Tactic #1: Talk to People
Don’t be fooled: Word of mouth scales. Indeed, in my youth, if you wanted anything spread through the family, you made one call: to Aunt Bonnie.a From there, distribution of your message to the rest of the family was assured.
One of the best ways to build SEEKERS, AMPLIFIERS, and JOINERS is simply to talk to people. If you have a store, train your staff to tell CUSTOMERS about your website, social channels, and email program. If you’re a restaurateur, encourage DINERS to Instagram and comment on their experience online. If you’re in B2B sales, explain to PROSPECTS where your company engages online and why. In our electronic message–heavy world, we sometimes forget that personal, face-to-face interactions are often the most effective.
Resource Recommendations:
Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking by Andy Sernovitz (@Sernovitz)
At Your Service by Frank Eliason (@FrankEliason)
Tactic #2: Websites & BLOGS
Your website and blog are the epicenter of all your Proprietary Audience Development efforts. They should link and promote all of the means to subscribe, like, and follow your brand. In so doing, they drive significant growth of your email SUBSCRIBERS, Facebook FANS, and Twitter FOLLOWERS, as well as other JOINER audience growth. Audit your website annually to ensure you are promoting all points of engagement with your company.
One important point of emphasis today: Make sure your website and blog render properly on mobile devices. Nothing kills website-powered proprietary audience acquisition efforts faster than a bad mobile experience.
Resource Recommendations:
MarketingProfs (@MarketingProfs)—www.marketingprofs.com
Website Magazine (@WebsiteMagazine)—www.websitemagazine.com
Tactic #3: Content Marketing
As we discussed back in Chapter 5, Content Marketing and Proprietary Audience Development are sides of the same coin. For your content to make an impact, it needs an audience; and to attract, engage, and retain proprietary audiences, you need meaningful content. Your website is the hub of your Content Marketing efforts. However, thanks to the ever-shrinking costs of production and the instantaneous, worldwide distribution afforded by the Internet, you can publish a wide range of content including:
Articles
Games
Music
Infographics
Interviews
Podcasts
Presentations
Streaming events
Videos
Webinars
White papers
Every piece of content you create should contribute to the growth of your proprietary audiences. This benefits both the Content Marketing Team and the company as a whole, as all of your future content will reach a larger audience the next time out. So with every type of content you produce, be certain to:
Optimize it for search engines to attract SEEKERS.
Make social sharing easy for AMPLIFIERS.
Sell the benefits of becoming a SUBSCRIBER (email, YouTube, etc.).
Encourage likes and follows to create FANS and FOLLOWERS.
In short, Content Marketing and Proprietary Audience Development should be hand-in-glove activities where the success of one drives the other.
Resource Recommendations:
Content Marketing Institute (@CMIContent)— www.contentmarketinginstitute.com
Content Rules by Ann Handley (@AnnHandley) and C. C. Chapman (@cc_chapman)
Tactic #4: Search Engine Optimization
A search for “SEO” books on Amazon (@Amazon) produces around 12,000 results. Go read and learn from a recent one like Search Engine Optimization from my friend Kristopher Jones (@KrisJonesCom). At a time when Owned Media is critical to attract SEEKERS and create AMPLIFIERS who deliver Earned Media, you have to do everything in your power to ensure your content (from your website to blogs, videos, images, etc.) is optimized to garner the highest, most visible placements on Google, Bing, and other search engines. If you don’t, you’re leaving money—and audiences—on the table.
Resource Recommendation:
Search Engine Land (@SEngineLand)—www.searchengineland.com
Search Engine Watch (@SEWatch)—www.searchenginewatch.com
Tactic #5: Organic Growth
Organic growth isn’t so much a tactic as a natural outcome of your company having a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networks that consumers can use to reference or engage you. For instance, by simply having a Twitter handle (@jkrohrs), I pick up a few new FOLLOWERS each week—either because of recommendations Twitter makes or due to SEEKERS finding me via search.
Facebook FANS can grow this way too. In fact, Tony Clark (@TonyClarkCP), the digital communications manager for “Roller Coaster Capital of the World” Cedar Point (@CedarPoint), says that’s exactly their situation. With over 3 million park visitors each year, Cedar Point’s Facebook FANS have grown from 30,000 a few years ago to over 1.2 million as of this writing—much of it on the back of VISITORS sharing their stories and pictures with family and friends.