I take that you’re either about to take a step into something new, or you just want to elevate your game plan. Either way, you’re up to making an impact with your brand and this is exactly what this article is about!
I will tell you why you should be happy you’re getting this ultimate marketing strategy, along with practical tips so you can establish brand authority.
You Should Never Rush Into Promoting Your Products Or Services Without A Brand Strategy
In today’s mobile age, reaching potential clients is now easier than ever, but you’re also facing the constant challenge of excess noise with the endless amount of content being served at any given time.
The digital landscape has flipped in ways that marketers could never predict. The pandemic has brought many challenges, especially for micro-brands who mostly rely on word of mouth to generate sales.
So, how will you stand out from the crowd and do it better these days? This takes us to your original topic: authority building.
How To Establish Brand Authority
Well, just in case… let’s cover what is brand authority first.
Brand authority refers to the trust a brand has earned among customers, and the degree to which they see your brand as a subject-matter expert. A variety of factors can influence authority, including robust and compelling content, an active online presence, and engagement over social media.
If this definition makes you even more confused, you’re not alone. As a marketing mentor and brand manager, I hear this ALL THE TIME from my clients and students!
In practical terms, you will build brand authority by doing 2 things:
Stop adding noise.
Turn yourself into an industry leader and market like one.
My New Brand Strategy PDF Is Here
I spent a week crafting this Blueprint, after one of my Inner Circle members asked if I could explain how I was able to work with enterprise clients like Vcita and write for Social Media Examiner.
So … I reversed the process for them, explained the mistakes I made, and wrote the steps I would follow and the shortcuts I would use, if I had the chance to do it all over again.
I realized that many online marketing coaches layout tips and how to’s, but there’s never a precise and clear process, from start to end. You can search “how to build brand authority” and find exactly 8,360 articles with a “plan”.
But that can take hours of research.
Instead…
Save hours of your time.
Brand Strategy From The Stars
Success Tips To Building Your Brand Authority
Focus on one social media platform at a time.
Use events to spread awareness and build connections.
Do some research to find industry gaps. Your role is to fill those gaps adding high-value content.
Create a content marketing strategy followed by a content marketing plan.
A strong brand needs a strong brand development team so your marketing efforts can create the ripple effects that you’ve seen from brands you admire.
My Brand Authority Blueprint covers these success tips, and powerful brand marketing strategies with checklists that will ease your implementation.
The 5 steps to elevating your brand authority.
20 digital must-have digital assets.
Your 90-day launch plan.
How to land speaking engagements, and more…
And there’s a BONUS!
A printable poster for your wall so you can track your 90-day plan!
The coronavirus pandemic is emerging as an existential threat to the nation’s small business owners. This is NOT normal. Even when people try to sugarcoat it. We joke and say “the new normal”, but … the banking account is feeling quite the opposite.
Businesses need 2 C’s:
1) Clients 2) Cash
The way you get clients is through getting exposed in front of potential buyers, period.
Success is mathematical, not psychological.
If you don’t go to events, don’t attend conventions, don’t have professional interactions, sooner than later, your pipeline will simply get dry.
This is a real problem.
The solution to get more leads? Virtual prospecting.
The sooner you can learn how to master the process of prospecting online, the better it will be. But wait… prospecting online?
How to prospect for new clients online or how to prospect virtually?
In person events are out of your lead generation equation. This means that you now have to hustle online. Well… welcome to my world.
I realized that my decade of experience in internet marketing, developing new markets using social media marketing and personal brand marketing could add value to many professionals and entrepreneurs.
What are the best prospecting techniques?
Social media marketing, especially Facebook, is at the top of the digital marketing strategies to find new clients online.
I host networking events for our community of Austin Networking for Professional & Entrepreneurs. We are now over 5,000+ local business owners and counting. As a social media educator, I decided to host online events to provide connections and discuss resources for those who wanted to accelerate their online networking skills. Those events were the inspiration for my book.
How do you reach prospects online?
Finding, reaching, and discovering sales opportunities online can be intimidating. Add to that the urgency and anxiety from a pandemic and you have the perfect storm!
The key to reach out to prospects online is in your personal brand. Without it, you are at risk to be considered a spammer. … You can’t risk your first impression … especially online!
Personal Brand Marketing
Personal branding refers to the practice of marketing and packaging yourself, your career, and your experience as a brand.
What’s your personal brand about? It’s about YOU! People buy YOU before they get interested in your products or services.
My Book on Personal Brand Marketing
My book reached #1 best-seller in 2 categories: Web Marketing and Internet Marketing and I’m just amazed!
What’s in the book?
Part 1: The Essentials of Social Media- Solopreneurs spend many hours of the day, working on marketing tasks, that come randomly, and most of the time, as a distraction. Learning the fundamentals of building a social media marketing strategy is the key to growing a business, along with strategies followed by amazing brands like Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, and Kendra Scott. You will be inspired to build a community of loyal customers, to stop competing based solely on price, and to grow your business.
Part 2: A Guide to Personal Branding- Here’s where you’ll get the- A 1-page blueprint to building a personal brand that builds a long-lasting first impression and ignites revenue. This is what thriving brands are doing in the digital economy. What if you are a brick and mortar business? Do you need to follow personal branding strategies? Absolutely! Humanizing your brand is the ultimate secret to survive the retail apocalypse.
Part 3: How to Write So They Listen- You will learn the psychology behind crafting content that moves your audience to action and learn why writing is not just about sharing pretty words.
Part 4: A Full Year of Copy For Social Media Marketing- You’ll have everything you need to simply plug n’ play your profitable content marketing plan. These are not just ideas to post. You will get detailed campaigns with strategies and templates.
Part 5: Social Visibility- You’ll get the Social Visibility Blueprint to turn your social media marketing into your salesforce. My promise with Your Visibility Blueprint is to eliminate the overwhelm from social media marketing. I want to provide you with a blueprint to ignite visibility, so you can build the business you love, and have the life you deserve. Most likely, you’re a purpose-driven business owner like me; I take my mission to activate your greatness very seriously!
