This is a milestone moment in the history of The Marketing Companion podcast as we welcome a new co-host to the show (we have six rotating co-hosts!).

Dana Malstaff is a true marketing visionary and I learn something from her every time I connect with her. In her first show, she certainly held up her track record!

We are both of the mind that the marketing world will need to infuse humanity into our work as we hurdle inexorably into our AI future, and Dana suggested some ideas I had not considered before, like:

• Blending personal emotional states with AI commands to provide more actionable tasks
• Creating emotional connections with your audience through product discussions
• Moving away from mass marketing or a huge community to a plan where human connection is still possible

… and much more. It’s such a great show! To hear more, just click here:

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 307

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this fantastic episode.

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now, any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence to strengthen their customer relationships.

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There is a quote in my new book that is gripping and profound, but I’m not sure I fully understood it until this week. This quote is from Boss Mom CEO Dana Malstaff: “It’s easier to start a movement than build a business.”

Dana is a visionary business leader, and when she speaks, I listen.

But what does this quote really mean? What does a movement have to do with business and customers? It seemed a little woo-woo to me. Are you going to walk into your supervisor’s office and tell her that you’re starting a movement this week?

As I was helping a client with an exhausting sales problem, the truth finally sunk in. I understood how a “movement” can connect to business success, and I wanted to pass this insight along to you, too. Here’s what happened …

The spark of an idea

I love doing my one-hour coaching calls. Anybody, anywhere can sign up, and I get to meet the most fascinating people from all over the world!

A recent call was with an artist who specializes in a practice of music therapy. He teaches people how to play musical instruments in a way that helps them calm down and heal — certainly something needed in the world today. I liked his idea, but he struggled to keep his business going.

He had some limited success using Facebook ads to drive sales of his classes, and he had read every book and blog post he could find on sales funnels and lead generation.

But after many years of endless ad cycles and experiments, he barely made ends meet and was exhausted. He had read my book Belonging to the Brand about the link between business and community and wondered if community-based marketing could be his answer.

As we talked about a possible business strategy, the meaning of Dana’s quote finally lit up for me.

Start a movement or build a treadmill?

I think the missing link between sales funnels and community is the emotional bond.

A lead magnet can attract clicks and maybe people who like free stuff, but it’s a treadmill that never ends. Keep advertising, keep promoting, and keep them clicking. Even with the help of automation, this focus on filling a pipeline with strangers can wear you down, and my friend was feeling it!

But what if you had a community where people feel something as well as buy something? They’re part of a community because they love you and believe in your mission. That is how you start a movement: enabling people to achieve something, to build something, to change something. And Dana’s right. That’s also a sustainable business strategy with a lot less wear and tear.

Building momentum for a community requires time and patience. And my friend did not have time or patience. Every time I urged him to create content with consistency and build an audience that leads to community, he reverted to his addiction to sales funnels. It’s fast. It can create leads tomorrow. He was tethered to the treadmill and was afraid to jump off.

But as we talked through his alternatives, he began to see that he had to change or the sales funnel exhaustion would never be over.

Start a movement, start a business

I don’t think a community is necessarily the right strategy for every person or business, but it was for this man. He truly could change lives, and the people in his circle loved him and wanted to follow him. But he couldn’t see this as the start of a movement. He saw his followers as sales leads.

Dana Malstaff

I explained to him that if he had a community of hundreds, or even thousands, of people who believed in him, the treadmill could be over. His community would sign up for his classes, workshops, and events because they believed in the movement — music for healing, music for peace.

Eventually, their bond would not just be to him. It would be to each other as friendships and collaborations bloomed. They would belong to the brand. I’m happy to report he is exploring this new path.

Dana’s Boss Mom community now has 80,000 members, generating about a million a year in revenue. She has no sales team, no sales funnel, no ad budget, no lead magnet. She created a self-sustaining community, a movement of people who want to grow as mothers and entrepreneurs.

When I interviewed her for my book, I kept asking her for the monetization strategy and the measures of ROI. Over and over again she insisted that her only focus was the movement — creating successful mom entrepreneurs. If you have a movement, the business will take care of itself.

That seems so much more fulfilling than the sales funnel, right? Organic growth and customer advocacy instead of SEO and ad cycles. The movement nurtures and heals. The movement drives the business. The movement IS the business.

This is why I made the bold claim in my book that community is the last great marketing strategy. Content, ads, and SEO will always have a place, but these ideas are becoming dramatically less important in a streaming, AI-driven world.

But we have always needed community, and we always will.  Have you thought about enrolling people in your movement instead of moving them through your sales funnel?

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com

The post Is it easier to build a business or start a movement? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I founded a community of marketing geeks called RISE and we just unleashed something wild and wonderful. In fact, it is astonishing, unique, surprising, and, well … amazing! It is The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever.

Before I PROVE to you that this is the most amazing marketing book, let me tell you how we got here. It’s an amazing story in itself!

The seed of amazing

The RISE community is dedicated to learning about the future of marketing and it’s populated by many global subject matter experts.  Anything you want to know, there is probably somebody in the community who has an answer — podcasting, advertising, strategy, video, social media … we have it covered by people out there in the world doing the work.

Within the community, an idea was floated to co-create a book together. This was intriguing, but it was also pretty scary, to be honest. Could I rely on dozens of busy people from 15 different time zones to come together and create a book that will be part of my brand? This could be great, or it could become a disaster.

But ultimately, I loved the idea of helping people in my community realize a dream of becoming the co-author of a book. I’m a teacher, and it energized me to think of all these friends coming along on a journey to be an author. Seemed like a worthy legacy, so I sponsored the project. And I was right. It was a bit scary, but it was also one of the most inspiring projects I’ve ever participated in.

