This post was prompted by a great example of a business getting it right. To set the scene I will first write about businesses getting it wrong.
Very often businesses do not get the best out of the activities they engage in. Trade shows are a good example, businesses will exhibit, or visit, without getting the maximum value available. Often what is achieved is a very lacklustre performance. It will be decided to attend a particular show and a lot of money will be spent on booking a stand space and making it look nice, sorting out travel and accommodation for staff. Sometimes thought will be given to what the desired outcomes are, which could be sales, increased brand awareness, product launch, collecting names for a marketing database, etc. Surprising very often those outcomes are not thought about. Even when they are they are poorly executed because the staff on the stand are not motivated and can be seen sitting staring at their smartphones, perhaps expecting potential customers to wait until they deign to look up and speak to them. Very little planning will have gone into pre-show activity (publicity, inviting key customers to visit, etc.) or post-show activity (publicity, following up leads, debrief, etc). When I attended the National Running Show as a visitor, I wrote a blog post about it the following day and sent it to the organisers. They included a quote from it and a link to my website in the email they sent out to all show attendees a few days later. Amazing publicity for just a little bit of effort.
Now to the good example. I have written several articles for the Rad Season website which is described as the ultimate hub for the world’s best experiences. It’s a one-stop-shop for all your action sports and adventure festival booking needs. Obviously with the restrictions on travel imposed because of the Coronavirus pandemic there is not a lot of experiences happening. Rad Season has started a series of podcast interviews with their contacts on a whole range of sports and travel experiences to stay engaged with their followers. I was one of those interviewed, and here is the good bit, Rad Season made it extremely easy for me to promote that podcast, both before the event and after. They supplied useful links to the material on various platforms (never thought I would be on iTunes) and great graphics with quotes from the interview to make it extremely easy for me to post on social media.
That same process, which was put in place before the project started, is repeated with every interviewee. Rad Season made it amazingly easy for us to publicise ourselves, and therefore them, to our networks extending their reach massively and to remarkably diverse audiences who were still people that would want to interact with them. That’s smart leverage; that little bit of extra effort made the asset, the podcast, work hard for them; it also meant they had lots of willing helpers, the interviewees, working at spreading the word.
How can you make your assets work harder and get that extra reach?
Business Thoughts 