As business owners, we are always on the lookout for creative marketing ideas to try or share with our clients.
There are a vast number of digital marketing opportunities, including newsletters, social media, videos, website content, SEO, but some of the most powerful, memorable marketing opportunities take place in person.
How you interact with your customers personally speaks volumes!
What are some things you can do to enhance your customer experience, from the prospect phase to the completion of the engagement?
Here are a few ideas I came across this week:
Encourage “Theft”
I am notorious for stealing pens subconsciously. I don’t realize it until I come home or find them later in my purse. It makes me feel better that I’m not alone! Richard Branson shares a story about how “a simple message on a pen launched his first recording studio.” He had “Stolen from the Manor” printed on all the pens to use to get the word out. It worked!
Instead of demanding that all items stay within your premises (even the salt/pepper pots on Virgin Atlantic), why not have something memorable and useful that they can take home.
My daughter and I just attended an Escape Room in Steamboat Springs this week with a dear friend of ours. We had a blast tackling the firefighting challenge. We managed to escape with just a few hints and were “on fire” with excitement! At the end, they said that we could pick a key charm to take home. I couldn’t tell what the girls liked more – solving the puzzle or picking a charm! Since it was so hard to choose, they let us “steal” several. We felt like we got a great deal, and they got one, too – we will always remember them and refer them to others visiting Steamboat!
Encourage Local
Scout’s Barbershop is a local business franchise in Nashville, TN. Brooke Allison, the owner/founder shares so many great ideas about how they chose to position themselves and create a fun, inclusive culture that made everyone feel like home.
In this fantastic podcast with Storybrand, she shares how they set up tents at local festivals and offer free beard trims and braids, how they give “free cuts” cards to all the local business owners when they move to a new neighborhood so they can share with their employees, and how they provide beverages like locally brewed beer and coffee while they wait.
All of these marketing touches take great intention, but are powerfully felt. They create a culture of something familiar and well-loved. Why would a family want to go anywhere else?
Encourage Word of Mouth
In this article from Marketing Examples, Harry shares a few awesome examples of companies that uniquely engage their prospects and clients: The Doubletree is famous for their warm chocolate chip cookies. Skip’s Kitchen in California draws a card for you before every purchase – if you get a joker, your meal is free! Penn and Teller run down the aisles after a performance and take selfies with the audience.
Low-Cost, High Impact Marketing
What can you do in your business that is a low-cost investment for a big impact?
- One of my friends just bought a home in Breckenridge, CO this year, and her realtor gifted them with a family photo shoot and a custom framing to add to their new home.
- If you are a graphic designer, you could have a logo framed and sent to your client at the end of a project.
- Here’s a suggestion to immediately send a $10 gift card to someone when they refer a client to you, tag them on Social Media, and then if the deal closes, send them $100 to their favorite restaurant.
What works well to generate that golden “buzz” for your business? I’d love to hear any of your own ideas.
Sonya Dalrymple 