Give your prospects an experience and make them want to come back for more

I spent last Saturday at an event organised by Carole Bozkurt and Ann Rennie who brought together a very interesting group of branding experts.  This was a selfie taken at the end of the day! 

One of the speakers was Melissa Noakes who is head of Experiential Marketing at Sony Mobile Communications.

She showed us a photo of an exhibition village that Sony had created that allowed their prospects and customers to experience Sony’s products. They

wanted to give them a chance to identify with their brand and all the attributes that Sony stand for. What Sony created was an experience that was memorable, an experience that created shared emotions; fun, excitement and curiosity.

Now Sony is a huge corporation and able to throw £100Ks+ at engaging with their customers in this way but there is nothing stopping small business owners and solopreneurs creating experiences for their prospects so that they too can connect with them and begin a customer experience journey that will turn them into loyal fans.

If you look around you’ll see plenty of examples of this going on. So ask yourself ‘how could I do that for my business?’

Creating an experience can be little or no cost to you or your prospect

Here’s something that I expect you do already. Arranging a cup of coffee to meet someone again that you’ve recently met at a networking meeting. If you are providing a service, you are the brand. It’s a cliché but people by from people they like. That coffee you buy gives that person a chance to find out more about what you stand for and experience what it’s like to spend an hour with you and what it might be like to work with you.

It’s a journey though, so what is the next experience you can offer?

How can you create an experience that gives your prospect the chance to ‘try before they buy?’

This could be something that demonstrates what you are really good at. I will often offer to take a look at someone’s website. They are genuinely taken aback by the level of detail I go into and the marketing suggestions, tips and ideas I come up with. They’ve experienced my knowledge and how I like to go out of my way to help people.

What can you offer that creates a wow experience?

You may need to make an upfront investment in terms of time and money to provide a wow experience, but do it right and the returns can substantially outweigh the initial cost.
My daughter has just bought a Groupon voucher because she needs to see a chiropractor. The voucher cost her £39.99. The deal is an initial consultation and spinal screening. This is followed by another three sessions beginning with a workshop where she will learn about spinal care. Hannah then has two personalised adjustment visits and a verbal report of findings from the scan she had in the first visit.

This offer is packed with value. She’s mightily impressed by what she’s found out about herself and has gained total faith in the chiropractor. To keep her free from pain and in good shape she will need to continue to have maintenance treatment, probably every month.
Perhaps previously she wouldn’t have been prepared or willing to outlay this monthly cost, but the whole experience has made her say that she will give up a night out a month to pay for it. If you know how my daughter likes to party, you’d know what a great job the chiropractor has done!

From the chiropractor’s point of view I’m sure he’s given up quite a chunky fee for those three sessions with Hannah but what he will earn over the next few months and possibly years and the word of mouth referrals, hugely outweigh the upfront sacrifice he has made.

Now, I’ve heard many examples where Groupon vouchers just haven’t worked. Perhaps those instances have been pure discounting and attracted the wrong type of customer. Perhaps the package didn’t give the chance for the customer to experience enough on several levels to make them totally buy in to becoming a loyal customer. Some thought and creativity is required.

How can you offer an experience to turn prospects into customers, then into loyal returning customers and then into fans that spread the love of your brand?

I’d love to hear your stories about experiential marketing, either what you offer or have experienced yourself. So please do add them to the comments area below.