My Marketing Secret Sauce: Explore More

I’m not just a marketing nerd. I’m also a nature nerd.

If something involves animals, the Discovery Channel, gardening, etc. — I’m THERE.

I was watching a Discovery show about our deep blue oceans, and it struck me how much exploring we do (and have left to do).

As humans, our evolution centers around exploring our planet and the universe.

So why don’t we explore more when marketing?

Sure, we can rattle off statistics (70% of marketers plan to increase social media advertising this year!).

And yeah, we can tell you what our business does (we educate clients on psychographics; how to Think Conversation, Not Campaign!).

But ask companies or marketers to give you a laundry list of stats on their clients, their audiences, and watch those fast moving mouths fall silent.

We don’t explore our own business world enough.

I didn’t do enough exploring either … until recently.

How I’ve Explored More With Marketing

1) Asking Questions

We were recently able to reduce our bounce rate by 25% on our homepage at B Squared Media. Know how?

We asked a client why they chose to work with us. And who else she looked at.

And based on that conversation, we asked her what she liked and didn’t like about our site when she was researching who to use for social media services.

This wasn’t some mamby pamby survey.

No sir. We got on the phone, shared computer screens, and talked for at least an hour!

Based on our client’s recommendations, we scrapped a lot of our copy (and refined other parts).

We also added more strategic calls-to-action — both visual and with text.

I realize not every client will give you this much time and attention (what’s in for them?!) …

{But to let you in on a little secret, we made it worth her while with some freebies of our services — the ones we know she really likes}

2) Shock & Awe

Dave Kerpen of Likeable Media calls this one “surprise and delight” — but since I’m from Texas and our hometown boy George W. loves this phrase, I’m going to go with it instead.

When thinking of sales and lead generation for 2015, I needed weapons of mass destruction.

I needed something so damn good, it would tear the hearts right out of would-be clients’ chests (not in a scary Quentin Tarantino kind of way, but in a WOW way that puts their heart in my hands).

So I’m creating pitch gifts.

Pitch gifts are follow ups with leads that include a totally FREE gift.

“Oh hey there Mr. Prospect! While you’re over there pondering our proposal, we thought we’d check in and and leave you with this [insert awesome sauce gift that pertains to what they need here]. Enjoy!”

The gift pertains to what their needs are; their reason for reaching out to B Squared Media; solves some of the pain points we’ve offered to solve in our proposal.

We expect nothing in return (honestly!), but totally hope that the person receiving it is so enamored with our shock and awe campaign that they immediately know who to buy from.

Again, these aren’t you’re usual suspect gifts, like a free content calendar, or templates our prospects can find anywhere on the web.

No sir. These are totally custom, OVER THE TOP “gifts” they can run with.

{We’re giving our prospects EVERYTHING we have. Are you? I sure hope we’re not your competitor! 😉 }

3) Focusing Efforts On People — Not Numbers

In my 2015 efforts to explore marketing more, I’m letting go of numbers.

Not all numbers, don’t freak out. ROI still matters.

Vanity metrics do not. Ego metrics do not.

Instead of spending time on “likes” and reach and other bullshit fluff marketers will tell you to chase, I’m going to focus on people.

• The people in my personal life
• The people in my digital sphere of influence
• Our clients
• Our prospects

By focusing on these core groups — and with campaigns like #2 mentioned above — I’m better spending my time on tasks (and people) that will help me get a solid return on investment.

I’d like to see you get your Facebook “likes” to do that.

Best Of All?

Each one of those three initiatives above has me living and breathing by our company mantra.

Passion breeds passion. Activity breeds activity.

And conversation? Well, it leads down an endless path of Y-E-S.

I hope you’ll start exploring more with your marketing this year, too.

Go farther. Dig deeper. Ask Questions.

And for the love of all that is good and holy, THINK CONVERSATION.

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Brooke B. Sellas

Brooke B. Sellas is the in-the-trenches Founder & CEO of @HelloBSquared, an award-winning social media, advertising, and social media customer care agency. She's also the author of Conversations That Connect -- a book all about social listening and social media customer care. Brooke's marketing mantra is “Think Conversation, Not Campaign” so be sure to give her a shout on the socials!

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