While almost every industry has been disrupted by the explosion of the internet and social media, few have been flipped on their head more than marketing. It hasn't just created new tools or enhanced tactics, but it has become the nucleus around which every marketing strategy is constructed. Marketers have had to account for the internet at every turn. For every advantage it grants them, it gives consumers three new tools to elude them. Nowhere is this more evident then in traditional advertising.
Technology has enhanced billboards and other out-of-home advertising. Today, digital signs adorn highways around the country delivering on average 4 times the advertising messaging than static billboards. However, drivers are more distracted than ever with GPS turn-by-turn directions, real-time traffic updates and enhanced in-ride entertainment. Technology has empowered consumers with other tools like ad blockers. DVRs have given rise to "delayed" live TV allowing viewers to skip through expensive TV spots and cord-cutting has moved on from a millennial fad to a global tipping point.
In response, brands have increasingly sought to create more direct and intimate engagement to develop lasting relationships with consumers. By going direct to consumer and building more authentic, organic relationships with consumers, marketers take the guesswork out of communications. As a result, more brands are investing in conversion based experiential marketing
What is Conversion-Based Marketing?
When we hear the word "conversion" we typically associate it with digital marketing not experiential. Its often been touted for for its excellence in branding, but lacking in its ability to generate leads. Conversely, digital marketing has been heralded for its accountability in every step in generating, converting nurturing and eventually closing leads. Conversion based experiential marketing combines the best of both.
Conversion based experiential takes a different approach to the on-premise event by using four easy steps:
- Brand ambassadors engage prospective customers in a brand experience by enticing them with a instant free offer, (such as concert tickets, t-shirts, or prize packs.)
- The consumer must fill out a form on a simple landing page using their phone, tablet or other mobile-enabled device,to redeem the offer on-site.
- The offer is fulfilled. The visiting consumer is converted into a lead and is instantly added to a digital marketing workflow.
- The new lead is sent an instant email thanking them for their visit and offers them additional value, further nurturing and conversion oportunities pushing them down the buyers journey.
Why does this work?
Online, the traditional buyers journey assumes an organic search. While only the first step in the equation, it is often the most difficult to count on. With Google, BING, and other search engines constantly moving the SEO goal post by shifting and concealing their algorithms, assuming that you'll always rank for the keywords you want is a risky play. By doing this, they naturally create more of a demand for their paid search products but depending on your industry, cost-per-click rates can be so high that marketers with smaller budgets are unable to compete.
Conversion based experiential replaces the need for the organic search inexact science and initiates the buyers journey by simply saying hello. While still an inbound method, it revolutionizes grassroots marketing strategy by increasing the odds of conversion by taking the gateway direct to the consumer.
Training Is Key
With more importance placed on the initial interaction, conversion based experiential marketing demands a higher degree of training for brand ambassadors. The average street team isn't going to cut it. Part-time college students recruited in the student union won't cut it. Marketers looking to invest in conversion based experiential marketing must consider training staff on the various stages of the buyers journey, sales process and CRM. Constructing a quality form, landing page and understanding the awareness stage of the buyers journey is essential. Hubspot provides an Inbound Certification and other resources that are helpful.
It Delivers Measured Results
One of the essential advantages of conversion based experiential is its measured. Street team and other grassroots marketing is often not sales driven. Its key indicators are in impressions and disconnected to producing revenue. Conversion based experiential bridges that gap and ties the impression to the lead and tracks it to an eventual sale.
Conversion-based experiential is a catalyst for lead generation. It feeds your digital marketing workflow instead of waiting for organic to find them for you. In the age of the internet and social media, its ability to find leads and not only drive conversions but initiate brand relationships and providing measurable results is unmatched.
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