Many of our clients have found in recent years that with algorithm changes and the cost of marketing and advertising increasing they’ve found it more difficult to reach their target audience through paid advertising causing a decline in revenue.  

Companies are now diversifying beyond paid media and marketing to reach new potential clients both online and in person. Here are three methods we’ve been experimenting with to boost brand awareness.  

💫 Experiential Marketing  

Bringing clients back into your business… the pandemic elevated online businesses and connections, but an in-person connection is invaluable.  The power of touch, to connect with body language, the power of touch and experiencing an event together created micro moments and lasting memories.

The key to experiential marketing is tailoring each event to the target audience. For example with skincare events, I was hosting magazine editors, beauty bloggers and other industry professionals at an event at Ham Yard in London.

We were explaining the importance of double cleansing and using an oil based cleanser.  We asked the audience to but a stripe of bright pink lipstick on the back of their hand and use several different types of cleansers to try to remove the lipstick.

Some products performed better than others, but by physically trying, smelling, feeling the product and seeing how it worked it resonated with them and the lesson was learned about the importance of using an oil based cleanser to melt away dirt, pollution and makeup to thoroughly clean the skin.

This experiential marketing can be used in any industry other wellbeing brands and events have focused on gym attire in a yoga session, weighted blankets for in a sound bath and meditation session, or healthy snacks when talking about nutrition.

Whether you activate your product through ambassadors, pop-up shops, market stalls, or a one-off event portraying your brands authenticity is keep to finding success.  All of these brands have collaborated and boosted their own through experiential marketing.

💫 Community Marketing  

Looking at the performance of online marketing and advertising campaigns our clients have found this doesn’t always meet their clients ‘where they are’.  As you know I love sports, so I’m going to use the American Football Annual Super Bowl as an example.  This platform is renowned for being high performing with a high ticket price tag attached to it, but would it target your ideal audience and give you the return on investment? Maybe not, but how could you cheat something similar in your community?

Perhaps an on-site experience or creating digital hub so your audience can connect for a fraction of the cost.  I was recently approached by a lady I met from South Africa that wanted to collaborate with the UK and Middle East… both regions I spend a lot of time in.  To start with we are hosting a virtual event to invite all of our networks and the event will educate and add value, this will then lead into an in-person event in the region we had the most response from.

You can also apply this strategy to smaller, localized events that draw super-fans of your products or services.  Explore and examine your local businesses that you can collaborate with to provide a partnership.  Often our client’s focus on high ticket sales that come through national advertising campaigns, but their super-fans are often from the smaller boutique events in their local communities that create a more branded experience and amplify their business in their local communities.  

Remember that whatever you do and wherever you do it to use your proper branding and imaging to represent your products and services.  Even if a potential client doesn’t purchase or book in with your business at the event, they will get the opportunity to see your brand name, read about it in the press and see it through digital platforms and marketing.

💫 The ‘wow factor’ marketing

Some may refer to this as stunt marketing or the shock factor marketing but essentially you’re creating the unexpected for your business brand. It’s important to stay true to your core values as a business when promoting your brand with this strategy.  

I’ve been studying DuoLingo for Arabic and Spanish and recently I read that the company offered an in-person language lesson at a taqueria so that diners could practice their Spanish, the mission was to offer discounts for both the taqueria and DuoLingo promoting both brands with this collaboration, but also cross-pollinating their client bases.

This ‘wow factor’, ‘shock factor’, or ‘stunt marketing’ got the attention, same as April Fools Day offers an opportunity to utilize this strategy for playful and surprising activations for your brand within your community. Some of our clients have seen community engagement skyrocket during these online stunts, theses statistics help businesses to attract attention of potential new clients as well as glean a better understanding of their current client base.

When planning any new marketing campaign, it’s important to have a clear vision of the clients you want to attract and to build a stronger bond with current clientele. A great question to ask yourself is what would a successful campaign look like for both avatars?

Remember the more expensive it is to attract and acquire a new client, the more important it is to have regular touch points to keep them in your business and build brand fans so that the investment was worth the time, money and effort. These marketing methods won’t replace the traditional digital advertising but they will boost your brand backbone and visibility.

Thank you for reading, if this was useful please 🩷 and if it could help someone in your network, please share.

Thank you ~ Diana x