Face to face is where it’s at. That’s right, getting your hands dirty and actively reaching out to your customers is very effective. I don’t know if it’s because a lot of companies are lazy, or perhaps they would rather just spend their money on useless oversized banners that no one pays attention to, but I can say that street promotions and demos WORK if done in the right context.
Street Promotions And Demos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1rwS01keuU
I’ve been doing marketing and street promotions with Lyft for a couple of months (See video above), and have learned some important truths as it relates to marketing. I have also done some in-store demos for a food company at a local Whole Foods. Here are some lessons I have learned from marketing to random strangers.
Know Thy Customer
In marketing Lyft, I try to place myself in locations where people are most receptive. I go to bus stops, metro stations, and places where college students frequent. Your customer isn’t everyone. If you treat everyone as your customer, you’ll waste a lot of time.
Market segmentation is real. Mass marketing is dead, let’s leave it there.
Don’t know where to find your customers? Start Here – The Silver Circle
Make Small Bets
When coming up with a strategy to deploy my street promotions, I make small bets. I don’t always have a ton of information about an event. Instead of driving hours away from my house to market an event for Lyft, I try closer venues where the risks are smaller and the potential failures matter less.
There are have been many times when I miscalculated or didn’t know the layout of a venue which leads to failure. Even worse, I misidentified my customers.
Being a smart marketer means actively trying to reduce the number of unknowns, rather than making huge bets that result in big losses. This is where conducting small tests can be very powerful.
Build Social Proof/Authority
Building social proof and authority should be a major component of every marketing effort. When handing out marketing materials to people on the streets, it helps to look official and engage as much as you can with your customers. When people are unsure of how to act, they often times look to others for guidance.
Being cognizant of this fact allows you to re-calibrate when people refuse your pitch. This concept expands way beyond simple street marketing and should be kept in mind at all times. The question you should be constantly asking yourself is, “Are my actions reinforcing social proof and authority, or are they degrading it?”
Make Sure Your Story Is Coherent
I recently did a promotion for Lyft during Halloween where I gave people a bag of candy with my promotional materials encased in the baggie. This trojan horse approach worked extremely well. I complimented the gift by saying “Happy Halloween from Lyft.” Contrast this with any regular day where I wanted to pass out bags of candy to strangers; it would get creepy real quick.
Every marketing interaction is a story. It helps to understand how people perceive you. Get inside their heads. Does your story make sense, or is it out of place and potentially just weird?
Reciprocation Is Powerful
During my time at Whole Foods passing out samples, I always had this weird sensation that people thought I was selling them after giving them a free sample when really, I had no intention of doing so. People are programmed to feel a tendency towards reciprocation when given something. It is a powerful instinct that explains why companies GIVE VALUE first.
People feel obligated when you give something to them free of charge. Give your customers something for free. Let them experience it; It’s powerful, use it.
Paint a Picture
People will give all sorts of weird objections for not wanting something. I have found that painting a picture is a very effective way around this. When someone tells me they don’t want to try Lyft, I ask them if they go out with friends on the weekends or drink. They inevitably say yes. Once you get a yes, you can leverage it with a story that alleviates the pain.
“Why not let Lyft be your designated driver for the weekend?” They take the free ride. Painting a picture is a great way to turn those no’s into yes’s
Stop Telling, Start Selling.
I cringe when I see Lyft place huge advertisements on large buses. The graphics are weird, and the overall message is just strange. Marketing with real human beings who can spread the message and benefits of a service is a much better investment in my opinion.
Interruption, mass advertising, billboards — they all feel great until you realize they don’t really work anymore. Letting people experience the benefits of your product does the selling for you.
Although seemingly rudimentary, I know that these types of marketing efforts work. I have recruited many hundreds of new passengers to Lyft in a matter of a couple of months. I have effectively sold food products for a company that would have otherwise had a product standing around collecting dust.
Marketing efforts like these require low investment while providing a relatively high ROI given that you create a compelling story. If your company doesn’t have a street team or way of getting people to try out your product, why not start one?
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