Bringing Value To Your Followers — “Entertainment”
Here at Urban Buffalo we frequently use the word “value” and talk about “bringing value” to our followers and fans. I’m gonna take a minute to explain what that means and why it’s important.
We base our “Value Strategy” on 3 E’s:
- Entertainment
- Education
- Emotion
This article is the first of a 3 week, 3 part series that will walk through what it means to bring value to your followers.
Using this value based strategy allows you to connect with your followers on a more personal level. The content is geared towards them and what they like rather than focused on you. That’s not to say that self-promotion doesn’t have a time and place, but in an era of constant personalization, brands that don’t cater to the hearts and minds of their consumers will quickly get left behind.
Entertainment
Arguably the best marketing spot in the world happens once a year in early February during the Superbowl, with 30 second ads costing $4.5 million a piece. These commercials have a cult-following. You will even hear many at Superbowl party goers say, “I’m just here to watch the commercials”.
This is due to the sheer entertainment value those commercials provide. And better yet, they work. Budweiser, with their famed clydesdale horses, receives approximately a $96 million sales hike based solely off of their Superbowl ads. That’s a 172% return on investment!
While the principle of providing entertainment through advertising remains the same for small to medium businesses, their implementation will be quite different. When working with smaller marketing budgets there are 3 main categories to key in on to entertain your audience:
- Humor
- Relevance
- Resourcefulness
Humor
Now, before I dive in, let me warn you: using humor in marketing it not for everyone. Few things are more harmful to a brand than when a joke falls flat or, worse yet, is offensive. However, when it works, it works. Laughter releases endorphins that make people feel happier and less stressed. If, as a business, you can make people feel good you have an automatic leg-up on your competitors. Having someone with both a quick wit and and an eye of discernment can make for a great social media manager.
Relevance
The world of communications is moving at a pace faster than ever. Just being relevant in your industry isn’t good enough anymore. Being able to make cross-references to pop culture, sports, & politics will allow you to connect with your audience on multiple levels. It gives them extra reasons to be interested in you beyond a great product or service. They will see that you are a brand that has a personality, not just a robot processing orders and Excel sheets.
No one will ever criticize you for being well-rounded in culture. Relevance will let you draw in new customers that would have passed over you otherwise.
Resourcefulness
Here’s the great thing about the internet: it is full of content. Between videos, GIFs, memes, and all the funny people out there, it’s not difficult to find entertaining content. While original content is optimal, it’s actually less common than you would think. In the digital world we call this the “1% Rule”. It basically states that 1% of people create the content and the rest of the 99% share it. Creating original content will definitely help you stick out, but you will not be shunned for recycling or sharing someone else’s.
Is your business based in one city? Share a video of a flashback to your baseball team winning the World Series. In sales? Share a video of a comedian poking fun at sales people. It’s that easy. Just make sure to give credit where credit is due when you share.
We could splice and dice for days what it means to be entertaining as marketers. At the end of the day having humor, relevance and resourcefulness creates a springboard for furthering engagement that leads to conversions for your business.
Get ready for next week! We will breakdown how to bring value to your followers through Education!
By: Wes Lehman
Founder/Account Director
UrbanBuffaloMarketing.com
wes@urbanbuffalomarketing.com
(813) 727–5941