BONUS: Along with this book, you will unlock access to amazing resources, such as:
* A complimentary Forensic Marketing Audit (Value $500+)
* Editable Visibility Workbook to plan your content like a pro (Value $47)
* Special price in our Marketing For Greatness Courses (save up to 80%)
* The Marketing For Greatness Network. Connect with other solopreneurs and participate in life-changing conversations.
If there were a clear, actionable way to boost your personal brand using social media WITHOUT turning yourself into the embarrassing “I am the influencer” style… Or even better … BENCHMARKING your growth so you see where your revenue is at. … Would you feel motivated to market your amazing products or services? You see: you’re willing to put in the work. If you read my book you’ll find a lot of practical advice to implement personal brand marketing the right way!
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to use social media, knowing that it could get you leads and unique sales opportunities? If you answered yes, then keep reading.
Because social media is being used by more than 3 billion users worldwide, entrepreneurs definitely cannot ignore social media as one of the top marketing channels.
With this comes a huge challenge in designing the right social media strategy, and if not done correctly, can limit the profitable opportunities that exist within social media platforms.
Whether you are just trying to get more exposure online, to connect with your fans or customers, or to improve your online reputation, social networking profiles are the way to go in order to reach your business goals.
Unless you have a major site associated with your name, and plenty of people specifically typing your name or your brand on search engines, your social media profile is usually the first result Google shows when someone searches for you.
Start thinking of each social media profile you create as a landing page for your personal brand.
Your landing page is possibly the first encounter that someone is going to have with your brand, and you will want that first impression to make the visitor interested to know more about you.
Be strategic. When someone is interacting with your social channels, make sure they will be able to see a profile that makes them like you, trust in you, and believe in you.
Some tips to build a successful social media profile:
Use a profile picture that makes you look approachable
Customize your cover image and add an attractive description
Add a BIO
Balance your personal and business content
Adjust your privacy settings to make sure people can find you and never turn on automatic tagging
This might sound logical, but let me clarify the importance of having a strong profile. It makes no sense to spend resources for marketing purposes in order to get people to know about a brand if there is a poor online presence.
Producing Quality Content
One of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs have when it comes to social media marketing is content. Coming up with fresh, relevant, interesting, and effective content ideas to share with their audience isn’t something that comes easily. A great way to solve this challenge is to incorporate psychology to the process of content creation.
Using the psychology of personalities, you are able to anticipate the emotions you want to trigger from your readers and thus creating a marketing strategy around it.
The language people use to express themselves can provide clues about the kind of people they are, online and off. Current efforts to understand personality from writing samples rely on theories and survey data from the 1980s.
New research uses social media data to successfully identify differences and similarities between users without prior assumptions. The way people refer to themselves and others has previously been correlated with personality. The new analysis also associates these personality markers with topics of conversation.
If topics of conversation are correlated with personalities, this means that marketers can trigger those conversations, provided that they have a strategy in place!
The Gemstones Personality Test
The 4 Personality Gems come from the motivational speaker Dani Johnson. Johnson says, “You have all four Gem characteristics in you. Some people have a lot of two Gems and very little of the others. Others have quite a bit of each one in them, but they lead and communicate in one primary Gem most of the time.”
I’ve used this strategy to craft my social media content for a long time now and it’s fascinating!
Are The Personality Gems Effective? Yes. But how does it work?
First of all, you will want to identify your 2 strongest gems and see if your social media currently reflects them. You will be surprised by how accurate this is!
Emeralds
Emeralds love the numbers. They are very analytical. They love planners and everything needs to be scheduled.
If you’re an emerald, most likely, you don’t share just anything on social media. You’re very meticulous about your privacy. When you share content, it’s because you know it’s going to be according to your standards.
Since you’re into numbers, you don’t really see the point of leaving comments on people’s pictures. You read them, you acknowledge them, but you are not up to leaving hearts, GIFs, or videos.
Did I describe you well? If you’re an emerald and want to trigger more engagement from different users, make sure you don’t post like emeralds all the time. Add some variation!
Pearls
Pearls love people. They are very emotional. They love supporting causes. When they see a story that moves their heart, they share.
If you’re a pearl, most likely, you share content from other sources, especially inspirational content. You also participate in causes and truly enjoy helping others. Like emeralds, you’re very meticulous about your privacy.
You might consider yourself an introvert, but social media is something you enjoy, because it allows you to connect with people and help them, from the convenience of your home.
Did I describe you well? If you’re a pearl and want to trigger more engagement from different users, make sure you don’t post like pearls all the time. Be sure your content brings facts, adds variation, and inspire people to take action, besides helping others.
Rubies
You’re here to win. You love the challenges. You’re not shy. Your social media displays your accolades and you have no shame. You see yourself as an influencer.
You might consider yourself an extrovert and social media is a great place for you to connect with more people. You’re certainly not shy on camera.
Did I describe you well? Watch out for not being unapproachable. You can be an influencer without pushing people away. Feature different people on your social media. Add content that’s not just about you or your interests. This will allow you to ignite different conversations with different people.
Sapphires
Sapphires are natural social media users. They share updates constantly and are not camera shy. You see them in lots of places, activities, with lots of people. Sapphires are promoters and this makes them a great addition to your brand.
If you’re a Sapphire and want to attract different people to your social media, add authority content, facts, and share your work more. Your audience will celebrate your accomplishments. Don’t be shy to share your great work!
Social Relevancy
Social media algorithms are made up of affinity, which refers to the relationship of one topic to another. The goal of Facebook’s algorithm is to “show stories that matter to users,” according to Adam Mosseri, VP of Facebook’s News Feed Management.
What this really means is that social media is optimized for shares above all else. For this reason, part of the winning formula to create a profitable content marketing strategy is to create content that will encourage your users to share. How can we do that?
We just discussed how Personality Gems can help you trigger responses from specific personality types. That takes care of the WHO. To trigger engagement, we also need to consider the WHAT and the WHEN.