We created something extraordinary. We created something brave. And maybe it’s even a little crazy!

Yes, it is amazing

Amazing is something that makes you go WOW. This is why I think this book is a wow:

As far as I know, this is the first book created entirely by a Web3 community. The RISE community was brought together by a tokenized cryptocurrency, held together with NFTs, coordinated over Discord, and created by a decentralized global team that is benefiting equally from the success of their work. Even the book cover was created, in part, with generative artificial intelligence. So you’re witnessing a new era in book writing!

Second, the people who contributed to this book have more than 750 years of accumulated marketing experience. That’s a wow, right?

Third, this book breaks content barriers. Unfortunately, most business books these days are nothing more than a blog post with 240 pages of fluff. Not this one!

Every page is filled with original and helpful ideas from passionate professionals. I challenged my community friends to create insights, not just rehashed information you can find in a blog post somewhere. They delivered.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a small business owner trying to establish your first marketing strategy, get out your highlight marker. You’ll find some new ideas here! And it’s 100% human content. No ChatGPT or other AI was used to create the content of this book.

Finally, this is a book made with heart. There are many reasons to write a book. An author might want to make money, seek fame, or achieve a personal dream. This book is a celebration of the spirit of our community.

A fun book for every marketer …

There is so much knowledge jammed into this little book, you’re sure to find great ideas no matter where you are in your career. Here are a few of the nuggets you can discover in the Amazing book:

• Why you need to focus on the first hour after posting content on LinkedIn
• The importance of trigger-based lead nurturing
• Why the highest customer lifetime value might be associated with direct to consumer marketing
• The reason using words like “check out our deal” repels consumers.
• How obsession with metrics can actually undermine your business
• Why Google loves 2,000-word blog posts.
• How “purpose” can make or break a podcast
• The ideal length of videos for every social media channel
• The best formula for copywriting
• How to build a future-proof social media strategy
• TikTok’s most common recording errors
• The unexpected power of Twitter threads
• The traditional marketing channel that consistently delivers an ROI of 112%
• How word of mouth marketing is driven by 10% of the population
• How brands are already integrating into metaverse games and experiences
• Basic steps to integrate AI into your everyday marketing tasks.

That’s just a taste of the interesting morsels in the book. You’ll want to read it cover to cover!

But there’s more …

Not only did the community write and edit the book, they recorded a narrated chapter for an audiobook. My audio editor proclaimed that this was the most ambitious project she had ever tackled. 36 narrators? Insane.

But it worked! The result is singularly unique. Be prepared for a chapter from Ireland, Italy, Australia, and more. Each chapter is like the proverbial box of chocolates — you never know what you’re going to get!

This is not another book created by one voice, one mind. This is 36 people giving you their best effort and most unique ideas. Here are the authors and subjects covered:

• Marion Abrams (Podcasting)
• Lisa Apolinski (Customer experience)
• Larry Aronson (SEO)
• Victoria Bennion (Blogging)
• Joeri Billast (Web3 and NFTs)
• David Bisek (Branding)
• Richard Bliss (LinkedIn)
• Al Boyle (Copywriting)
• Julia Bramble (Twitter)
• Anna Bravington (Experiential Marketing)
• PepperBrooks (Inclusive Marketing)
• Marci Cornett (Marketing Research)
• Mandy Edwards (Facebook Strategy)
• Laura Vendeland Doman (YouTube and video)
• Robbie Fitzwater (eMail Marketing)
• Giuseppe Fratoni (Copywriting)
• M Valentina Escobar-Gonzalez, MBA (Instagram)
• Ian Anderson Gray (Livestreaming)
• Kami Huyse (Social Media Strategy)
• Mary Kathryn Johnson (Artificial Intelligence)
• Rob LeLacheur (Traditional advertising)
• Fiona Lucas (Community Building)
• Jules Morris (Digital Advertising)
• Scott Murray (Consumer Behavior)
• Daniel Nestle (Strategic Communications)
• Chad Parizman (Podcasting)
• Brian Piper (Metaverse)
• Frank Prendergast (Marketing Research)
• Sandee Rodriguez (Promotional Products)
• Mark Schaefer (Personal Branding)
• Bruce Scheer (Marketing Measurement)
• Zack Seipert (Influencer Marketing)
• Samantha Stone, (Marketing Strategy)
• Jeff Tarran (Direct Mail)
• Joanne Taylor (TikTok)

… like I said, something for everyone!

But it gets better

I guarantee this is one of the most useful and unusual books you will ever own!

I am extraordinarily proud of this book. I think it represents a breakthrough in community productivity and publishing. And please check out the RISE community. We have many other exciting projects and activities going on. Maybe you’ll be the star of our next event or project!

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

The post This is the Most Amazing Marketing Book. And I can prove it. appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I was recently a guest on the James Kennedy podcast  and James, who fronts a UK rock band, issued a challenge. He wanted me to explain marketing to his audience of musicians in five minutes.

Cool. Challenge accepted.

I transcribed my answer on the show, and I hope it helps you (with some editing for brevity and clarity).

Describing the marketing process in five minutes or less? I don’t think I’ve ever done this before. So here we go.

Marketing is about creating customers

Number one, what is marketing?

Marketing is the process of creating a customer. Underneath that goal, there’s a lot of important activity —  you have to understand what your customers like and where they are, what’s going on in their lives, and how much money they have, studying the competition … but essentially, it’s an activity centered on creating a customer. For musicians or artists, it’s creating a fan who is going to buy your work or attend your shows.

Now, there are two different kinds of marketing, and this is where a lot of people get confused.

