The deeper I get into marketing, the more I realize how little power a brand and marketer really has. The reason being that at the end of the day, you can have all the best graphics, product benefits and greatest advertising campaign. But if there is no one to receive it or to help spread the word, then there is no point. Digital Marketing is something that is a collective unit. It necessitates the help of many individuals. This includes your customers, the media and influencers.
The Power is in the Network
The ultimate power is having a network of blogs, influencers and important figures in the community that are happy to help assist you in spreading the word about your campaign. What I mean by this is not your friends and family sharing your post on Facebook just to support. This is a relatively low strength marketing network.
What is much more powerful, is having a network of industry professionals who appreciate your brand. But you also like how they do business. You like how they handle their content, how they respect their consumers. Those businesses would love to recommend to anyone your business because they know their recommendation would be honored by you.
What Can Your Business Do?
Your going to hate my answer because if you went to business school, you will have heard this answer way too many times. The answer is networking. You have to network the hell out of your industry and community so that you have access to resources that are closely tied to your business, but you also have to be accessible to those who may need your service.
Networking is a vague answer so I’ll leave you with some ideas of how you can do this. You can always:
- Enter Online Forums where people of your industry meet
- Join Virtual spaces like Twitter Chats, Facebook Groups and LinkedIn connections
- Going out to trade shows, chambers of commerce, meetups to shake some hands.
Have targets in your mind, but to be honest, just go with an open mind. You never know who could need your service or who might just refer your business to someone else.
What To Do When You Meet The People You Need To
Its easy. Be a friend. Let them know what you do. Offer them assistance in whatever your expertise allows. Get to know them a little. Then when you have launches or any marketing material go out, ask them to take a look through it. Ask for their input.
There are a lot of things when it comes to building that relationship. It honestly can fill up hundreds of books. It quite literally does actually. But anyways, just make sure you are being helpful.
Lasting Thoughts
Another important aspect of establishing these good relationships is to ensure that you yourself are someone that a brand can rally behind. When your starting out, you don’t have the clout of big companies like HP and Apple. That brand strength is still not yet in your grasp. What you have to do is create a character and a personality that people can rally behind.