Think about the last time you shared a post from someone. Why did you share it? Chances are, you had in mind a specific topic and you found a post that fit perfectly with what you had in mind, and you decided it was appropriate for you to share.
Tips to get more engagement in social media:
Generate original content so that users find something new to share
Surprise your users with something that is totally different from what they are used to seeing.
Be active. The more comments and shares you give, the more you receive.
When your content is relevant and generates engagement, it triggers the algorithm, pretty much in all of the main social media platforms.
If you want to generate leads, you want your content to signal meaning that is meaningful and relevant to your target audience. The caveat here is that you won’t have access to the targeting features unless you pay for ads. If you want to grow your business without paying for ads, then you need to implement direct marketing strategies to generate conversions from your organic audience.
How To Generate Conversions From Your Social Media Content (Organic)
An effective social media marketing strategy should attract the right leads without using traditional e-commerce practices. Social media is about being social.
Unlike many entrepreneurs believe, you can generate leads and clients from social media without paying for ads. Of course, it will be slower than if you pay for ads, but it’s possible.
If you’re not having conversions from social media, the first thing to watch is the amount of exposure (reach) you’re having, which is a reflection of the number of interactions, such as:
Comments
Replies
Likes
Shares
The more comments, replies, likes, and shares you have, the more accounts you reach.
Turning your reach into leads will be a matter of having the ability to generate meaningful conversations with your audience, via chat (messenger). Just remember not to spam your audience.
Another great way to generate leads is to combine blog posts with social media. For example, by sharing educational blog posts on your Facebook page, users will be able to begin to perceive value from you. The more they trust you, the better reputation you will have.
In general, the more value you add and the more trust you build with your users, the more likely you are to gain permission to pitch to them. Just one thing, your pitch, via social media channels, isn’t about a coupon or a sale; it is a “call to action” (CTA).
You don’t need just any CTA, you want a strong one that convinces people to act.
There are two main purposes of a call to action; to tell someone what they should do, and to give them the motivation to do so.
It’s a hard balance to strike. You have to give potential customers enough information to get them to click without overwhelming them . When in doubt, ask a copywriter or marketer for a second opinion!
To Recap
We have discussed the formula to generate leads from social media:
A quality profile, followed by quality content and relevancy will ignite your process of increasing your organic reach. Simultaneously, your strategies to ignite conversions will increase your conversion rate, resulting in higher qualified leads.
Pay attention to the Personality Gems. This is a great guideline to use for creating content; especially if you’re launching something new this year.
When my husband asked me for a picture of us in 2009, I immediately knew the #10yearchallenge went viral. He is never up to social media trends! So, of course, I wanted to jump into the challenge… until I checked out the stories that people were sharing.
What’s wrong with the #10yearchallenge?
There is nothing wrong. In a simple answer, you’re just supposed to share a picture side by side comparing your life in 2009 vs your life in 2019. The problem is that the trend went way too far in how people curated their lives.
In case you haven’t checked, go ahead and search on Instagram for the #10yearchallenge. You will the search results and will find Instagram influencers with unbelievable stories! Based on those search results, you will think that the world turned into a better place within the last 10 years.
This made me wonder… why do most people feel the urge to curate their lives on social media? Don’t we connect better when we are vulnerable and real? Then, why don’t people just show more vulnerability?
If you’re wondering where the line is between sharing your life- raw and vulnerable and attracting people to you- the real you, then keep reading!
The Mandatory Question: What The Heck Is Vulnerability?
One of the most quoted definitions of vulnerability is from Brené Brown “Vulnerability is about showing up and being seen. It’s tough to do that when we’re terrified about what people might see or think.”
As small children, we are open and free, sharing all of ourselves with others. Until something very painful happens: your best friend reveals your secret to someone and that someone decides to share with everyone. And now you’re exposed. This can be one of the most traumatic experiences for a child. Did you ever experience how is like being exposed and ashamed as a kid? I did… plenty of times.
As we grow and mature, we soon learn that the world can be a very painful place. We learn that not everyone is on our side, and not all situations are going to go our way. We get disappointed and go through growing pains, and that’s how the fear of vulnerability is formed.
Think about your first love. You believed in eternity. You thought this was the only person you could ever loved. And then… You got hurt.
The fear of vulnerability is ultimately a fear of rejection or abandonment. You have been hurt before, so you seek to minimize the risk of being hurt again.
Why Is Vulnerability A Good Thing, Especially For Your Marketing?
Vulnerability is scary. However, if you are business owners, c-suite executives, leaders, or trying to build a name and a personal brand, vulnerability is needed.
Here’s why:
The well-known neuroscientist, Antonio Damasio stated, “We are not thinking machines that feel rather, we are feeling machines that think.”
Damasio made this discovery: every human decision depends on emotion — every single one.
We make each choice somatically. In other words, we feel each decision out.
In sum, it’s about EMOTIONS.
Your personal-vulnerable stories will get you closer to your audience. Even more than your superhero stories. In general, people relate more with struggles than with wins.
Vulnerable Leaders Are Confident
People who do have a lot of self-confidence, are actually willing to show more of themselves. They’re willing to be vulnerable because they’re not afraid that someone might come in and take advantage of that. A recent set of studies calls this phenomenon “the beautiful mess effect.” It suggests that everyone should be less afraid of opening up—at least in certain cases.
The best example: video marketing!
Have you ever used video to increase your business? Have you thought about it but decided it wasn’t for you? Did you try it and feel embarrassed and not want to do it again? Even if you are a pro in video marketing, you know that the struggle is real, especially for women! We need to have the perfect background, the perfect hair and makeup, perfect nails, and of course, the idea of what we are saying. It’s exhausting.
With video, the more you do it, the more confident you get on camera, and then you learn that it’s ok if you mess up. You laugh and move on. By the way, I want to add a side note here and feature Barnes Team Media from Austin, Texas. They are educators on how to perform better on camera. You should check them out! Mike & Kim Barnes!
