“So, what is it that you do, Danielle?” says everyone in my family and those I meet who aren’t in digital marketing…

And I’ll usually pull out my best 30-second pitch on how I disrupt the digital space with my customized marketing strategies that turn a regular business into a business that grows faster than the speed of light…

…Only to be met with blank stares. “Well, isn’t that great. Good for you!” they say.

The stares only get worse if I include digital marketing jargon like…

• Funnels
• Conversion rates
• CTAs (calls to action)
• Lead Generation
• Growth Hacking
• Customer Journey Mapping (CJM)
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

I can’t help it when I get on a roll with the jargon either. I get excited about all I can do and the amount of knowledge I’ve accumulated over the last 15 years in this space could probably fill a never-ending hole…(and yes marketers can exaggerate some time, but you catch my drift).

And as I move into new industries, the same rules apply in digital marketing. It’s all transferrable and can work and get stellar results. The fun part is figuring out how it works for each industry, where in lies the disruption part that I love to do.

Recently, I’ve been tasked with something really challenging when it comes to digital marketing. I’ve been asked to simplify it for crowds that aren’t familiar with what it is and what it can do.

How simple you ask?

Digital Marketing 101 simple.

And you know what I found – even Digital Marketing 101 is not simple.

So, in my attempt to simplify digital marketing, I failed even at the 101 level…

 

And wouldn’t you know it. I didn’t have to sit back and lick my wounds, and bruised ego for long, as the opportunity to simplify the power of digital marketing appeared in my real life.

Bare with me…this may take a minute to explain, but I promise – you will understand digital marketing after my story.

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Spring cleaning happened a little late this year in our house, and we found ourselves without a need for our lawn mower.

I was busy trying to figure out how to explain digital marketing to a mass of people, fulfilling client projects, and my every day digital marketing for my two companies.

So my husband took charge and decided to sell our lawn mower and market it himself.

NOTE: My intention is not to take anything away from my brilliant husband in this story. He is an exceptional strategist and consultant and one heck of a home owner (way better than me) and he is not a marketer or a salesperson (and luckily he doesn’t have to be).

His approach to marketing and selling the lawn mower is like most other homeowners.

1.      He walked over to our next-door neighbors and asked if they wanted a lawn mower or if they knew anyone that needed one. It was only a year old and he had only used it for 8 cuts during the time we had it. He was selling it for $150 compared to the $350 he paid for it. No takers that way.

2.      He decided to increase his reach and put it for sale on our subdivisions Facebook group. He had seen others in the subdivision sell from there, so he knew there was potential there and he didn’t know what else to do. He got one interested party who said they wanted it, but then ghosted him for a week before coming back and showing ‘meh’ interest in it again.

The above is equivalent to two types of marketing:

1.      Word of mouth marketing. You work with who you know and ask them who they know and look for the referral. This is still THE best form of marketing (and yes, this is coming from a digital marketer) AND it doesn’t always work and when it does work it can sometimes take longer. You are depending on someone else to do the networking for you and people are busy!

2.      Cross-your-fingers marketing (aka hope marketing). This is when people will put a product and service out there in a way, they have seen others have success doing, and hope that it works for them too. There is no shame in this type of marketing. It’s strategic and a logical next step. But, it’s missing the foundational pieces.

After a week went past, he came to me and told me he wasn’t having any luck in selling the lawn mower.

So, I asked, “Do you want some help?”

“Yes, please,” he said with a relieved sigh.

I wish I was as cool as AMC’s Mad Men, and had a board room to walk into and notepad in hand as I strategized my lawn mower marketing campaign…but cool is not really part of my personality, lol.

What I did do was ask questions like the following:

–         What have you tried so far?

–         Did it work?

–         What else did you try?

–         Did it work?

–         How did you decide to charge $150?

–         When did you buy the lawn mower?

–         How many cuts did you do with it?

–         Is it in good condition? Anything wrong with it?

–         Do you have all the details of it somewhere (is it gas or electric, is it self propelled or manual, etc.)

–         Who do you think needs a 2nd hand lawn mower?

It took about 5 minutes of Q&A and note taking before I went to work.

And I did my thing and 12 hours later it was sold.

So, what did I do?

I did a few simple things and pulled from my bag of tricks (in an authentic way).

Here’s what we didn’t know. We didn’t know what the market was willing to pay for this lawn mower 2nd hand. So I jumped on Facebook marketplace and looked for comparable lawn mowers in the area. I found out that there were 3 other mowers that were priced around $100.

Doesn’t mean we couldn’t sell it for $150, but it did mean that $100 would be our baseline price.

Next I posted on Facebook marketplace and a few other local Facebook groups who allowed such postings.

I then went in a boosted our marketplace post with a $3 bid over 2-days. I also went into the subdivision Facebook group under my account and gave my husband’s post a like, pushing it to the top so those who didn’t see it a week before saw it then.

Within 5 minutes we had interest. Within 20 minutes we had 3 potential buyers.

At that point, I felt pretty good to go back and tell the person who was interested a week ago we had 3 potential buyers, and if they wanted it, we’d love them to have it, but it was going to have to be first come first serve. (NOTE: This is what we call authentic urgency and yes you can use this tactic to make sure those who show interest don’t miss out; however I give you this trick to use authentically…don’t let the power go to your head and use it in an inauthentic way!).

Within the next few hours we had a total of 12 interested and long story short we sold for $100 (that was what everyone was willing to pay) and sold it to someone else in the subdivision who saw it in marketplace and not in the Facebook group.

This is the power of digital marketing.

• It gets your product out to way more people than referral based alone
• It gets your product in front of your target audience
• It finds the best places to put your product in front of your target audience (based on where they are actively looking for that very solution.
• It does this faster
• It does this more efficient
• It helps you decipher market value and buyer thresholds
• It gets things sold for you…

There you have it. Storytelling marketing at it’s best (yes, another digital marketing tactic that works amazing, which is going to be another article down the road) to be the solution to Digital Marketing 101 teaching.

I hope this gives you a visual of how it works, and why every business owner needs to have this type of marketing in their arsenal!  And feel free to reach out if you’re wondering the best pathway for utilizing digital marketing in your business (either DM here on LinkedIn or email info@influencebuilder.com).

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Danielle Fitzpatrick Clark is lovingly referred to as America’s Favorite Digital Disruptor. She doesn’t just live, breath, and sleep digital marketing, she embodies the constant shifts and pivots needed to create long-lasting businesses in the online space.

Her company Influence Builder is all about bringing the human element to the online tech and digital space. Specifically focused on helping the lesser-known experts and thought leaders, Influence Builder shows them how to break out of the noise, create powerful platforms, and thriving businesses so they can spread their mission and message to the world. This is the bridge where disruptors disrupt and build with authentic influence.

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Danielle Fitzpatrick Clark is lovingly referred to as America’s Favorite Digital Disruptor. She doesn’t just live, breath, and sleep digital marketing, she embodies the constant shifts and pivots needed to create long-lasting businesses in the online space.

Her company Influence Builder is all about bringing the human element to the online tech and digital space. Specifically focused on helping the lesser-known experts and thought leaders, Influence Builder shows them how to break out of the noise, create powerful platforms, and thriving businesses so they can spread their mission and message to the world. This is the bridge where disruptors disrupt and build with authentic influence.