One is direct marketing. So this would be if you go into a store and you see a coupon for Coca-Cola. They need to move more product, so they issue a coupon. They’ll sell more stuff, and it’s pretty easy to measure. You create coupons … you sell more stuff. That’s called direct marketing, or sometimes performance marketing that is tied to certain short-term sales goals.

That’s not so relevant to artists and musicians. I mean, I’m imagining you’ve probably never had a sale. You probably never said, “Hey! It’s Boxing Day. We’re going crazy. Two for one special on our music!” I mean, that’s not how it works, right?

Brand marketing for the arts

Now, here’s what does work for artists. This is the second kind of marketing, and that’s called brand marketing. So let’s go back to the Coca-Cola example. I gave a speech in Poland before the pandemic, and it was huge, with thousands of people in this audience. And I said, “when you think of Coca-Cola, what do you what do you think of?” Sort of a rhetorical question, but somebody from the audience yelled out, “polar bears.”

Even in Poland, they think of Coca-Cola as polar bears. Why? Why does Coca-Cola do that? Because they don’t want you to think about high-caloric sugar water, right? Brand marketing creates an expectation of certain feelings when you interact with this product. It’s supposed to make you warm and friendly and happy, and you share it with family, it’s associated with happy special occasions, and you drink it on the beach. That’s Coca-Cola. It’s a brand feeling that you expect. Now we’re getting somewhere.

Creating a distinctive emotional connection

So the key to marketing for a musician or an artist is to create a feeling that you expect, and then you have to deliver on that feeling every time. That feeling connects you to your audience in a meaningful way.

That’s why some people might like Taylor Swift, and some people might like Radiohead, and some people prefer Ozzy Osbourne. They’re completely different feelings and completely different expectations. While the brand marketing is different, the goal is always the same — create a feeling that connects to you in some authentic and organic way.

So here we are. Our job as a musician is to create meaning, a feeling that connects us to our audience, and that makes us distinctive. That creates loyalty as long as you deliver on that promise.

Trouble can start when you confuse your audience. So let’s say you’re a rock artist, and all of a sudden, you decide to create a country album. Now, you’re going to lose a lot of people because the expectation — your promise — has been breached.

The good thing about the world today is that every person and every artist has an opportunity to meet directly with their fans through all kinds of different social media outlets. We don’t have to worry about gatekeepers. We don’t necessarily have to pay advertising agencies; we just have to show up in a human way that’s consistent with our brand.

That’s generally going to be consistent with who artists are anyway … with the possible exception of a band like KISS. Then all bets are off. But for most singer-songwriters, you’re going to be congruent as you take people along with you on your journey and let them in on what you’re creating.

The purpose of community and the arts

Now we’re going to connect the dots in another way. Let’s talk about artists and community.

Most artists are naturally doing something on social media. Social media is cool because it gives you the opportunity to connect to people who have never heard of you before and create a drip, drip, drip of content for fans. So you can reach a vast new audience.

But it’s a weak relational link. I have 180,000 followers on Twitter. If I post on Twitter, “Hey, everybody, I’ve got a new book,” or, in your case, you have a new album out. How many people will buy it? Almost none, because social media can be like throwing a message in a bottle out into the ocean. Right?

Of course there are always exceptions, but in general, social media is ephemeral. The people are there and the connection is possible. But I mean, is it really going to connect with people in a sustained way? So the strategy is to take them to the next step, which is moving them to your audience.

So do you have some content they can subscribe to? A blog, a podcast, a video series, an Instagram account. Now, it’s no longer throwing a bottle in the ocean. It’s reliable reach. When people subscribe to your content, your fans are saying, “I love you. I want to hear from you. I want to know everything about you.”

And now you’ve got an audience and there is a much stronger relational link. If you say, “I’ve got a new album out,” they’re gonna buy a lot of albums, right? So the strategy is to create this brand, connect on social media, but then gather the social media connections into an audience. Encourage them to subscribe. Create a list of people you can reach directly.

The ultimate step for marketing for the arts

Now, unfortunately, this is where most businesses and most artists stop. The next step is to create community — The ultimate emotional connection.

Let’s use KISS as an example. Yes, they’ve got the brand. They’re on social media. They have an audience, obviously. But they’ve also got the KISS Army. Now, here’s the difference: In an audience, it’s a cult of personality. If you go away or the content goes away, the audience goes away. But in a community, people know each other. There’s communion. There is a purpose bigger than the music.

It’s like, look at my KISS t-shirt. Look at my KISS stickers. Oh my gosh, they’re on their final tour, and we all have to go! And so it’s like a neighborhood of friends. You can imagine it’s the same for The Grateful Dead, Taylor Swift, and other artists that have true communities.

And here’s the interesting thing that I found in my research. My new book is called “Belonging to the Brand: The Last Great Marketing Strategy.”

We’re blocking ads. We’re in a streaming economy. We don’t want to be manipulated by marketing.

But we need community. We don’t just want community. We need community to be fully human beings. This is the only kind of marketing that people actually want. So the key, the ultimate goal for an artist, is to bring fans into a community.

For an artist, a community provides an opportunity to share behind the scenes, provide exclusive content, and engage directly with members. This is the surest way of creating organic advocacy.

Once people become friends in a community, they’re never going to leave you because that means they would have to leave their friends, right? They literally belong to the brand. Or, in your case, they belong to the band!

I’ve been talking about music, in general, but this is also applicable to an artist, a dance company, a symphony, or writers. The aim is community.

Community creates a layer of emotional switching costs. They’ll always be loyal to you because that’s where their peeps are. That’s where their friends are. And then it’s the most powerful kind of marketing there is.

So there you go. That is an artistic marketing strategy in five minutes.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post An explanation of marketing for the arts in five minutes appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I was honored to have my friend Douglas Burdett, host of the glorious Marketing Book Podcast, talk to me about my new book Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy.

