the long tail

Reaching The Market Outside Your Home Town

Reaching The Market Outside Your Home Town

Garth Beyer

Marketing Outreach

This is a longer post than I usually write. You could easily skip it and respond to the notification awaiting you on your phone. Alas, I hope you find this as practical, if not more.

We’re All Marketers

I’ve never understood PR folk talking about “outreach” in their own community. To me, that’s inreach, as in, easily in reach; as in, if your business is remarkable enough, the success of it will have enough momentum to touch all those in reach. A great business has inreach built in. Steven P. Dennis calls the hometown diehard fans of a business the obsessive core. Marketers, therefore, are for reaching out beyond the core.

Business plan = inreach.

Marketing = outreach.

Clear? Now let’s tackle the outreach by going over a few tools every marketer needs to understand to reach the market outside their zone, their base, their marked territory.

Not Your Average Advertising

As complicated as Facebook advertising is to understand, it’s quite easy to use to target consumers outside common ground.

Say you’re marketing MobCraft Beer to a state other than Wisconsin where they are based and a current Wisconsin resident follows Mobcraft’s FB page. This follower also has a few out-of-state friends she regularly interacts with. Facebook’s advertising algorithm will pick them up and advertise directly, noting to them there Wisconsin resident friend has liked MobCraft Beer’s FB page and they should too.

All social network advertising, not just social media networks are taking into consideration the value of connections, of handshakes, of conversations over the value of eyeballs. You don’t want the mass, anyway. You want those who matter. Right? Advertising isn’t what it used to be. (That’s a good thing for us marketers.)

Working Email and Mailing Address Lists

There’s no reason not to be A/B testing.

A/B testing in its most simplified definition is trying two different things and seeing which works better. Does a zen-like website page get more click-throughs than a collage-designed page? Will a handwritten card with a great photo on the front work better than a brochure? Will emailing small-time bloggers be more effective than a press release to those in authority? It’s time to find out.

Test and measure, test and measure.

And remember: Don’t get on the scale unless you’re willing to change your diet and exercise routine and don’t change your diet and exercise routine unless you will regularly step on the scale. Test and measure.

Surfing the Internet

If I’m not doing some grunt work, I know I’m not doing the best marketing I can. No matter what client I’m working with, I search on multiple search engines to find forums, blogs, and other places where the tribes have gathered. (And, yes, I go into the depths of Google, far beyond the first, second and third pages of results.) The long tail matters. Every small tribe matters.

A smart place to start is Reddit. A fellow PR daily contributor, Mickie Kennedy wrote a short bit on how to use Reddit for PR.

Through surfing the Internet, you’ll realize very quickly (if you haven’t already) how critical being human is. Most online tribes are skeptical; they will downvote blatant advertising and seek clarification of credibility before they upvote, make a purchase or share what you offer.

You’ll also learn (if you haven’t already) those who are the most loyal to brands are the most likely to turn their shoulder to a brand if they feel the outreach is robotic, if they believe the email they received is the same email everyone else on the list received, if they think you’re just in it for the money or job security or because it’s what your boss told you to do.

Moreover, Outreach has Changed/Improved/Realligned

When I get a pitch that tells me I am part of a company’s ‘blogger outreach program,’ it feels condescending to me. My inclination is to get bristly with the person doing the pitching. Other social journalists feel the same way.” – Shel Israel

Now, I wouldn’t be the first to say you have permission to market to everyone, but why would you need 10,000 strangers when you can make 10 friends, 10 people who trust you, 10 acquaintances who respect you, 10 passionate folk who need you.

Permission is one thing, participation is another. Participation is what matters. Find the 10 avid bloggers who need your product or service and connect with them. Find 10 die-hard craft beer drinkers and get on a Google Hangout together. Successful outreach rarely comes from a single click of “send;” it comes from continuous care, effort, and conversation. There’s another obsessive core out there. Reach out to them.

Successful outreach has improved since the days of mass advertising. It’s not about eye balls anymore; it’s about eye contact.

Now is your chance to build your tribe, to establish connections that matter. As for my last PR/marketing tip: never refer to people you are reaching out to as your target market, as part of your outreach program, as part of your market. They are not a special case because they are outside your hometown, your normal campaign realm, your regular target market. They are all strangers at first, then friends, then customers, no matter what geographical market they are in.

 

Stay Positive & Only Reach Out If You Plan To Truly Lift Someone Up

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Like Clockwork

Garth Beyer

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You can correctly assume an action some will take based on what you know about them. They have a routine, a personalized search engine, and a tight group of actual friends on Facebook that you can discover simply by looking at their activity.

[Likes, shares, and wall posts occur because one person’s status shows up on another’s feed because that person has visited the other’s profile to see what they have been up to. The system recognizes this and gives you more of what you want.]

The trouble is that it’s difficult to become part of someone’s clockwork. You have to tell a story that involves them, that excites them, and get’s them to participate in the long tale [pun intended]. You have to have something original to offer. You have to care, deeply. In fact, there’s so much you have to do to become part of someones clockwork, that I actually don’t suggest it.

People ask how many views I get on my blog, who my audience is, and if I get hurt when someone close to me doesn’t read what I write. My response is that I write to be here when they want to know something, when they need a push, when they finally have a question that their clockwork friends can’t answer. When someone interacts with a single post of mine. That’s a story that resonates more than the one I would be forcing them to want to hear.

