SWIPE FILE

Throughout my marketing career, I’ve kept a Swipe File (inspiration file) of my favorite marketing ideas: tweets, thoughts, articles, podcasts, ads, Tiktoks and our favorite, memes. 

Every week I’ll be sharing 3 of my favorites from my archives + what I’m adding to my swipe this week. 

1. Best Influencer = Your Customer

Insight from: Lebo Lion (Follow Lebo on Twitter here:@LeboLion_SA)

This is why you play the long game in marketing.

This is why you don’t overpromise and underdeliver.

This is why customer service matters.

This is why having a great product matters.

This is why marketing doesn’t stop at the sale. 

Your customers will either be your biggest fans or your worst enemies.

Every touchpoint matters. 

Word of mouth is the most powerful channel in marketing and will always be. Social media just amplified this.

People trust personal recommendations above all other sources of information in the buying process.

That’s why you see UGC (User Generated Content) and the hashtag #tiktokmademebuyit working (aka your customers being your best influencers).

We inherently trust people who are like us and who are not trying to sell us anything.

When someone buys and has a great experience, FOLLOW UP WITH THEM:

• Ask for reviews
• Try to get UGC
• Incentivize referrals 
• Find ways to make them share their experience on social
• Find ways to thank them – to make them feel special (you appreciate them, so make sure they feel that). 
   

2. Personal Customer Advisory Board

Insight from: Amanda Natividad (Follow Amanda on Twitter here:@amandanat)

This truly is a real hack.

Companies have adopted a customer advisory board internally, but having one as marketer will help you tremendously.

You can get real time input from people who actually use and benefit from your product – the same people who experience the pain points that your product helps solve.

This will also help you avoid one of the most common marketing mistakes: make assumptions of what your customers actually want, care about, and are feeling.

If you don’t have the data (qualitative or quantitative) to confirm your assumptions, then you are just hedging a bet. 

Getting to know your customers will save you time, money, and energy. Plus, in all honestly, it’ll make you shine internally.

And that, Marketing Besties, is what we call a win-win. 

3. Brand ≠ Your Colors and Logo

Insight from: Neha Puri (Follow Neha on Twitter @NehaKPuri)

Brand = Reputation 

Brand is not built overnight. The same way trust isn’t built overnight.

Brand is the real competitive advantage because nobody can copy and paste it like your colors, your logo, and your website. 

Brand is how you make someone feel when they talk about your company, when they use your product, and when they see your company’s name or content. 

Amanda Goetz of House of Wise has a great framework for this. She describes her framework in the following steps: 

1. Review your customer landscape and create your “only” statement
   • Find out what’s working with your competitors and what’s not workingFigure out where you fit The complete this sentence “We are the only brand that does x, y and/ or z.” 
   • Identify customer segments 
   • Create personas of your ideal customers. It helps if you can talk to actual customers.
2. Use 1 and 2 to create a brand pyramid
   • This will help you find the core of your brand
   • Create the brand FEELING
3.  Create TONE from that feeling
   • Create tone of voice of your brand
4. Bring that feeling into visuals
   • A mood board helps here
5. Learn as you go.
   • Your brand is always evolving. It’s not stagnant. It grows with the market, your customer and your learning

If you’re not following Amanda, you’re missing out!

MEME OF THE WEEK

Anakin went all personal brand makeover on us and I’m here for it.

H/t: Eric Brooker on Linkedn for sharing​​​​​​