One of the key challenges we discussed on our podcast episode was the need to adjust from a traditional marketing mindset to a very new strategy that works within a community.

It’s a fascinating conversation, and at the end of the podcast episode, there is a free chapter from my audiobook!

Read about our conversation below, or click to listen to this episode:

Click to hear Episode 264

This conversation is sponsored by The Creator Economy Expo (CEX)

CEX May 1-3, 2023 is the must-attend experience for content creators interested in building and growing their content-first businesses without relying on social platforms. Join 500+ bloggers, podcasters, authors, newsletter writers, speakers, coaches and consultants, freelancers, and YouTubers at THE learning and networking event for content creators. To get $100 off your ticket, please use the code SCHAEFER100.

Transcribed by AI with some light editing for clarity and brevity:

Douglas Burdett
I always anxiously await your books because you find some seam in the marketing universe that just torments you, and is tormenting a lot of people. And that obviously keeps you up at night, and you can’t seem to live with yourself until you figure it out and then write a book about it. I appreciate some people pour their careers and their blood, sweat, toil, you know, even marriages into these books. I think it really torments you. What happened this time with Belonging to the Brand?

Mark Schaefer
Often when I write, I get into this flow state — you hear about runner’s high — and literally I get into a flow state, and I will be completely oblivious. Now luckily, I have an office in a little building outside away from my house, so I can enter this flow state in complete peace and quiet but I mean, I tell my wife I’m going to be down for dinner at five o’clock and the next thing I know I look up and it’s 8 pm because I just get in this zone.

I had an extraordinary discussion with Tom Peters. He told me two years ago, he was retiring. And now here he is with a new book out. And I said well, what’s going on? You told me you had retired. And he said, “you get to a point where you’re desperate to get your ideas out.” It’s like the dog chasing the tennis ball — you don’t give up you just keep going and going, and that’s kind of the way I am.

And this book, I’ve been stewing on this since 2018 when I was writing Marketing Rebellion, and there was a chapter in there about belonging.

And after I finished the book, I thought that was the most important chapter. When all this other advertising and spam and interruptions fade away. I truly believe that 20 years from now, we’re going to look back at the mass broadcast, the spamming of people and we’ll say, What the heck was that all about? What were we thinking? You know, we’re so glad here we are in the year 2040!

Douglas

Well, let me ask you a question. One of the most important ideas in the book is on page 119. You write that today’s consumers will block you, ban you, and run away from you. If they sense you’re trying to manipulate them with your marketing. Instead of sell, sell, sell. You need to help Help Help and another part in the book you write that perhaps the most compelling reason to consider a community-based marketing strategy — you may not have a choice. What do you mean? There’s a lot of people that are gonna be upset when they hear that.

Mark

Well, a lot of people were upset when they read Marketing Rebellion!

Douglas

Well, Mark, don’t go changing!

Megatrends behind community-based marketing

Mark
Marketing Rebellion was a wake-up call — when your customers have the accumulated knowledge of the human race in the palm of their hand, they don’t need you to manipulate them anymore. They can really make good decisions. And marketing today is about coming alongside people at their point of need. That’s what we need to be doing now.

Belonging to the Brand is an extension of that. The thing that has nagged at me for a long, long time is this trend in the world around mental health. And about a year ago, I saw this headline in the New York Times. It haunted me. It said, “the loneliest generation” and it was talking about Gen Z, about the isolation, the loneliness, the depression. There was a research report not long ago that showed that 51% of Americans aged 18 to 24 have sought medical help for a mental health condition.

51% — and the average for every other generation is 24%. Including, you know, people with silver hair like you and me. Now, what does this have to do with marketing and community? When you get into the psychology and sociology of community, it is absolutely amazing. We need community!

There’s this great research that started in the 1960s called Identity Theory. There are two big components to what we believe about ourselves. One is what we know about ourselves like, Hey, I’m a good singer, or I like to help people, but the other component is what people in a community reinforce within us.

Another amazing thing about community is the bonding that occurs. The emotion from the friendships in a company community spill over in terms of brand love for the brand,  for the company. It’s absolutely amazing.

So there are so many benefits. I note in my book how belonging and connection to a community even has physical health benefits. I’m not saying, “Hey, everybody, create a community and change the world.” I know this is a big problem. I know it’s a very, very complicated problem. But I just want people to think that look, this is a business book. And there are compelling reasons to think about having a community as part of your brand marketing strategy. But guess what? There are also societal implications. There are societal benefits. How many times in our lives as marketers, can we say, “we’re doing something good for our company, but we’re also doing something good for our customers and for society?”

And I didn’t mean to dwell on just Gen Z.

When it comes to longevity, one of the most important things is a sense of belonging because loneliness is one of the greatest killers —  even more so than wealth or our genes.

During the pandemic, 85% of adults went to an online community as their number one source of emotional connection. So, I mean, it’s something that’s relevant to everyone.

Sales-based communities fail

Douglas

What are some of the misperceptions of community? I remember at one point in the book, one of the people you interviewed said, this doesn’t mean setting up a Facebook page for your customers. There’s a lot more to it.

Mark

70% of brand communities fail, and the reason is, they’re set up to sell stuff. Now, a community is a place where people will want to gather and to have a successful company or brand community you want people to come together every day every week. They’re not going to want to show up if you’re just trying to sell stuff. So the most important thing is to create this intersection between a purpose and a passion, something that’s in the DNA of your company, and something that’s in the purpose and passion of your customers.

One of the most obvious examples is Patagonia. There’s no question in anyone’s mind that Patagonia stands for responsible recreation and taking care of the environment. My friend, Matthew Sweezy, who’s one of the co-hosts here on the show, told me that he only bought Patagonia because that intersects with his purpose.