The next time you’re hesitating about sharing a great message on video, just think about the beautiful mess effect. People love messy! People love reality shows!
But what about your content marketing, in particular, social media marketing, how vulnerable do you really need to be? Where is the line between vulnerability and privacy?
The Golden Rule of Social Media: Be Personal, Not Private
In my book, The 6 Golden Rules of Social Media, rule #3 is Be Personal, But Not Private.
We all have that one friend on social media who tells us what she had for breakfast, what she wore to work today, the fight she just had with her mother, the supervisor at her job that constantly calls her out and, you know, I could go on and on about her life, or, just go check her social media pages to tell you exactly what is going on with her.
This is exactly WHAT NOT TO DO on social media. It is a desperate cry forattention and while you need the attention and you want new visitors to your social media profiles and pages, this is not the way to get it. In fact, this type of behavior attracts the attention you really don’t need.
You need to be more intentional with what you share on social media, especially if you want to attract a high-level profile.
Think about what your friends want to see from you.
Normally, people are open to know about things that benefit them, such as:
How to save money
How to make more money
How to save time, or
How to save efforts.
Those are the top motivators. You see, it’s not about you! It’s about them.
People don’t want to remember how dramatic your life is or how tough it is to be a parent. We all go through highs and lows. People don’t want constant reminders of your lows; especially when you have poor judgment on your images.
Your friends don’t need to see your c-section scar, bleeding, to know that you have a baby and it was a c-section.
You are entitled to a private life that you share with your family and close friends, away from your business. Do not cross the line of displaying your private life on social media.
Marketing is all about igniting human connections. You want to activate the power of emotions by being a human, to ignite those connections and then, give your audience what they want.
Is that simple! If you’re a content creator, having a clear understanding of how to humanize a brand without crossing the line is very important.
I wish I could tell you that in 10 years, I moved a magic wand and my life changed mysteriously. Well, that’s not true.
I wish I could tell you that in 10 years, I went from my 30’s to my 40’s and I retired with millions of dollars in the bank. This isn’t the case. I had multiple wins between 2010-2013 and several losses in 2014. Those generated plenty of changes for all of us. Changes that were scary, but we are now grateful for all.
I wish that in 10 years I didn’t find myself 50 pounds heavier, and still struggling with my diet. But that’s not the case.
In reality, I can claim some wins. More wins than losses. But I would be a fraud if I tell you everything has been incredibly great. Our family of 6 has seen adversity. It’s extremely difficult pursuing your personal goals, business goals while raising a family with intentionality. I wish more people were real when sharing their #10yearchallenge.
My goal for the next ten years is to be present. To be real. To be vulnerable. This might explain why my personal Facebook is off. I want to figure some things out before I go ahead and create content: for whom?
The last decade was all about growing a massive audience. For some reason, it doesn’t serve me well. I’m all about quality, not quantity.
I have realized how much I love being a small business owner, in particular, a solopreneur and how much I love helping others succeed; especially those who need me the most.
This is me- the real me. With grammatical errors and a crazy accent.
Being vulnerable has opened plenty of doors for me. I wish I had known this 9 years ago, when I was hiding my mistakes, my accent, and tried to be someone else.
If you’re in the process of building a personal brand, take vulnerability seriously and build an audience that you can connect with. Find that line that allows you to connect with your tribe, for real. And just focus on being you, just a little bit better each day.
Don’t Forget This Marketing Secret
The most important element of your content marketing strategy or social media marketing strategy is your reputation. Without great customer service and a great reputation, every marketing effort will be worthless.
If you’re a business owner, no matter if it’s small or big, you crave 1 thing: brand loyalty. A strong brand loyalty transfers into repeated customers who buy your products or services, regardless of changes in price or convenience.
Brand loyalty isn’t about likes and followers. You can’t deposit likes in your banking account! So we need to make sure your marketing & sales efforts translate into steady cash flow and profit, of course. Make no mistake, your focus needs to be on building a strong brand, followed by developing brand loyalty.
Does that make sense?
If so, experiential marketing should be part of your next marketing strategy. What is experiential marketing and how can you start running some experiential marketing campaigns? Keep reading, because I’m covering it all.
What Is Considered A Strong Brand
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos defined brand very simply as “what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
Seth Godin, a popular entrepreneur and blogger, gives a longer definition:
“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter, or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection, or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer.”
Your brand gets represented through in pretty much everything that your business does on a regular basis, including the following four areas:
> Visual Brand Identity, such as your logo, website, and color scheme
> Brand Voice, such as your blog posts, mission statement, social content, and website copy
> Brand Values, such as the types of causes your company supports
> Brand Personality, such as your company’s culture and customer service philosophy
The path to build a strong brand doesn’t need to be complicated. Many marketers make the mistake of narrowing their efforts to customer acquisition. If this has been your approach, you’re doing exactly what your competitor is doing. How can you stand out?
The way you overcome this obstacle is simple. Build something money or products can’t get you: a genuine connection with your customers, or community.
A strong brand is a result of connection and community. You can have the most beautiful website or write the perfect sales page, but you won’t build a strong brand or reach your revenue goals effortlessly until you build a strong connection and community.
Kendra Scott – A Strong Brand Example
When I think of a strong brand, I like to think about Kendra Scott, for example. If you know of her jewelry, chances are you know about her story. How she went from a $500 project in the spare bedroom of her home to a billion dollar fashion brand loved globally.
If you have visited one of her stores, chances are that you have a memorable experience.
And just in case you still haven’t heard about Kendra, let me give you some context. She’s one of the top America’s richest self-made women and she ranked higher than Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Donna Karan and Diane Von Furstenberg. It’s amazing when you think that beading classes and $500 we all she needed to start a business.
There’s a reason why Kendra Scott’s locations are flourishing in the middle of the retailpocalypse. She’s been able to create a connection and a strong community, using experiential marketing.
