Part 4: The Art of Attraction.

Part 1: Igniting Love of the Brand.
I wrote about where the passion for the brand starts within the organization and the importance of that passion being contagious among employees.

Part 2:  Brand Boarding.
How to get customers ‘on board’ with your brand.

Part 3:  Meeting Customers Where They Are.
How to reach your customers and beyond.

Last (but not least) Part 4:  The Art of Attraction.

I’ll conclude the series with this post.  How to attract and retain your customers.   It’s not enough to sell a product these days – to be the best and stand out from the competition look for ways to entice the customer above and beyond what you currently offer.  It’s so important for the company to show thought leadership and produce pieces that communicate just that.

I’m in love with the HubSpot inbound marketing infographic:
http://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing

It’s so SIMPLE in illustrating the process of attracting and retaining not only a loyal but a growing fan base.  I’d like to quote a line from the page:  “Publishing the right content in the right place at the right time, your marketing becomes relevant and helpful to your customers, not interruptive.  Now that’s marketing people can love.”

Let’s ask ourselves:  how are we inviting our audience in?  How are we generating leads?

Here are some ideas that come to mind (there are SO many more, take time to explore!):

• Webinars:  grab a couple experts on staff + one or two industry colleagues and put on a live webinar, then record it, and have it for download on the newsroom page of the website. Advertise the webinar (sometimes for free) on industry publications/trade media portals your client’s read, send out an e-blast to your customers incentivizing them to forward on the webinar announcement.
• White papers + Presentations:  Do your staff have presentations they’ve given or reports they’ve written that could be shared?  Have a form on the website that allows for people to submit their name, organization, and email to allow for follow-up.  I think what’s important to note here is we don’t have to reinvent the wheel on this one – we can always find research, reports, presentations – and piece a document together to share.
• Blogging + Vlogging:  Two great ways to showcase your thought leadership.  Set-up a content calendar for the staff to contribute to a blog housed on your website.  They can write on a topic of interest to them that also reflects their expertise within the company’s brand.  At the bottom of each blog post ensure there is an easy way for the viewer to contact the author for more information.
  Don’t over complicate a vlog – your iPhone is perfect for this.  Next time you’re at a tradeshow, take a 2-3 minute video of a staff member standing in front of the company booth talking about the most interesting thing they’ve learned at the conference – share a tidbit.

The goal is two-fold in using the marketing tools listed above:  call the participant to action a.k.a become a customer and strengthen the value your clients are receiving.   After the point of sale, it would be a shame to lose touch with the customer, keep the relationship maintained by offering these additional benefits.

I’ll end with a couple real-life examples.

Evernote does a beautiful job in the art of attraction.   They brought to life user stories through video.   Simple yet effective video marketing all to persuade viewers to set-up an Evernote trial and become a user.  Side note:  in love with how clean their website is.  It just makes me happy.

Jillian Michaels offers free tangible tools to help kick start weight loss goals.  The website calls the viewer to action through an effective AND FREE weight loss plan.  Brilliant.  She has a form that makes it easy to asses your current weight and goals for where you want to be then provides a plan for how to get there.  Need help in achieving those goals?  With a purchase you have access to all her meal plans, calculators, and encouragement.

You know,  my last post was focused on social media.  Reach your target audience through the proper social channels and communicate these valuable whitepapers, blogs, webinars you’re publishing.

I encourage you to leave me a comment below with ways your company uses social media and/or what you offer to draw in your audience…

Always in need of ideas!