I’ve got a whole chapter in the book about this to help companies explore what you can do in your business. What can you do for the world that you could do better with your customers on board with you?

I’ve got a lot of prompts like that to help businesses, and when I say businesses, obviously, this could be nonprofits; any kind of organization can have a successful brand community.

Douglas

Instead of sell, sell, sell, you need to help help help — which is a great question to ask before you take another step. But it was really clear in the book where you write about a number of companies that are really just trying to sell to these folks.

We mentioned when I interviewed you for the Marketing Book Podcast that marketers have a certain muscle memory — many of them go back 100 years.

What’s needed to build a community is different, and it’s like learning how to swing a golf club the other way, in a certain regard.

Community-based marketing mindset

Mark

The new leadership mindset required in a community may be one of the biggest stumbling blocks to success.

Marketing is about seeing patterns and responding in a certain way to those patterns. So in some ways, great marketing really does have muscle memory to it. But when you come into a community, it’s really, really different. And one of the best quotes I think, from the book is a mutual friend of ours. Mark Masters from You Are The Media over in the UK.

He started out with a B2B agency business, and moved into creating this community. Now the community has become the business! That’s how successful he’s become.

And he said, I’ve had to reinvent how I think about leadership, and I’m still learning. He said, it’s a very unsettling process. You want to be a leader. You want to have a vision. You want things to go a certain way. And in the community, the power is getting other people to influence that direction.

When I started my RISE community, I thought oh, here’s what we’ll be talking about. We’ll be talking about personal branding. We’ll be talking about public speaking because that’s what I talk about. Those are the emptiest rooms in my community, because they’ve just taken it another way! The community said no, no, no. This is where we’re gonna go. And it’s better!

Community and measurement

Douglas

It takes a certain amount of humility for people like you to understand that, and I’m not sure everyone has that.

Community managers cower in fear over the M word — measurement. Could you talk about ways of framing how we measure it in terms of brand versus performance?

Mark
Well, I think this is one of the major contributions of the book actually. There’s this statistic that shows I think it’s something like 91% of all community managers say their brand community is contributing to the business, but only 10% can measure it.

So there’s this existential angst that pervades community managers, and when you get into it, oh my gosh, I mean, they’re, they’re trying to measure things in so many creative ways — jumping through all these hoops.

But I don’t really think it’s that hard. The thesis of this book is looking at community through the lens of brand marketing for the first time. Community is not new. We’ve had communities offline forever and online since the very first days of the internet. But almost all of the online communities out there are focused on Customer Self Service. Oh, you have a problem with your software … go to our community and find an answer.

What I’m suggesting in this book, and what all these communities are missing, is that the biggest benefits, the emotional connection, the information, the co-creation, the advocacy, the collaboration, the trust — all these great brand marketing benefits are being ignored.

We can measure Customer Self Service and keeps the accountants happy. So that’s why we focus on that. But they are missing the biggest business gains.

So, in the book, I give a great case study of Gatorade versus Powerade and talk about how these two brands are so different in terms of brand marketing versus direct marketing or maybe performance marketing, which is a lot more measurable.

Social media and mental health

Douglas

Many social media sites are actually contributing to the mental health issues of young people.

Mark
One of the most sickening episodes in my career was about four years ago. Facebook did a big study. They knew their algorithms were creating and accelerating hate and divisiveness and something like 88% of the people who are joining hate groups on Facebook was there because of an algorithmic suggestion!

So the executives of Facebook got together, and they built this team. And they said, here’s this problem, and we got to solve it, and here is a plan. And Zuckerberg ignored it. Buried it. Because hate is good for business at Facebook.

The more hate and the more divisiveness, the more people spend on these platforms. I don’t think there is a solution. I think social media platforms are the source of a lot of the sickness in society. They really have a solution. I don’t think they’re interested in the solution.

Douglas

Does a community require a personal leader? If so, what happens when he or she retires or moves out which I think is a great setup for the ideal community?

Mark
Absolutely. So that’s one of the things I’m so excited about in my community. Again, it’s always a learning process. In my life, I’ve had an audience, and I love my audience they’ve been so good to me. But it’s a cult of personality. If I leave, then the blog’s gone, and the audience is gone.

Community is when people are building relationships with each other. And that is happening in the RISE community, and it’s happening in other communities. Friendships are being created. Bonds, business connections that are going to go on long after me. There are lots of things going on in the community that I’m not even part of. This is going to be part of my legacy.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration generated by MidJourney AI.

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Today, I am proud and excited to introduce my new book — my best work — and an unmissable idea for this tumultuous marketing era. It is time for the next phase of human-centered marketing. It is time for modern marketing that works, marketing that customers actually want. It’s time for marketing that heals.

My new book is called Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy.

Today I’ll share a few key ideas from this eye-opening book that will prove this is a vital resource that is worth buying, sharing, and incorporating into your marketing strategy.

1) Three trends point to our marketing future

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I have a good track record of thinking through how trends come together and then pointing the way to our marketing future. This book makes an important statement about the evolution of marketing: It is obvious, based on three colliding megatrends:

1. Traditional marketing doesn’t work like it used to. Month by month, the power of our marketing is diluted by waves of content, ad-free streaming services, unpredictable trends, fickle consumers, a decline in loyalty, and other factors I called out in Marketing Rebellion. We need a bold new way to connect with consumers in meaningful and lasting ways.
2. Tech investments enable belonging. Where is much of the VC money going these days? Web3. Metaverse. AI. NFTs. If you cut through the complicated jargon, you’ll find an emerging infrastructure to help people connect and belong in new communities.
3. Mental health crisis. Perhaps the most significant trend of our time is the crisis in mental health. As many social institutions crumble, people today are lonelier, more isolated, and more depressed than ever. By a lot. Our customers are literally longing to belong.