What Is Experiential Marketing
Experiential marketing, also called “engagement marketing,” is a marketing strategy that invites an audience to interact with a business in a real-world situation. Using participatory, hands-on, and tangible branding material, the business can show its customers not just what the company offers, but what it stands for. Source: Hubspot.
Experiential marketing is all about facilitating consumer interaction so they can have a brand experience. And this can be achieved when consumers can meaningfully connect with your brand, and, of course, can also meet and mingle with each other.
Let’s not forget the 2 important elements of a strong brand that lead to brand loyalty: meaningful connections and community.
Here are some of the experiential marketing examples:
✔️Classes or workshops
✔️Product testing or tasting
✔️Factory or headquarter tours
✔️Giveaways and competitions
✔️One-time phenomenon like street art, installations, pop-up concerts, and even pranks.
How To Build Successful Experiential Marketing Strategy
In order to have success in your experiential marketing efforts, you need to see it as a strategy, not a tactic.
The terms tactic and strategy are often confused: tactics are the actual means used to gain an objective, while strategy is the overall campaign plan, which may involve complex operational patterns, activity, and decision-making that govern tactical execution.
A tactic is something you do a few times, but there is no repeatable system that can be duplicated. A strategy consists of a series of steps, all connected, aligned with a main goal, that can be duplicated.
Now let’s discuss the key elements for a successful experiential marketing strategy.
Design Your Experience
How do people feel about our brand? is a fundamental question that every product or service creator must answer.
Without getting too technical, there are some basic UX principles that can be applied in order to plan your experiential marketing strategy more efficiently.
User journey mapping is an excellent exercise that can shed light on that. User journey map is a visualization of an individual’s relationships with a product/brand over time and across different stages of their journey.
Below is a map of the user experience journey that we designed to enhance the experience of our Networking Events for our Austin Networking Community.
Our map traced the different stages of the users, from their first contact with our community, all the way up to brand loyalty. Then, on each step, we map the user’s mindset and identify opportunities to make a better experience for them.
Make sure you keep your map visible so you build your experiential marketing strategy according to your design.
Purpose Driven Instead Of Revenue Driven
Have you been invited you to a party and you ended at a business presentation? This is exactly what not to do!
When you’re opening your doors to receive people, you can’t do it with the sole idea of turning everyone into a client. Your goal is to build connections.
A connection can give you introductions, ideas, and can also turn into a client. But don’t just focus on the third one.
The most successful experiential marketing campaigns leave attendees with a great story to tell.
Kendra’s brand leverage charity events to bring their customers together at their location.
Take a look at their invitation and note how their message is all about giving back. This makes consumers coming for a reason beyond than buying an accessory they want.
If you adopt a purpose-driven strategy instead of a revenue-driven, you will be able to serve others, have fun, and create a much pleasant experience. Just trust the process. You are building your brand. Users will help you build revenue. It will happen!
Narrow Audience Over Broad Audience
Since you will bring people together, you want to think about an audience that actually blends well.
Think about their interests, behaviors, demographics, and location.
Facebook Ads are a great resource to find your target audience. Using the saved audience feature, you can target your audience. However, you don’t always need ads to find your target audience.
Let’s explore briefly the 4 categories:
Interests: People’s hobbies, favorite activities, and favorite sources of entertainment. For example, if you’re hosting a beer festival, you might include people who list beer brands in their interests.
Behaviors: Device usage and purchase behaviors. If you’re hosting a tech conference, you might target people who have the latest models of devices or complex purchasing behaviors.
Demographics: Traits like age, gender, relationship status, education, and job titles. A leadership workshop might want to target individuals who have “manager” or “director” in their job title.
Location: Where people live (for example, your event’s city or neighboring cities). If you host an event in Austin, you can easily target anyone in the Austin city + 25 miles around it.
Research! Don’t just rely on what you believe. Take some time to research the audience. One of my favorite tools for audience research is Facebook Audience Insights.
How to use Audience Insights to find your target audience, free?
Let’s say you want to attract women who are into holistic health from ages 25-40 who live in Texas.
Using Audience Insights you will be able to see the communities or pages they already like. Take your time to explore each of these recommendations. You will be able to get an idea of the kind of experience this audience is used to.
Audience Insights also reveals your audience’s digital behavior. How do they consume digital content, what things they like, comment, and share.
Knowing their behavior will allow you to make smarter decisions of what channels to use and even the format of content you should create to get their attention.
Narrow Your Channels
You don’t need to have a campaign all over social media. The more channels you have, the harder it will be to create meaningful connections.
In other words: less is more.
I’ve been hosting networking events for professionals & entrepreneurs of Austin for over 2 years now. Our key channel is our Facebook Group. We build meaningful connections and invite our members. We get sold out 100% and it’s all organic.
If you notice our experience journey map below, we only planned to use 4 channels to attract users: Facebook Group, Facebook Ads LinkedIn, Eventbrite.
As a matter of fact, we haven’t needed any Facebook Ads at all.
Take the time to identify which of your current channels can bring you more opportunities.
The best efforts are those who can be implemented effortlessly.
Always Lead With Authenticity
The more virtual our lives get, the more we hunger after something genuine.
Gone are the days when you could succeed with flashing big checks, luxury cars, and a picture-perfect lifestyle.
Simply put, being authentic means staying true to who you are, what you do and who you serve. In an environment in which more human elements matter it creates value and benefits for your connections as well as improving your business.
Authenticity works because…
It elevates your business above the competition
It builds your identity and image into something influential
It gives substance to your business, services and products
It enables people to relate to your business
It helps people understand how what you offer is of benefit to them
It tells people that what you offer is of high quality
It marks you out as a reliable, trustworthy company
It encourages engagement and can turn audiences into advocates
When you lead with authenticity, you will find that your users will feel free to take your brand as it belongs to them. They feel connected. It’s because they are part of it.
Kendra Scott now opened a Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute. Make no mistake, this has been possible because of her strong community. It goes beyond a product. It’s a mission that every Kendra’s jewelry user feels like it belongs to them.
