If you’ve been reading about marketing for any length of time you’ve probably come across the concept of know like and trust. If you haven’t, here’s your introduction.
Who do you trust? Hopefully you’ve got at least a few friends and family members that you can rely on. But who else? What about big business?
Now you might be thinking, “hang on, I don’t trust those big corporations”. And yet we all behave in a way that shows we do. We buy our clothes from high street chains, get our electricity from one of the big five suppliers and eat in McDonalds. People queue for hours to be the first to get the new iPhone. There was uproar about the way our Facebook data has been used but most of us are still on the platform.
When you have an online business, you can (in theory) work with anyone, anywhere in the world. But what if you only serve one local area? Sometimes, where you’re based is key to your marketing. I know that there are people who travel between London, Paris and New York to find the right hairdresser, but what if you’re in Wigan?
It might be a cliché, but it’s true: people buy from people. Even when you shop with a big brand, your decisions end up being based on the service you receive. A helpful member of staff could convince you to buy something and have you recommending them to your friends.
You might be looking at that title and wondering what on earth an email nurture campaign is. Even if you haven’t heard the term before you’ve probably seen one. A nurture series is one of those email sequences that you sometimes get when you first sign up to a new mailing list. You might get an email every day.
The term ‘tribe’ has become a bit of a business buzzword recently. I’m still trying to work out whether I like it or not, but I know that a lot of you do so I’ll go with it. For me, the word tribe describes a niche audience, people who will come to you because they know you offer what they need.
I know, I know, you’ve heard it all before. Start a blog and new customers will magically drop into your lap from the sky. Your life will be transformed because suddenly everyone on the internet will be beating a path to your door.
There are some hotels whose names will be recognised wherever you go in the world. You could be in New York or on an island somewhere in the Pacific and people will have heard of the Ritz, The Dorchester or Claridges. You might think that your regional hotel will never be able to reach those heights, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t try and bring a little fame your way.
Did my last blog (catch up 
When you start talking about niching, people start to panic. It’s a natural reaction. Why would you deliberately narrow your audience when there’s so much potential business out there? You’d have to be crazy to turn good customers away, right?
I’ll forgive you if you’re wondering what on earth gamification is and what it has to do with you. Potentially, quite a lot. Gamification is everywhere, from coffee shops to online courses.