It is profoundly clear that community is a critical part of the future of marketing. And I’m not alone in this belief. The very day I wrote the last words of my book, McKinsey released a significant report declaring community as the next big thing in marketing. That was kind of a mic-drop moment for me! My point is, this is the right book for the right time. 

2) An entirely new view of marketing opportunity

The company-sponsored community is not a new idea. However, this is the first book to examine community from the potential of brand marketing. This is an absolutely critical new view.

Most brand communities fail from the start because they’re designed to sell stuff, and most people don’t want to gather for that reason! 70 percent of the communities that make it are focused on cost avoidance through customer self-service. That’s fine. But this is such a limited perspective!

If you open the lens much wider and view community as a brand-building powerhouse, you’ll see benefits like:

• Brand differentiation
• An emotional barrier to brand-switching costs
• Conversations that reveal opportunities for brand relevance
• Insights that lead to product innovation
• Direct feedback on product performance
• Rapid information flow
• Organic brand advocacy
• Significant gains in brand loyalty
• Improved customer retention
• Co-created products and services
• Access to firsthand customer data

… and more. Now, if you had an opportunity to work on a project that delivered those benefits, don’t you think everybody would be talking about it? Don’t you think “community” would be the hottest topic at every marketing conference?

But it’s not. In fact, I can’t recall ever attending a marketing conference where community was a significant topic.

That’s why I claim that community is the most overlooked opportunity in the history of marketing opportunities.

3) Marketing that works … and heals

This book is not naive in its claim that it can help in a healing process for a whacked-out world. Mental health is a massive, complex problem, and I know that.

However.

When you dive down into the psychology of community, you’ll find some incredibly profound dynamics.

• Did you know that we need community to complete our full identity (according to Identity Theory)?
• Community fills a deep psychological need and also provides a physical health benefit.
• Positive feelings that build between friends in a community spill over to brand loyalty and love.

This is “wow” stuff to consider for a marketing professional.

So yes, the primary purpose of this book is to explore community-based marketing strategy in a new way. But there is also an undeniable power to contribute a healing power to the world.

4) Distinctive value

I am incredibly proud of this book. There are new ideas and inspirations you will find nowhere else. For example:

• I connect the dots between social media and content marketing in an “emotional continuum”
• You’ll discover the 10 overlooked business benefits of community-based marketing
• I provide a unique and definitive view of brand community measurement
• You’ll learn about the unexpected marketing leadership challenges posed by community
• I’ll teach you how technological and sociological changes will make social listening platforms obsolete

I also include more than a dozen new in-depth case studies from B2B, B2C, nonprofits, and even solopreneurs. There’s something for everybody!

And like all of my books, there is no fluff. There is a new idea, inspiration, or lesson on every page. And Chapter 1 … well, a few people told me it made them gasp. You’ll have to let me know what you think.

My guarantee

I devoted two years of my life to this book (and actually the idea first percolated in 2018!). It has passed through nine beta readers and incredibly intense scrutiny. Every word and idea has been carefully placed to create a joyful and powerful learning experience.

And the work paid off. In pre-launch, Belonging to the Brand hit number one in the Marketing category on Amazon. Here are some early reader comments:

• “This book moved me like no other.” Diamond Michael Scott
• “Once again, Mark shows us his uncanny ability to see the future.” Giuseppe Fratoni
• “I actually lost sleep one night after reading a section that gave me ideas for my own group. I can’t wait to try it out!” Valentina Escobar-Gonzalez
• “This speaks to my heart and who I have always been as a marketer.” Nichole Asquith

When I write a book, there is only one mantra pounding in my head: “I will never let you down.” I didn’t.

Please experience Belonging to the Brand for yourself in paper, Kindle, or an audio version narrated by me.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

The post Marketing that works. Marketing that heals. The time is now. appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

About a year ago (or was it ten?), I launched a crypto-backed creator token called $RISE, an exciting foray into the new world of Web3. A few months after launch, my creator community was one of the most valuable in the world, with a valuation over $1 million. Today the project has been abandoned, people lost a bunch of money, and the coin is gone.

I learned that Web3 still has a long way to go. This is my story.

Act 1: The rise of $RISE

In the summer of 2021, I was invited to launch a creator token through a start-up platform called Rally. I hired a crypto analyst to vet the company and help me discern if this was a good bet. Rally was founded by a Silicon Valley star, had $100 million in backing from Andreeson Horowitz, and had an impressive management team. I was aware of the risks, but I decided to give it a try. I saw these benefits:

• As a teacher and consultant, I must remain relevant, and this was a way for me to get first-hand experience in this emerging web culture.
• I saw this as a way to build a community, something I had not been successful with in the past. And, I was writing a book about community, so this fit well.
• Industry peers I admired like Jay Baer, Joe Pulizzi, Ann Handley, Joseph Jaffe, and Scott Monty had already taken the leap and launched coins. I wanted to be in the “club.”
• Early creators were making money on the platform. I did not count on this, but it was a possibility.

I called my coin $RISE, as in RISE above the noise.

How a creator token works

When the coin launched, I honestly had no idea what I was doing. But this didn’t bother me. My career has been a continuous set of experiments. I didn’t know what I was doing when I wrote my first book, hosted my first conference, or taught my first college class, so this was no different.

My coin was backed by a publicly-traded cryptocurrency called Rally ($RLY). Each of my coins was paired with a $RLY coin, which was traded on the crypto exchanges. My coin was only traded inside of Rally, but it could be exchanged for $RLY and cashed-ou at any time, so $RISE was worth real money.

