaway Framework here.
There you have it— 3 ways to make your Brand Stand Out!
Now, it’s time to take 5 minutes to reflect on these questions…
How can I deliver an experience?
How can I be different?
What type of shareable content am I posting?