To Recap
You will design an experiential marketing strategy because you want to develop a strong brand and brand loyalty. You want acommunity.
Some of the experiential marketing activities can be:
✔️Classes or workshops
✔️Product testing or tasting
✔️Factory or headquarter tours
✔️Giveaways and competitions
✔️One-time phenomenon like street art, installations, pop-up concerts, and even pranks.
The first step to a successful experiential marketing strategy is design. Start with a basic user experience journey map so you can craft the user experience with all the details in mind.
I hope you get inspired to adopt experiential marketing to build your brand. It’s one of my favorite strategies.
Just in case you want to learn more about me, here’s part of my BIO.
Jessica Campos, JD, BBA is an educator, author, forensic digital marketing expert & strategist who is passionate about UX. She traded in her law career in order to pursue her passion: helping entrepreneurs build wealth by taking advantage of the thriving content economy.
Jessica‘s 15+ years of experience in entrepreneurship, background in law and business, tracked online sales record, and her network, represent a wealth of resources for professionals and entrepreneurs that want to attain success.
Want to discuss your future experience marketing strategy?
If you’re here, chances are you want to be recognized for your expertise and want to stand out from the crowd. Perhaps you’re looking to starting a business and can benefit from branding tops. Or maybe you have a full-time job and want to become an independent consultant. Or, you are a business owner already but you feel like you should be making money online.
There’s a lot of information out there on how to start an online business which is why it’s so important to develop your personal brand and why reputation and expertise should be part of your marketing strategy to attracting your target audience.
If you’ve been plugging away and haven’t experienced much growth and are 100% clear on your value and what you offer to your clients, we’re here to give you a blueprint that will catapult your personal brand strategy.
Whether you’re just starting to build your personal brand, or you’re looking for tips on how to improve your personal brand, you’ve come to the right place.
What is personal branding?
Successful personal branding is the art of promoting yourself and highlighting at least one core skill that you want to be recognized for. Examples of personal branding are everywhere in mainstream media. Oprah is the epitome of personal branding. She’s made iterations of her personal brand throughout the years. She’s now one of the most influential thought leaders in the world. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon defined what a personal brand is as “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Therefore, personal branding is an art that anyone can apply to their life and work. If you’re up to boost your career, now you know!
Personal branding has very little to do with colors and graphic design, as most people confuse. Personal branding is the result of a series of elements that form your identity (your brand). Think about branding as the verb of adding elements to a brand. Like painting a building versus building it.
How does one create a personal brand?
1) Define your niche.
Let’s say you want to start a consulting practice and your potential clients are within the medical industry. Your focus will be on promoting YOU, which for some, might feel a tad bit uncomfortable. For this reason, I recommend starting with shining the light on your accomplishments and accolades.
Sit down, grab a pen, your favorite journal and answer these questions as in-depth as you can:
1. What is my area of expertise?
2. What do people compliment me on all the time?
3. Which projects have others had to help me with repeatedly?
4. What motivates me to get up and get moving?
5. Which roles seem to drain my energy?
6. Which projects can I spend hours on without feeling overwhelmed or tired?
7. What are topics I could talk about all day?
Once you’re done, walk away and take a break. Your brain will process everything you’ve put down on paper and do its magic. In no time at all, you will be able to review everything you wrote down with a fresh outlook.
2) Claim your authority.
In today’s world of constant distractions, most professionals and entrepreneurs struggle to get their marketing messages heard. We’ve been told time and time again to not brag, not to sound arrogant, and the truth is— we care way too much about what other people think about us. This is why claiming our authority can feel like a huge challenge for some of us.
If you are committed to develop and grow your personal brand, you must ask yourself this one question, “How can I stand out from the crowd?”
Take Charlie Epstein, CEO of Epstein Financial Services in Holyoke, Massachusetts. There was so much competition in his field, so rather than simply trying to win a deal, Epstein wrote Paychecks for Life and tripled the size of his business. Essentially what he did was create authority. He became an expert in his field which inspired confidence in people who eventually helped grow his business by becoming his clients.
I’m not saying you have to write and publish a best-selling book in order to build your personal brand. What I am saying, is that establishing your expertise and claiming your authority will help better prepare and develop your personal brand.
Here are some questions that can guide you in discovering what you’re an expert in:
1. Who is my target audience?
2. What information do I know that they don’t know?
3. What are the specific skills I can teach them?
4. Out of my talents and skills which do people need the most?
5. What will people pay big money for?
6. What problem(s) can I solve?
What you’ll begin to see is a clear understanding of the problem you are solving for someone, You’ll be able to see how you evaluate and develop a set of criteria for when new leads come to your business.
In doing so, you start to move away from being all things to all people, and into an expert or authority in your specific industry. I can’t stress enough how important it is that you go through this process when developing your personal brand.
3) Your voice and tone
Most people focus solely on the visual aspect of their personal brand. However, THE most important element is: voice and tone. It’s not about what you say, it’s about how you say it. Your personal brand’s tone of voice will inform all of it’s written copy, which includes website, emails, social media, and overall packaging.
Tone and voice is what sets you apart from the crowd. You want people to recognize your voice as distinct and unique.
Here are a few questions to get you clearer on the type of tone and voice of your personal brand:
1. Do I want people to perceive me as serious, casual, or high energy?
2. Do I want to speak more to women or am I neutral to gender?
3. Will I be discussing political topics or will I stay away from them?
4. Will I be bringing spirituality into my content?
5. Is my tone formal or informal?
6. Do I share my personal side or am I strictly business?
There’s no right or wrong to these questions. The beautiful thing about having a personal brand is that YOU get to decide! It’s your brand, your voice, your message. The last thing you want is to sound like a second-rate version of another brand. This is your time to shine and uniquely you and still get your message across to your target audience.
4) Check your online presence
If you already have a quite a bit of content out there, now is the time to do an Internet audit of everything under your personal brand. If you’re starting from scratch, it’ll be easier because you would have determined much of the content, tone, and voice and start building on solid foundation.