Theoretically, I could increase the value of my coin by using it to grow my community, allowing fans to trade it for my goods and services, and using it as a “currency” to reward people in my community. In reality, that did not work. My token price was almost completely determined by the rise and fall of the crypto market. You probably see where this is heading.

I was given an initial cache of tokens (worth about $20,000) that I could use to start my community. My community could benefit from creator tokens in three ways:

• Exclusive commerce – Many creators offer art, music, crafts, and services that can only be acquired with tokens. My site offered training, consulting, and special events that could be acquired through an exchange of $RISE tokens.
• Emotional reward – Fans may buy tokens simply to support a creator because they love them or believe in their work. When I surveyed my community, 98 percent said they held the coin to support me and learn about Web3.
• Financial gain – Tokens in high demand could possibly increase in value.

This last part caused me the most stress. Rally had a frictionless exchange system. There was essentially no tax or penalty for buying or selling coins. So speculators could buy tens of thousands of dollars in coins and sell them a day later if the coin value went up in value, even by a penny.

And, they did.

For months I struggled to keep my community progressing as it was being jerked around by speculators. On two occasions, I invested my own money to make up for dramatic declines caused by these people we called “whales.”

I was determined to lead my coin community in an ethical and business-like manner, but the whales were a source of constant stress — and even one anxiety attack — as my community was jeopardized by strangers looking to make a quick buck.

The early days were very, very difficult and took a lot of my time.

Act 2: Success and momentum

Within a few months, I was figuring things out, and my creator token rapidly rose in value. $RISE eclipsed nearly every other community in terms of size and value. For example, at its peak, I had a mind-blowing 1.7 million $RISE coins in circulation, more than ten times more than most other creators. I attribute this success to:

1. Complete focus on community. The purpose of $RISE was to build a learning community, not for my personal gain. Everything I did was to create new value and learning opportunities for others. I gave away more than $50,000 in coins to let anybody access the community if they wanted to join and learn.
2. A rational business approach. I had more business experience than most other creators on the platform. For example. many musicians and artists on Rally struggled to understand the token economics, which was insanely complex. I was not swayed by hype or emotion. I just stuck to the business plan and communicated about it transparently.

Eventually, nearly 2,000 people owned my coin. Although I never ran promotions or asked people to invest their money, many did because they believed in our mission. The impressive community success was proof that we were headed in the right direction.

Six months after launching the coin, the value of my own personal holdings was about $250,000.

Act 3: Exposing the creator token flaws

In any start-up environment, you’ll face unexpected problems. I knew Rally was an experiment, so I was patient with the company’s frequent missteps and technical glitches. However, there were some fatal flaws embedded in the creator token system:

1. It was difficult for creators like me to take money out of Rally. Even though the project was taking a lot of time, I wasn’t being compensated for it. Long story short, the algorithm penalized the whole community if a creator took money out. Perhaps Rally designed it that way — they wanted to keep the money in the system, after all. Many creators bailed for this reason, and a few ruined their reputations by putting themselves ahead of their communities and cashing out everything in the middle of the night.
2. Too much of the community value was impacted by the crypto market. My hard work seemed fruitless when the token value was largely determined by outside forces.
3. In the “real world,” I charge for my time. That’s how I feed my family. The key to creator token economics is that a coin holder receives some valuable new access to me or my work. But why would I do that? I can charge real money for my time. Why would I give away valuable bonuses in exchange for tokens when I can’t easily take money out of the Rally system? In an effort to play the game, many creators made terrible decisions selling services for tokens they could not easily redeem for money. I did not do that.
4. Rally was mis-managed. By the spring of 2022 it was apparent that Rally was in trouble. It had just announced its third CEO in nine months. I won’t get into the ugly details, but this was one of the worst-managed enterprises I have ever witnessed. And I’ve been around awhile. At least in part, poor leaders fumbled away the opportunity.

The Meltdown

Just as another new management team was coming on board, crypto winter set in. All the cryptocurrencies melted in a matter of days, and this of course hastened Rally’s decline. The company dramatically cut staff, stopped launching new creator tokens, curtailed development, and — unbelievably — suspended all communications with their 350 creators.

Rally had been in business for a year and a half. In that time, the value of its $RLY cryptocurrency plummeted from $1.45 to $0.01.

A series of mysterious “technical problems” kept creators and our community members from exchanging tokens or cashing out during the meltdown. Finally, Rally sent us a notice giving us a one-time 10-day window to cash out whatever we had left. We had to sign a document agreeing not to sue them.

For my year of effort, I realized a net profit of about $5,000.

And yet, I am happy …

Act 4: RISERS RISE

Perhaps this seems strange, but the whole Rally mess was an awesome experience.

I learned so much. Being on the cutting edge of Web3 was an incredible opportunity. Many of my fellow creators became close friends through this trial by fire.

I often feel alone in my career. I spend most of my time in my office in the woods — writing, thinking, and helping customers. A self-imposed solitary life. But my world is different now. The end result of the Rally rollercoaster is a supremely cool RISE community.

The coin is gone, but RISE remains — a friend-driven machine moving toward bigger opportunities and collaborations. It has grown far beyond the creator coin idea that first brought us together.

In fact, we don’t need the coin at all.

Every day, we gather on Discord to teach each other and debate the future of marketing. It is my most valuable network of friends. It has become my university.

We’re doing experiments in the metaverse together. We’re solving problems. We’re attending free webinars with global thought leaders. We’re writing a book together (look for The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever next summer!). We’ve been gathering for live events. I’ve made more new close friends in six months than in the last six years.

