Let’s face it, there are many ways to do outreach, advertise or even just try to make a connection with your customers and community…
But too much communication can easily turn into heavy spamming, unsubscribing from your comms and ultimately apathy and anger at what you’re doing.
We’ve all been there – you click the subscribe to notification button and what starts as a gentle trickle becomes an all-out tidal wave of noise…
But as marketers, we all know we can and need to do better…
In fact, it’s up to us to think of creative ways to earn the right to communicate with our audience, so that we can build a true 2-way narrative that is just like a normal, real-life relationship!
Your origin story and mission is a powerful opportunity just waiting to be activated
One creative way to do this is to leverage your origin story and make your annual anniversary a highly powerful marketing and sales tool to excite your user base and attract a whole new group of your target customers.
Most businesses don’t do this because they are pretty much locked into a cycle of thinking about the day-to-day, week to week…or they just don’t see the value of adding it to their playbook…
But remember…our number one goal here is to get people excited about hearing from us.
Then it’s all about developing deep lifetime value with your audience and making them feel connected to your brand…so they won’t go and buy from anyone else…
So leveraging your own origin story as a campaign should be one of the first things you put in your marketing calendar each year, and treat it as one of your most important marketing tasks…
Activating your origin story and launch date can be used by any business, whether you’re selling SaaS, soda or sea shells on the seashore…let’s look at a few ideas that you can start implementing today…
Be agile early on, and know that your works value will compound year on year
As one famous Chinese proverb says “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago…the second best time is now” – so even if you’re an established business and haven’t done this before, you could start rolling this out today. The same goes for if you’re a brand new startup!
The beauty of an ‘origin story anniversary campaign’ is that you can start really small and add new elements each year as your business grows and becomes more established.
All you need to think about now is: When’s your launch anniversary, what’s the story you’re trying to tell and do you have a few week’s notice to plan your campaign properly?
If you want to get started now on leveraging your origin story, here’s what I would do…
A business operating in its first year could offer…
A short video from your founders, giving a behind-the-scenes view of the business, the ‘why’ you set it up mission, milestones and some personal insights
A small meetup in your home city, bringing together local customers and some media to get coverage (there’s a nice story in local businesses thriving)
Some case studies of your happiest and most active customers.
A special time-sensitive promo code can be activated through the celebration
And you can trail all this across your marketing channels… and make it more ambitious year after year…maybe even creating dialogue by asking your audience what they would like to see next year…
In year 2, you could do all this again and add…
Engaging anniversary-themed content on your social media, including behind-the-scenes glimpses, trivia, and customer stories.
Rewards Programs for purchasing a product or service within your ‘anniversary’ month.
VIP access to a select group of customers, providing them with early access to deals or special events.
In year 3, you could do all this again and add…
An invite to your customer-focused AGM/Special meetup party for your biggest clients – or run a competition to join it.
Launch anniversary-themed products or services that are unique to the occasion.
Create a competition for your customer’s best ideas, then get them to vote for the best idea/product – and then sell that back to them, knowing that they are already willing customers and word-of-mouth advocates.
You can see where this is going now…so make it your own and start to show your personality and why you set up your business or service, the challenges you faced, the stories of your top customers, how you did it etc…and trust in the process…
The key to a successful anniversary engagement strategy is to make customers feel appreciated and valued for their support while creating a sense of excitement and celebration around your business milestone.
If you do this already then let us know, we’d love to hear how you celebrate your milestones – comment in the box below!
Until next week, keep winning!
Jonny