Be sure to conduct a thorough sweep of these channels:
✔️Your Linkedin profile
✔️Your Facebook profile
✔️Reviews
✔️Youtube
✔️Google your name
Assess how your brand is showing up online. Update any incorrect information, polish up your platforms, and remove anything that is no longer aligned with the brand you want to build.
Your personal branding action plan
Now that you have these four steps, the next step is your personal branding action plan.
Let me ask you this. Be honest with me.
Is developing your personal brand urgent for you?
If it is, great! I have a Personal Branding Guide that you can get started on today.
And if it’s not that urgent for you, I highly suggest that you get this guide, and keep it for future use. What I’ve learned over the years having worked thousands of people just like you, is that getting the information is just as valuable as starting the project. Everyone learns differently.
Take advantage of the guide which will walk you through the next phase of your personal branding journey.
The hardest part of building your personal brand is your mindset! Once you are ready, a marketing consultant that focuses on personal branding will put this plan for you in a few hours. It takes me typically a day to create a personal branding guide, and if you’re ready to work with me on implementing your personal brand, take the first step and get your guide below.
Now I’m turning the conversation over to you! Looking forward to hearing your feedback!
If you’re unmotivated and can’t get yourself to do what it takes to grow your business, you are at the perfect place right now!
We are sharing our interview with Rebecca Remus with you, founder of Grand Mesa Crossfit, one of the fastest growing Crossfit communities in Leander Texas.
Whenever I meet a business owner who is successful and passionate, I see Greatness, especially when entrepreneurship is pursued in order to be able to embrace motherhood. That’s the story of Rebecca, a fitness coach, Crossfit trainer, mentor, Naval Officer, wife, mother, and friend to many.
Entrepreneurship isn’t easy. Do you know what percentage of business owners fail?
20% of small businesses fail in their first year, 30% of small business fail in their second year, and 50% of small businesses fail after five years in business. Finally, 30% of small business owners fail in their 10th year in business.
Rebecca has passed the 5th year test with honors! She just opened her new facilities, after outgrowing her space. With more space, expanding her business is in her top priorities.
Grand Mesa Crossfit is doing something great for sure. Behind a successful business is a great leader. Let’s dig deeper with Rebecca to learn from her recipe for success.
Q: If you look back on your life, can you tell which traits you had that helped you become a successful entrepreneur?
Rebecca: I was lucky I had very involved parents growing up. It wasn’t a perfect marriage but they put us first. I saw how hard they worked. We were never hungry and parents made it to all our games. I always felt indebted to them to try to excel because I represented them. My family is incredibly Patriotic. My father served and retired in the Army. My brother was in the Marines, and my older sister was in the Navy.
I never felt pressured to join the military. However, when we discussed me applying for an Officer Program in the Navy, my family, especially my father, was with me every step of the way. I will always be grateful for my time in Service because it has definitely shaped the kind of business owner and leader I am today.
Without a doubt, being a Naval Officer contributes to Rebecca’s leadership.
Q: The definition of Greatness is related to winning during circumstances where 99% of people would fail. Can you share some of the obstacles you had to battle to be who you are today?
Rebecca: I think my mettle was tested in various ways while at Texas A&M. Sure academically, I could have been better prepared prior to attending but I figured it out and was successful. More so were the 4 years in an organization that was struggling to stay relevant and was struggling because there was resistance to evolve. I am encouraged when I see posts NOW of the Corps of Cadets. It truly looks more like a leadership laboratory.
In life, things won’t happen in the exact way you want them 100% of the times. Being eager, even ready, to dive into the problem quickly is one of the best qualities of an active leader in the change process.
Grand Mesa CrossFit definitely had a shaky start. I opened with 2 business partners but they both relocated within the first year for career choices. I was working full time as a US Navy Officer Recruiter and our “home office” was in San Antonio. I was lucky my husband, my now head coach, and his sister helped me keep the classes going when I was on the road. Along with all the growing pains of the first couple years of a small business, I was juggling a full time traveling job and in year 3 my husband and I decided to have a 2nd child. It was certainly a stressful time and to this day, I’m amazed we made it through. I had a supportive team.
More recently us moving to our new location was a stressful situation because we outgrew our current space and it took months to find a perfect solution. We entertained and did research on building our own building in Leander but our patience worked out for us. We got to stay with a very compassionate and accommodating landlord and we more than doubled our available space with some pretty great perks. This was an ordeal that I lost sleep over because our members deserved a much better and safer location to train.
Last group picture at GMCF’s old location! Certainly, the family grew fast!
Q: What you do is something that other people do; we know that. However, you do it in such a way that has brought you success! Can you point 5 tips for success?
Rebecca: I’m still learning every day… Here are 5 things I believe have helped me grow my business.
Know that I am a Good Person and let my moral compass guide me.
My family should never suffer or take a back seat to my business or passion.
Know who my core group is and make sure they are taken care of.
Invest in my Coaches/employees because their success is my success.
Try never to “react” impulsively.
Some of the inspirational notes I got from this interview:
Leadership is essential to achieve any goal: in life and in business.
Very often people think about leadership training and they believe it’s only for those who want to assume a management role. The truth is, we must become leaders to be able to influence ourselves.
Having a clear understanding of your values and habits helps you win any obstacle.
Notice how Rebecca pointed out as success factor number 1: “Know that I am a Good Person and let my moral compass guide me”. That’s not just power talk or mindset. In order to be able to work on your business and step in as the CEO, you must have a clear understanding of your values, on top of a solid foundation that helps you to take action. That’s what separates those who are big dreamers from those who are movers and shakers.
The importance of soft skills for leaders.
Whenever I see a struggling business, 99% of the times I see a CEO who struggles with their soft skills. This means communication skills and people skills. There is no coincidence that Rebecca is building her Crossfit gym with a culture where people feel that they are becoming better individuals because of their involvement in GMCF community. That’s the ultimate recipe for growth and retention.
