Boston Video Production

Marketing Strategy: Building a Fan Base

January 10, 2012 Social Television Blog Leave a comment

This is an older post that I migrated from our previous site’s blog. An oldie but a goodie.

I recently started working with a new client. They’ve commissioned me to build out their content strategy to help them stand out from their competition.

I’m in the process of researching their industry and identifying what it is that makes their service special and asking them, what is the lingering impression they leave with their clients after a project is completed?

Seth Godin has a TED talk on Standing Out, and yesterday I stumbled upon it (literally, I was using StumbleUpon when I found it).

It was a serendipitous stumble because,  the client with whom I was working yesterday loves Seth. He and his employees are such avid fans in fact, they refer to themselves as “Seth Heads.”

Seth speaks about finding an audience for your product and speaking directly to them. He starts out by discussing the near failure of the man who created sliced bread.

This man’s name was Otto Rohwedder and Otto’s biggest pitfall is a common mistake for innovators; he concentrated too much on the technology that made his product possible and didn’t spend enough time thinking about his product and the audience that would gravitate toward his product and spread the word of its innovation for him.

This isn’t an issue with which my new client struggles but it leads me to common issue with which many businesses do struggle.

Your clients, customers, audiences, don’t just buy your product. They buy the feeling your product gives them. And it’s identifying that feeling that people associate with your product that is the key to marketing your product. It’s that feeling that creates fans out of your consumers.

Michael Gerber discusses this in his book “The E-Myth Revisited.” Realizing that people buy feelings and not products is critical for the success of every small business. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend doing so, regardless of where you are in the growth of your company.

Once you identify the feeling you want your consumers to associate your product with, your marketing strategy will fall into place. The bigger picture of where your potential fans are hanging out will come together and finding them and engaging them will become simple, a second nature to you.

What has your experience been in this process? How did you name the feeling people associated with your product? How has that helped inspire your overall marketing strategy?

Seth Godin "Standing Out" TED Talk

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Related articles

• Seth Godin: World’s Most Wanted Marketer (hubspot.com)
• Five Effective Internet Marketing Strategies (cash-bandit.com)

Tips: How to Avoid the Zombie Lead

November 18, 2011 Social Television Blog Leave a comment

Your sales cycle is killing your leads.

Beware of the un-dead lead.

Previously thought of as simply ‘dead,’ these leads are now known to come back. 

Mediabistro posted a great article recently on what to do with ‘dead’ leads, quoting research from Ed Gandia’s “The Wealthy Freelancer.”

According to Gandia’s book, a large percentage of your ‘dead’ leads will hire someone to do what you do within 18 to 24 months of your contact.

In his example, a ‘dead’ lead qualifies as someone who responded to a pitch you gave, but did not return your follow-up call. According to Gandia, many people in business make the mistake of only following up with those leads that express either immediate interest or down-the-line interest, dropping the remainder of leads that do not respond to a follow-up call.

I was baffled when I read this  (not at the finding that ‘dead’ leads will eventually buy a product like yours; I am also a consumer after-all) but at the statement that sales people leave these leads for ‘dead’.

In the five years I’ve done business for myself, I’ve never had a ‘dead’ lead. I’ve only had long sales cycles. I’m sure anyone who successfully works for themselves, or has gone into business for themselves, understands what I’m saying.

Sales is as much about creating an experience for and building relationships with people as it is about turning a profit. I firmly believe that once a project is over both parties–the vendor and the client–come away with more than a payment and product. They come away with a relationship. And relationships last a heck of a lot longer than a client/customer project.

So that being said, when a potential relationship doesn’t return a phone call or an email, we don’t take it personally. We understand building relationships can take time and we’re more than willing to put the time into that development. We’ll shoot them an email down the line or give them a quick a call after while, but we’ll make it more about them and less about us. Because let’s face it, no one likes a one-sided relationship.

Our sales cycle is generally a long one. I can tell you that 75% of our sales this year came from conversations and pitches we gave in early 2010. I can also tell you, with a fair amount of confidence, that at least 30% of next year’s profits will come from these same leads, whether directly or from referral.

If we had given up on these leads as dead after eight months; if I had not checked in every few months with a friendly email, we ‘d certainly not be in the position we’re in now.

The lead is dead, long live the lead. I certainly hope so.