Your Top 5 Creative Marketing Strategies for Success

Key takeaways for your business:

• Know your audience

• Highlight your team

• Stand out from competitors

• Use testimonials and case studies

• Maximize content value

Let’s dive in. We’ve got four questions to help you “check your marketing pulse,” and we have some answers to get you started.

Should you be active on social media?

Yes. The answer is always yes. So the better questions are:

• What platforms should I prioritize?
• How frequently should I post?
• What is the best content for my organization to promote?
• How can I reach a larger audience and increase my engagement?

And in order to answer those questions, you need to review your position in the marketplace (who are your competitors, what are your unique selling points), identify and understand your target audiences (demographics), and know what those target audiences value and need (how they make decisions).

Answering these questions allows you to dial in your content creation and ensure the efforts you’re making will reach the users and stakeholders who matter the most.

We all have several target audiences, and they all have different relationships with our organizations. Most of us have these audiences:

• Active customers
• Inactive customers
• Leads/Prospects
• Current workforce
• Future workforce/recruitment audience

As you develop your content, consider these different audiences. Ask yourself: what do they already know, and what do they want to know? What will surprise, delight, or interest them? How can you help them? The best most effective content will consider, and deliver, what your specific audiences value and need.

Then, apply the following two principles:

1. Post with a regular frequency.

It might be once a week, or once a day. Use a calendar to plan your posts out for a month so that you don’t feel pressure to come up with new ideas on the spot.

2. Be generous with your content.

As an expert in your industry, you are uniquely qualified to provide tips and insight, lessons learned, and specialized knowledge. In offering your thought leadership, you organically highlight your services, value proposition, and your credentials and qualifications. Here is an example of a blog about the power of professional photography for your brand.

Why human stories win over product specs.

People buy from people.

While you might have exceptional customer service and products, remember that most of your competition does, too – or they wouldn’t be the competition. Unless you’re selling widgets via lowest-cost transactional sales, you need to connect and build relationships with your customers in order to differentiate yourself.  And building relationships begins with your people.

People connect with people.

Who are the people in your company doing the work and making the decisions? You should be telling their stories. Spotlight Phil and his 30+ years of experience on the shop floor.  Tell Mary’s story – she’s been in shipping for two decades and takes pride in sending every order out on time. What about that new engineer, fresh out of school, who brings cutting-edge innovation to ensure every project is efficient and successful? Every one of your people has a story, and human stories are what compel and connect us.

How do you spotlight your people?

• Feature photography and short bios of the leadership team on your website.
• Post short videos that feature team members, their abilities, and their experience.
• Celebrate work anniversaries and accomplishments both internally and externally.
• Take your audiences on a video tour of your facility with a team member as the tour guide.

Why are you so special?

Forcing yourself to answer this question is an especially effective exercise in lots of industries; we encourage you to try it. A quick Google Maps search for “Machine Shop York PA” yields 50+ locations. So if this is you – with many local competitors – how do you cut through the noise and make sure people find you instead of the one (or eight) competitors down the street?  You need to identify what makes your product or service unique and put that front and center.

There are some core competencies that most service or product-based companies feature. What makes yours stand out? Do you:

• Have the fastest turn time on a project or deliverable?
• Have a large team that works on projects collectively to provide the best solutions?
• Specialize in something niche?
• Have the team and ability to grow with the customer?

Whatever it is, make sure you’re telling people about it.

• Is this key differentiator an anchor point on your home page?
• Is it part of your 30-second elevator pitch?
• Are you creating and deploying content on Linked In or your email newsletter about this specialty?
• Does your sales team have effective marketing tools to explain this?
• Are you establishing yourself as the expert in the area for this service?

What do others say about you?

What are people saying about you, and are you driving the narrative?

Harvard Business Review^[1] says referred customers are 18% more loyal than customers acquired by other means. According to Clutch^[2], they are 4 times more likely to refer more customers to your brand, and customers referred by other customers have a 37% higher customer retention rate.

Leveraging the brand equity of your clients is a great way to help build credibility in the market.

“If Acme company works with them, they have to be good. I’ll check them out/trust them with my job too.”

That’s what we’re going for.  There are a few ways to highlight projects and clients who already trust you:

• Case Studies can provide a great mix of text, images, and video content. Host the case study on your website or blog, then segment it across email newsletters, client check-ins, sales opportunities, and your social media channels. If you do it right, you’ll get some serious mileage out of one case study. Single-sourcing content in this way allows you to maximize the value of your content creation, and our Studio specializes in developing assets that lend themselves this kind of evergreen creative work.
• Client Testimonials provide an opportunity to showcase your current customers’ satisfaction. A  written client testimonial is a strong start, but video content is the way to go. Video allows users to see and connect with the person speaking. The visual medium also provides an opportunity to show off a project in process, a completed and installed project, your facility, your capabilities, or the types of client sites where you work. Above all, video creates connections between potential clients and your business on a much higher level than written testimonials. The viewer can see themselves as the customer in the video and think, “That’s me, that’s what my facility looks like.” Check out the testimonial videos we made for RG Group.

Brightcove^[3] reports that video testimonials can increase conversion rates by up to 80%. Video offers potential customers with a genuine understanding of the benefits and value of your product or service.

Check out the testimonial and company culture videos below.

In a perfect scenario, your marketing processes are seamless and streamlined.  If you’ve gotten this far and are thinking, “This all sounds good, but I have no idea where to start,” don’t worry; we do.  Give us a call at the Studio or email me and let’s start the conversation.

Hayman Creative Studio is here to help as much or as little as you need to increase awareness, tell the right story, and grow your business.

Hayman Creative Studio is a third-generation, family-owned-and-operated, marketing and creative studio. We opened our doors in York County in 1950 and have continuously served local and national clients from a variety of industries and organizations: manufacturing, healthcare, and professional services are just a few of those. Our clients come to us for our unique Hayman Experience that only decades of knowledge and a deep passion for our craft provide: its great attention to the process, a productive and easy-going environment, professional and efficient turnaround, and exceptional quality projects.

References:

^[1] Schmitt, Philipp et al. “Why Customer Referrals Can Drive Stunning Profits.” Harvard Business Review,  June 2011.

^[2] Clutch. “Understanding and Unlocking the Value of Customer Referrals.” Clutch.com, February 2017.

^[3] Brightcove. “What Kind of Video is Suitable for Conversion?” .