If you’re in Leander, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Liberty Hills, Rebecca is giving away 1 free week at Grand Mesa Crossfit so you can experience their community. Their itinerary of classes is a fit for anyone who would like motivation to reach their fitness and wellness goals. Anyone! Their coaches are trained to provide scaled workouts adapted to your fitness level; including kids and teens. Click here for more details.
Marketing to the Hispanic Market takes more than speaking Spanish. The U.S. Hispanic community can’t be generalized, as community members come from a variety of countries each with their own version of the Spanish language and varying cultures, making it hard to target the entire community as one group.
I’ve dedicated a big portion of my marketing career to serve the Hispanic Market and there are some fascinating facts that all business owners should be aware of.
By 2060, the Census Bureau projects that Hispanic people will comprise over 28% of the total population with 119 million residing in the United States. In 2016, Hispanics made up 11% of the electorate, up from 10% in 2012.
If there is something that can’t be ignored today, especially by companies that cater to consumers, is the fact that the Hispanic population in the US is growing exponentially. Is your company tapping into Hispanic consumers using the right marketing strategies?
Market To Hispanic’s Cultural Connections
The majority of Hispanics feel connected to their heritage. Culture is a way of life that’s felt in the way they act, what they eat, listen to, watch and how they speak with each other. Culture makes them feel safe. Even when they speak English, for major purchases and major life decisions, if they have a service provider that “gets them”, the connection happens instantly.
Hire talent that can provide that connection between your message and your future buyers; especially for marketing and sales.
Your Language Can Make It or Break It
Most Hispanics living in the US are bilingual. Last time I checked, 6 out of 10 Hispanics speak English. It is correct for marketers to assume that their content should be primarily in English. That reinforces the attainability of the “American Dream”. However, there are some exceptions to the rule. For major purchases, they will prefer Spanish. For example attorneys, doctors, accountants, real estate, insurance, mortgage, banking, furniture, equipment, and other major transactions, your content should be in Spanish.
In October 2016, Facebook released the results of their “Facebook IQ” study conducted by Latinum Network. The study investigated 500 Hispanics from different language usage backgrounds (English-dominant, bilingual, and Spanish-dominant), complemented by in-depth interviews.
The study had several conclusions, of which we highlight the following:
• 80% of U.S. Hispanics don’t feel they need to stop speaking Spanish to be part of the American culture.
• 86% of respondents believe the Spanish language helps them remain connected to their culture.
• Ads targeting Hispanics in Spanish significantly increase their interest in purchasing products.
• When online, more than 80% of Spanish-dominant Hispanics use Spanish at least half of the time when they read, write or watch videos.
• 79% of Spanish-dominant, 82% of bilingual, and 60% of English-dominant Hispanics surveyed on this research think brands should reach out to consumers in both English and Spanish.
•58% of Spanish-dominant Hispanics and 48% of bilingual Hispanics think that brands that reach out to the segment in Spanish demonstrate they value the Hispanic community. Source: Forbes.
Furthermore, the Facebook IQ study also mentions that Hispanic consumers don’t want to be exposed to mere translations of messages from English to Spanish; they want to receive messages that reflect their culture, and this message should also be reflected when casting actors who speak Spanish, with the usage of humor, and in situations that consumers can relate to from a cultural standpoint.
Hispanics Are Receptive To Advertising, In Particular, Influencers
Here’s some music to your ears: Hispanics are very receptive to advertising; in fact, over half of millennial Hispanics actually welcome advertising targeted to them as a Hispanic. So what’s the catch? Marketers need to offer a true reflection of what it means to be Hispanic — that speaks to both Hispanic traditions and American culture. Avoid “Hispandering” — content should be highly curated and focused on cultural identity beyond just language. The use of stereotypes can be comical, but should be done properly, else they will backfire. Our third-generation study showed “Latin-style dancing” was the least important advertising element indicated by respondents.
Hispanics Love Social Media: It’s Their Way To Keep Connected With Their Roots
Social media has unequivocally become an essential element in any business strategy. This especially holds true when it comes to engaging the 59 million Hispanics who live in the U.S. (representing 18% of the total population) as they are heavy social media users—over-indexing compared to non-Hispanics on their usage of Facebook (77% vs. 73%), YouTube (62% vs. 58%), Instagram (40% vs. 30%), and Snapchat (32% vs. 21%). Furthermore, Hispanics are 62% more likely than non-Hispanics to rely on social networking sites for healthcare information.
Video Key to Reaching Hispanics
As the social media landscape continues to evolve in 2018, one trend we’ll continue to see is video content becoming even more important. In fact, to quote a recent Forbes article, “it doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that video is the future” and Hispanics are at the forefront of this change. U.S. Hispanics spend nearly 66% more time per week watching videos on their smartphones compared to the total market, with Facebook and YouTube being the top two digital video platforms used. The content they watch clearly reflects Hispanic values of preserving their culture and language—73% of third-generation Hispanics watch videos that speak to their heritage and two out of three bilingual Hispanics watch videos in Spanish.
Hispanics Are Loyal To Their Brands
With a larger average household size and high spending power, Hispanics are loyal to the brands they love, which creates a perfect opportunity for brand marketers. For example, in Puerto Rico, we call “cornflei” to all kinds of cereals, using the brand Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. We say “cutips” to all kinds of cotton swabs. The list goes on and on.
The loyalty factor can have a double edge sword. It might take longer to position your product if it competes with a big brand. Therefore, your marketing strategy should use more of a “market to one person approach”. The more you connect with them, the better. Don’t just translate but create campaigns that are unique to the Hispanic market. Almost like if you were launching your product in another country.
Takeaway: Targeting the right audience requires specialized marketing
Once you know who your audience, targeting them directly becomes a priority. With marketing influencers like us for example, there’s a built-in network to be able to raise awareness about your brand among a specific demographic. Having a focus allows you to market directly to the people who need to see your product most. Being able to reach your audience directly gives an advantage over companies that are still marketing to a general audience.
