Boost Your Bangwith Creative Integration

Wendy Harrington, co-founder

1/18/11, Raleigh Entrepreneurs: “Top Marketing Strategies for 2011”

The Basics

• Clarify what it means to be “YOU” • Clarify your ideal customers’

situation• Design an experience that integrates

the two, creatively

Why Integrate?

• Powerful momentum!• When your oars all successfully pull

the same way, you won’t lag behind, spin in circles, or (gasp!) get dunked.

Create a relationship

• Creating relationships is natural… • Mass marketing business systems

made it hard… • But now it’s easy again!

Social $$s your Bang

• Social media supports relationships:– helps with retention ($$)*– AND helping fans sing your praises, so

you save on acquisition costs ($$)

[Rule of thumb: spend 3, 5 or 10x as much for a new customer as to keep an existing one…]

Social isn’t everything

“Concentration is the secret of strength”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Be the same “YOU” everywhere• Be truly customer-driven

– marketing, sales, biz systems, products, services and customer support…

Creative Integration

• Make your dollars have more impact; • Make customers feel like your place

is their place – Coordinated look & feel– Responsive, like THEY want it to be – Deliberate, planned like a perfect party,

yet with room for spontaneity that comes from knowing and caring

1. What it means to be “YOU”

• Brand Essence– Core values– Benefits– Style– Positioning– Where is it okay, and not okay, to cut corners? – Where do you invest money and time? – What added flavor does all this add to being

“YOU”?

2. Ideal Customer Situation

• The rock: Logical, “surface” wants and needs– e.g, what’s being sold/bought:

• The recipe in the book, the food being bought

• First wave: Emotional “How do I feel about that?”– e.g., what does cooking represent for me?

• Personally relaxing? Stressful? Like a proud/good mom?

• Second wave: your angles for connection, or how can you “enhance me/my situation”– e.g., What does that role mean to her?

• Help me enjoy “me time” even more. Help relieve the fear/frustration or reward my efforts. What else can you help me show care for my family?

2. Ideal Customer Situation

• How do you find out? – LISTEN. Pay attention, online and offline

A few online resources: • Google Alerts for search;• Social Mention for social media• Media Funnel, at $1/user/channel a great tool for listening

(monitor brand, keywords, competitors) and interacting easily from one dashboard even if others help you

3. Leave nothing to chance

• Design an experience that’s uniquely yours, yet all for THEM– This is where the fun begins! – Forget coupons or sales (for now)– Be the host or hostess for your

customers’ experience

Welcome them inside

• Create an experience that welcomes, reaffirms, shows them the way, e.g.:– welcome letter, – little gift, – map/guide– FAQs/schedule– personal contact person– contact list – restate their goal (but keep their secrets), – remind them they’re part of a satisfied

community

Extend their benefits

• Be a connector (introduce them around)– Referrals– Partners – Bonuses– Simplify connecting to you and others

• social sharing, making comments, leaving reviews, participating in consumer panels.

– Invite opinions, show they’re used/valued – Help them spread your story (but don’t try to

control it)• contests

Make it fun to be with YOU

• Being part of the “YOU” family should be a pleasure: – Games/Contests– Meeting peers– Hobnobbing with the “honchos”– Happy surprises– Funny stories, wildest ways

Teach, Expand, Enhance

• Expand what they know, or how their situation affects them: – Tips– How-to guides and videos (yours/users’) – Events (online, offline, yours or partner

up)

• Use the various channels and venues they use or that make it easier.

For more information…

Visit SpotlightCreativeGroup.com/IntegrationFollow us at twitter.com/WendySHFind us on LinkedIn and Facebook

Or just cut to the chase… we’d love to chat with you! 919-753-5111