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) No Truly Original IDEAS
An original idea is really taking 2 pieces of information that haven’t been connected before (and then bringing them together).
You have to have the dots in order to connect them.
Allen Gannett says in his book, The Creative Curve, that there are 4 laws of the creative curve. I’ll frame these 4 laws into the context of Marketing:
1. CONSUMPTION – Getting good (ideally, GREAT) at marketing requires you to consume as much marketing material as you possibly can.
2. IMITATION – Imitate the best marketers (the ones who have ALREADY successfully done what you’re trying to do).
Look to the marketers who have come before us (our marketing foremothers and forefathers).
Reverse engineer what worked well for them, and APPLY your learnings into your marketing of today.
3. COMMUNITIES – Surround yourself with people who inspire you, and push you to be your VERY best.
Build a community of marketers and successful people around you. We are stronger together. We are smarter together. We are on the same team.
4. ITERATIONS – Use FEEDBACK from your audience to keep improving your ideas.
The best marketers don’t just come up with ideas out of thin air. Instead, they take special care to connect the dots of the ideas around them (they study marketing, and routinely work on their craft).
Great marketers take something that already exists, and make that something into something special.
2) Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook
Jabs = value you provide to your audience.
(Content you provide and the good interactions you have with the people who support you AKA your audience)
Level up your marketing game
Zero BS. Just fun, unfiltered, industry insights with the game-changers behind some of the coolest companies from around the globe.
No spam. Unsubscribe any time.
Right Hook = when you ask your audience for something
(To buy something, to subscribe to something, or to do something that benefits you)
When building an audience, you have to give, give, give, give and give some more BEFORE asking for anything.
Too many brands on social media are all about themselves.
Look at our company’s culture, check out our brand’s webinar, read our latest blog post, check out our next product.
“ME, ME, ME, ME!!!!”
You wouldn’t walk into a networking event (filled with people you don’t know and who don’t know you), and be like, “Hey, you don’t know me, but do you want to buy my product?”
We can’t expect to get our audience (or the people we interact with) to give us something for nothing – we MUST provide value.
Garyvee says, “Stop thinking about your content as content. Think about it, rather, as micro-content — tiny, unique nuggets of information, humor, commentary, or inspiration that you reimagine every day.”
Every piece of content you share should be valuable, but, it should also be related to the niche you want to be known for (AKA your story).
3) Lesson for Creators
THIS IS THE WAY.
You need to partner with creators instead of looking at them like billboards you can buy.
HINT: Creators are people.
If the creators you work with are attached to the upside of the revenue that they are bringing in for the content they are creating, they will then create better content.
Structure these partnerships like partnerships. Incentivize creators to WANT TO WORK WITH YOU. TO WANT TO SUCCEED TOGETHER.
If the creators you work with just ship you the project because they are paid for the deliverable alone, they won’t have any incremental incentive to create their best content, to turn in their best work.
It’s all about building a LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP with creators.
We are in an era where people buy from people (and trust people over institutions).
So, if you find a creator who’s work and brand resonate with your brand, build that relationship EARLY ON.
^ When you do this, evangelists are born. Your creators will be invested in the success of your partnership.
And, they’ll go ABOVE and BEYOND time and time again.
Want The Marketing Millennials in your inbox? Subscribe to the newsletter.
