Experiential marketing is not a new concept. In-fact it was started by William Wrigley Jr in 1893. William handed out gum to attendees at the World Fair in Chicago in an attempt to drive up sales of gum in America. There are 5 levels to experiential marketing:
1) Exposure – Where can I find the most number of people who need my product or service?
2) Participation – When people have to contribute to the creation of what it is you are offering, they feel a sense of ownership. We are human beings so we learn by doing. The NDIS is essentially experiential marketing because it requires a participant to take part in their own care.
3) Identification – Experiential marketing allows a participant to identify their own needs and how your product or service fits into that.
4) Internalistion – Once a participant is aware of your product or service (exposure) and they have taken part in it in some way (participation) they then start to realise ways they can use your product or service long term. This occurs when they internalise your product or service.
5) Dissemination – By this stage, if you have done all the other stages correct, you will have created a bunch of raving fans who will do your marketing for you by spreading the word for you via their friends, family and social media accounts.
There are also 8 Pillars to experiential marketing:
- It must be shareable – How am I able to share what it is I do and what it is I stand for? This could be a website, PDF, or invite to an event.
- It must be memorable – How are you keeping your business front of mind for those participants you are trying to reach?
- It must be relatable – Your audience must be able to relate to it otherwise they will not share it. A confused mind never buys, It is no good sharing something about walking to a person who is in a wheelchair all their life because chances are they wont get it because they have never experienced it before. It is no good describing a rainbow in all its beauty to a blind person because they likely have nothing to compare it to. When we try to relate to something, subconsciously we are comparing to something we are already familiar with.
- It must be relevant – If I am looking to buy a car and can only afford a Mini Minor and you are showing me a Ferrari you will lose me at hello because it is just not relevant to me. Likewise if I am looking for a job there is no point showing me options for a hobby. If I am thirsty there no point offering me food or accommodation.
- It must be personal – I must feel you have my best interest at heart. This means you must speak to me like I am the only customer you have. I must be able to see how what you are offering applies to me own life and will make my life easier. This is where mirroring technique comes in handy. The fastest way to make something personal build know, like and trust is by mirroring the other person. This shows you take a genuine interest in them.
- People must be able to connect to your brand – The role of a brand is to build a meaningful connection for participants with what you are offering.
- People must be able to engage with your brand to a level that they feel part of your brand.
- It must be credible – If you have no track record and are not able to show people how your product or service will solve thier problem and it is value for money (ie: I give you $10 you give me $100) you will lose the sale every time.
Experiential marketing is all about how prospect/consumers/clients connect with your business, brand and services through an experience. It is a business or brands ability to create meaningful and memorable experiences for their audience. When a business is able to nail this then they have successfully created a connection that creates brand loyalty. Experiential marketing allows for a hands on experience for your prospective customer. It allows a business to engage all the senses of the consumer which then allows the consumer to feel, think and act in a way that allows them to relate to your brand through your product or service.
The ultimate goal in experiential marketing is to create the ultimate experience for our customers. This is achieved only through a deep authentic understanding of your customers journey. You can hear or read something a thousand times but until you experience it you will never really understand it. Take water for example, how would you explain water to someone who has never seen or experienced water? There is probably a million ways to explain water but you will never ever come close to giving it justice until the person you are trying to explain it to can experience it for themselves.
Experiential marketing allows us to create a deep meaningful and emotional connection to something and someone. This is because an experience is something that can never be duplicated due to its nature of being deeply personal. Therefore it must be authentic, intentional, allow for reflection and evaluation while also giving acknowledgement, creating clarity. It is the art of being able to meet people where they are at and engaging as many of the 5 senses as possible, allowing them to observe what is important to them. This in turn creates one of the most powerful marketing strategies on the planet – “WORD OF MOUTH”. People buy from those they know, like and trust so the goal is to create an experience that compels someone to go and tell their friends about it. If you create a great experience for your participants they will end up doing your marketing for you through word of mouth and social media, making them social influencers for your brand.
So how do we successfully do this? You could run events that showcase your services or you could create fun activities, unique games, hold a festival, trade shows or award ceremony. Brand merchandise or running demos of your services and how they can help your prospects. Samples if you have a physical product or even run a retreat. You could hold a once off pop up event or a workshop. Run a contest, even a mix of online offline events. These are all great ways of building your fan base. Team building events are great for motivating staff and creating an experiential learning environment. Co-branding could be something else to look at where you team up with another provider who compliments what you do and run something together. This also helps cut down on overheads. For more marketing ideas visit our website to download our 101 way to market your NDIS business.
Some examples of experiential marketing success campaigns are: Coke when they replaced their branding for peoples names on cans and bottles, Nike, Apple, Starbucks, Red Bull, Weight Watchers, have all run very successful experiential marketing campaigns. To set up your own experiential marketing funnel you must know first of all how your clients think, what they feel and how they act and why. For experiential marketing to be successful one must invest heavily in the interest of your audience,