On most days, I check in every few hours to see what juicy new ideas are circulating in the RISE community. These are my friends. They are challenging me, teaching me, and pulling me in new directions. As a curious person, I can’t think of anything more fun or energizing.

I still spend most of my time in my office on the hill, but I’m no longer alone. I belong to a community.

Mission accomplished.

Onward

What’s next?

Some of my fellow creators are moving from Rally on to other platforms or creating their own solo coin efforts on a blockchain. I am not doing that for now, primarily because I’m concerned about how these coins might be impacted by upcoming SEC regulations. I might change my mind, but let’s see how things play out.

Despite the painful experience, I think tokenized economies will work, especially for creators who are artists and musicians. “Selling stock” in themselves can fund new creative efforts and launch a virtuous cycle of promotion from people who want them to succeed. Tokens will also find a place in corporate loyalty programs.

The dust is still settling from the Rally creator token demise, but my community is growing in exciting new ways. If you would like to be part of RISE, you can learn more here. It’s free to join, and all are welcome.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Image generated by AI through MidJourney.

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Welcome to the TENTH SEASON of The Marketing Companion podcast!

In the new Marketing Companion episode, we hear from Mathew Sweezey on the evolving role of crypto and Web3 in the marketing mix. Mathew is uniquely qualified to provide this overview since he works on some of the most significant Web3/NFT brand projects in the world through his position at Salesforce.

A few highlights from this fascinating show:

On crypto winter — “I agree with most of the experts out there on crypto winter. This is a necessary shake-out that gets us back to our core. What will disappear is all that is silly. Many of us are excited about this point in time.”

Future of NFTs — “I see companies saying that NFTs are the next major revenue for source for their brand. This is the next billion-dollar product. Others are giving them away for free. That’s the data play. It’s reverse CRM.”

NFT strategy — “When we are working with brands on Web3, everybody wants to do everything. It’s yes, yes, yes. Marketers have to establish a set of guiding principles. We have to guide brands to be ethical.”

Consumer as brand creator — “The future is much more collaborative. We are changing the relationships with brands. We are actually transferring ownership of IP. It changes the role of consumer from somebody who is buying to someone who is co-owning and brand creator.”

This is an incredibly valuable glimpse into the future of marketing and you won’t want to miss it:

Please support our extraordinary sponsor. Our content is free because of their generosity.

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The post The Transformation is Happening: Consumers as Brand Creator appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I recently surveyed my readers to see how I can improve my blogging. I learned a lot from the feedback, and maybe you will, too. Here are some highlights.

The newbies and old content

Although I’ve been blogging for more than a decade, 75 percent of my readers have followed the blog for less than three years. Of course this makes sense as my audience continues to grow and some of the early readers fade away, change jobs, etc.

One takeaway for me (and you) is that it might be time to re-visit some older themes in my blogging. Many things I wrote about three or four years ago are still relevant today. In the back of my mind, I am always pushing for new, new, new … but I would also be serving my audience well by resurrecting some key lessons from a few years ago.

More of this!

I asked a question “What would you like to see MORE OF in my blogging?”

Here are the main themes that emerged, with my commentary on the action I plan to take:

Case studies/real examples of marketing in action — I love providing this type of content. I’ve been inconsistent in this category and will focus on this more in the future.

Emerging trends — I think this is my sweet spot. Between The Marketing Companion podcast and this blog, emerging trends is my strongest subject.

My unique perspective/personal stories/thought leadership — It was rewarding to receive this feedback. When you get down to it, my unique perspective is the only thing that makes this blog different, so I’m glad you want more of it.

Focus on small and medium-sized businesses — I frankly struggle with this (who is the target audience?). I know I have many small businesses and solo shops following me, perhaps a holdover from when I was more narrowly focused on just social media. But the people who normally hire me come from bigger companies. By focusing broadly on trends and new ideas I hope I can provide something for everyone who is interested in the future of marketing.

Video content — I know, I know. I need to do more videos. That was a goal of mine for 2021. How many have I done? Zero. I’m working on it. It will happen!

Personal branding — I suppose this comes from the persistent popularity of my KNOWN book. There is still a lot of hunger for this topic and I’ll try to provide more content in this area.

Less of this …

I also asked people what they would like to see less of in my blogging. Most people didn’t know how to respond to this, so maybe it was a weird question. The two leading answers were:

Fewer guest blog posts. Some people find them less interesting. And of course, some people love them.

Less self-promotion. A few people complained that I’m frequently referring to one of my books in my posts. A valid point, although this probably comes from a place of enthusiasm more than self-promotion. I think what makes me different is that I deliver insights, not just information. And much of that insight comes from the research I do for my books. So it’s hard to separate that distinct value from the source. But I will try to do better.

Other insights

About 77 percent of my readers recommend this blog to others. I feel good about that!

It was disorienting to learn that some who responded to my blog survey do not subscribe to my blog. How could this happen?

I’ve been blogging every week for nearly 14 years. In that time, the underlying technology that delivers my blog has changed a few times as companies come and go. Long story short, I deliver my weekly blog posts through Feedblitz and an irregular newsletter is maintained on Constant Contact. Although we try to keep the lists clean and up to date, somehow these lists have found a way to diverge over time. Trying to figure it out. Unexpected.

I asked people to provide words that describe the Mark Schaefer “brand” and these were the most common words:

• Honest
• Expert
• Human
• Authentic
• Trusted
• Innovative
• Thoughtful
• Experienced
• Bold

My favorite characterizations were:

• Entertaining in a non-try hard way
• Transcendent practicality
• A cornerstone in marketing

Thanks to all of my readers who have supported me over the years and especially to those who helped me improve through the survey.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of several best-selling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Illustration: This is a photo I took in Paris many years ago.

The post After blogging for 12 years, I’m still learning! appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.