Smarter Marketing for the Focused Business
Being the rabid content consumer that I am, I’ve come to realize that there is almost too much information out there about how to market products and services. I’ve devoured a lot for any one individual and would still say that the surface has barely been scratched. There’s another category of business that isn’t addressed nearly as often (or often enough) and that is the business of curation.
Curation is, at its essence, the art of focused collection. A DJ has to curate music that fits the expectations of his audience. An interior designer has to curate furniture and decor for the entire space they’re working with that matches their client’s personality and preference. One of the first thing businesses (should) learn to do when they get on social media is how to curate content that engages their customers.
People are busier than they have ever been, which generally means that we don’t have time for many of the leisurely activities we used to doing, like watching the news or reading a magazine. Don’t believe me? See how the modern family is getting their news and entertainment here. This also leaves a gap in our lives we’re not used to missing, knowing what we want.
What do we like to do? What luxuries in life are we willing to pay for? If you had a week to do whatever you wanted, what would you do? Sure, you might have a couple ideas when it comes to concepts but I’ll bet you’re as lost as I am when it comes to specifics.
This gap certainly qualifies as criteria for those who follow the timeless business philosophy of, “See a need, fill a need,” and there are a few smart businesses taking advantage of the opportunity.
Why do you care?
Many small businesses and entrepreneurs start out with a very specific target market and a very small marketing budget. Even if you could pay to reach the masses, you would be wasting a portion of your budget on reaching people who would never buy your product or service.
As a small business you appreciate the power of recommendation and you know that one happy customer can bring you more business than most of your marketing efforts combined. You also appreciate efficiency in spending and ROI because, well, you’re in business to make money.
If you agree with those two statements you’d probably say that finding a way to access your very specific target market through a trusted voice makes more sense than ordering those holographic business cards or trying to go “viral”.
I recently spent some time working with a business called InsideHook. They curate the finer things in life for successful, busy, men with discerning taste. While working with InsideHook I learned a few very important lessons.
There’s money to be made in specifics: They had every detail of their readers persona down, from how they think about themselves to the vocabulary they use.
Trust is business: InsideHook focuses on editorial quality and relevant and interesting recommendations to maintain the trust of their readers. That trust is exactly what their partners pay for.
People want to be more interesting than they are: Sure, I’d love to fly a jetpack, but I’d never pull the trigger on that desire unless it was hand wrapped and delivered to me. Which is exactly what InsideHook does.
Still not sure how exactly this whole thing works? That’s OK. I had InsideHook’s Executive Editor, Steve Bryant answer a few questions for you.
How do you choose your partners?
Well, I run the edit side of the business. Our VP of Sales, Tony Sardinas — Mr. T or Sardines to us — handles the biz end of the stick. But what I can say is that we always try to work with brands who share our core values and our target audience. We reach successful guys in their 30s and up. Adventurous and discerning men who don’t have a lot of free time, but they do have a thirst for experiences. That’s why successful companies, from Lexus to Glenlivet to Ralph Lauren, look to us. We’re both talking to the same type of guy.
How do you present their brand, product or service to your readers?
It’s native advertising. It’s all about trust. Our readers enjoy InsideHook because they know that every day they’re going to get one recommendation for an experience they’ll enjoy. That includes the recommendations from our brand partners. So, like, if on Monday through Thursday we email you pure editorial recommendations that you enjoy, and then on Friday you get an email from us about one of our partners, you expect that fifth email to target your lifestyle as precisely as the previous four. It’s really a virtuous circle. The readers win, our partners win, we win.
What kind of success are your partners seeing from working with you?
Our readers are very, very engaged. When they see an email that concerns our brand partners, they act on it. I’ll give you a good example. Lexus approached us with their new brand campaign last year. They wanted to get the average age of their car buyer down from 58 to the mid-forties. To do that, they needed to position their cars hipper and bolder than before. Now we could’ve just said to our readers “hey, buy a Lexus.” But instead, we created an entire native advertising series around their vehicles called Underground Access. Our editors curated “underground” activities, like lesser-known bars and off-the-beaten path experiences. And we threw some very tony events in NY and LA and invited our readers. Our readers ate it up. They clicked, they shared. Afterwards we did a brand study. Our readers said, in overwhelming numbers, that they thought of Lexus as a younger, hipper brand.
Partnering with a brand who has already earned the trust and respect of your potential customer is smart marketing. It’s a method that creates interest and awareness for your brand and it’s an especially clever tactic for bringing a new product or service into the market.
Remember, the audience you reach is looking to be more interesting in the eyes of all, and no one makes an effort to be more interesting and keeps it quiet.
InsideHook is just one example for one audience. The lesson you should take away from this is that you need to understand more than the demographics of your customers, you need to understand their lifestyle. Once you do that, look for brands who have their attention and their trust instead of relying on big media channels or trendy marketing tactics.