It’s difficult analyzing and incepting people to accept you as part of their clockwork. It’s more socially profitable to keep working on your art and being available for those who are searching for you. [Just one more reason why I can’t stand when people hold back their art.]

 

Stay Positive & Tick Tock, What Have You Created Lately?

Garth E. Beyer

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It’s Not For Everyone

Garth Beyer

My writing doesn’t resonate perfectly with everyone who views it. I have dozens of very close friends that never read what I post. I have family that – and I can say this because they won’t read it – doesn’t care that I write or what I write.

I’ve overcome this, but I do know how it can sometimes hurt. A lot. When those you think care so much about you, don’t get involved with your passion.

One of the myriad admonitions I’ve learned about writing is that there are people you wish would read it that don’t and there are people you wish wouldn’t read it and do.

Remind yourself of the long tail. It helps.

 

Stay Positive & HT To Those Who Don’t Force Themselves To Read It

Garth E. Beyer

3 Steps To Get Better At Anything

Garth Beyer

1. Consume: Read and read often. Find idols, heroes, and infamous artists. Study them. Research what they researched. You’ll quickly discover that while tracking their footsteps, you’re leaving your own.

2. Produce: Try. Create. Make. Experiment. Fail. Produce something as often as possible. Choose not to have a choice if you construct something each day, just do it. Your goal is 10,000 hours or 10,000 lightbulbs, whichever comes first.

3. Share: Ship with style, deliver relentlessly. To share is equal amounts act of giving and feeling vulnerable. Don’t think about waiting. Tell yourself the best time to ship is now, and it will be. Whether you think you have something that matters doesn’t really matter. Someone, somewhere believes it matters. Will they find you?

 

Stay Positive & Consume Feedback Then Repeat

Garth E. Beyer

Calling All Non-Freelancers

Garth Beyer

We need you to freelance.

The jobless are – without objection – staying jobless.

Remember the common saying, “the best time to start a business is during a recession?” Well, starting a business is similar to freelancing, but without the vital need of initial high monetary input.

I also believe that no matter your career interest, there is a way to hack it, a way to freelance it. (Worth noting: joblessness also gives you the opportunity to take a different path, start something new. If there was ever a time to say “you have nothing to lose,” that time is now.) For many of those unemployed, turning your expertise into a freelance model will immediately define your profession as a niche.

All that leaves is finding your market: given the internet and the long tail – check, and check.

Unemployment? Spit on it. Jobless? Create yours. Desperate? Take a risk.

 

Stay Positive & The Unemployment Rate Will Change, Only When You Do

Garth E. Beyer

Breaking The Long Tail Into Phases

Garth Beyer

Phase 1: It’s a common misconception that books, movies, music, etc., just make it to the top 10, to the best sellers, to the “most popular” categories – one day you don’t see them there, the next day you do. It’s magic. Phase one of the Long Tail is making whatever you make, big: big audience, big profit, and big exposure. 50 Shades is a prime example, it is average price and a bestseller.

For the mass, one day it just showed up and they had to have it.

Phase 2: This is when a slight price reduction takes place. Most commonly found in the form of a sale, a discount, a sweepstake or giveaway. Phase two of the Long Tail is making it (perhaps 50 Shades of Gray) slightly more available. The goal is to reach an even larger audience that without the price reduction would have never been reached.

Phase 3: While phase two slightly expands the range of those who would purchase the product; phase three involves an even larger price drop. By now the production costs have been paid, the creator has profited, and the goal is to reach as many people as possible while still making profit – small profit, but profit nevertheless.

Phase 4: By now, one can cut production completely and put the product online for instant download in multiple formats. The last phase is to offer the work for free, to reach everyone (at least with internet access). The goal is to catch even more eyes on the work you have shipped while you are producing new work that starts back at phase one.

This is the progressive and profiting idea of the Long Tail that most people see.

The problem with cutting the Long Tail into phases, though, is the sociological impacts that are created as a result. At each phase, you make those who participated in the phase before it more uncomfortable. “Why do they get it cheaper.” “I should have waited until the price went down.” “Next time I’m just going to hold off until it’s free.” While this has significant effects, there is one in particular that needs to be noted.

This effect directs more of those who participate in the first phase, to dig deep for the interesting, the odd, and the most creative items that are at the end of the tail. After all, everything ends up there anyway, right? In the consumer’s mind, inaction creates price reduction. In the producers mind, inaction prevents them from ever getting a hold of the work. With the Long Tail, the consumers right.

Looking back at all of this, it seems that the Long Tail actually has a negative effect. At least, if you follow it from phase one, it does.

But, what if I told you that the Long Tail was meant to work in reverse, from phase four, from the end of it. That before 50 Shades found itself in phase one; the author had produced shorter creative work, gathering a tribe of followers.

The beauty of the Long Tail is that people are able to go up the tail in short phases. All with the start of a niche product and a small, but close tribe. For most, the box office movies, the best sellers, the “top 10,” were overnight successes. When really, they worked longer and harder than one can imagine to get there.

 

Stay Positive & A lot Comes From A Little

Garth E. Beyer

To My Friend That Needs The Reminder

Garth Beyer

At the core of the long tail, what matters is not where people who connect with you are, or even how many of them are seeking a particular way you word things or express yourself or display images, but only that some number of them exist, somewhere.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Let The Fact You Don’t Appeal To Most Shy You Away From Appealing To The Few

Garth E. Beyer