How to Make Your Marketing Come to Life

► Poetry Reading Brings Words to Life

Last weekend, my husband and I attended a poetry reading at Sargent’s Daughters, an art gallery on East Broadway on the fringe of Chinatown. As a writer, I like to hear poetry read aloud since it conveys a more emotional experience.

Hosted by the Theater of War, a not-for-profit organization focused on community-specific, theater-based projects that address pressing public health and social issues, this reading celebrated the publication of When Poetry Visits by Laura Rothenberg.

Unfortunately, the poet, Laura Rothenberg (1981-2003) had died 20 years ago of cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease, and until recently many with the disease died young, often before they turned 20. Knowing that she might not reach her next birthday, Laura tried to pack a full life into the short time she was alive.

It was particularly moving for me since, when I lived in Paris as a college student, I had an American friend named Julie who had cystic fibrosis. Like Laura, Julie tried to pack as much as she could into her short life and living in Paris was her life’s dream even though she died there before her 20th birthday.

As a writer, I found this reading particularly poignant. Laura always wanted a book of her poems to be published and her family and friends worked to make this a reality even though it took 20 years.

With Laura’s mother watching from the front row, the reading consisted of 15 poems read by 5 actors, Taylor Schilling, Debra Winger, Bill Murray, Arliss Howard and Babe Howard. The constant thread running through the poems was the presence of the medical side of Laura’s disease.

Laura lived with the fear that people would forget about her after she died. As the organizer spoke about her, I wondered how many of us seated in the audience thought about our lives in this way. Yet without the external pressure of a deadly disease, we calmly greet each day as it comes along and willingly let our time get taken by unimportant activities.

I’m writing about this because it touched me in a profound way and I believe that you can learn from Laura’s message. Specifically, Laura pointed out that life matters and that it’s hard to live a life well.

This struck a chord with me since I’ve been thinking about what I want to do next. While part of me will always be a marketer. It’s in my bones. One of the things I want to do is to pivot my writing more towards fiction and away from content marketing.

Actionable Marketing Tip

• Persist in accomplishing your goals, especially those of you who want to publish a book. Of course, take a reality check to ensure they’re attainable and continue to do at least some work towards achieving these goals on a regular basis.
• Take some time for yourself to think about what you want to accomplish with your life, no matter how much longer you have to live. Then create a plan to accomplish this.

Listen to Laura Rothenberg talk on “My So-Called Lungs” on Radio Diaries.

► Marketing and AI

It seems like everyday there’s some new form of AI. Everyone is talking about AI and how to incorporate new capabilites into their marketing mix.

As a fellow marketer, I get that FOMO feeling. It’s like being on a never-ending treadmill trying to keep up with the latest changes. For many of us, it can feel like you’re falling behind your peers.

I get it. Based on my experience, this happens with every new form of technology. The big difference with AI is that technology has started to improve and evolve at a faster rate.

Take a deep breath.

Why?
Because at its core marketing still requires the key basics that it always has: understanding your audience, building your brand, and growing your community of prospects, customers and influencers.

What has changed is that we have AI-powered tools to facilitate the aspects of marketing that can be done better and faster by machine. These tools are easy to learn and, even better, most have free intro-level pricing plans.

But you have to remember that the AI doesn’t work by itself. It requires a marketer to understand and assess the quality of the results and how to apply it to your specific marketing need.

Ardath Albee Explains How She Uses AI

I love how my colleague Ardath Albee of Marketing Interactions explained how to use AI to create a marketing persona.

• Examine the various forms of AI focused on creating personas. Albee recommends that you look at the type of output that each tool generates. Otherwise, the results may be too general or too specific to be useful. Then decide which one works best for your target segment.
• Train the specific tool to answer the key questions you want to answer regarding your specific target audience. As the veteran of creating thousands of marketing personas, Albee points out that each target audience requires a unique persona.
• Assess the output generated by the AI tool for a specific persona. Based on your experience, do the results make sense?
• Talk to some actual customers to hear what they have to say and the language they use to say it. Nothing takes the place of talking to real people who use your products. Then use that information to modify your persona.

Listen to Ardath Albee explain how she uses AI:
https://youtu.be/GqMO1LSy1ag

► Why Lines Attract Buyers

When you spot a long line of people In New York City, you know that you’ve stumbled upon a special deal or event. Most New Yorkers know to get on the line first and ask questions later. Recently, My husband and I were surprised to see a line growing at Caffe Panna around the corner of Irving Place and 19th Street since we had never seen many people there.

Since Caffe Panna sells gelato, the warm weather helped attract people. I asked someone in line how long the wait was. He waited about 45 minutes. Since that seemed like a long time to wait, I asked a few customers about the gelato. My favorite answer was “Since it was our first time, it was worth it. But I don’t think that I’d do it again.”

When my husband and I were in Taipei, we came across an ever-growing line. “Get on line” I directed him. To which, he responded, “Why?”

As a New Yorker, I knew that a line was the sign of something worth checking out. While he waited online, I went to the front of the line to discover that they were selling a new form of bubble ice tea with a thin sliver of gold on top. As tourists, we waited and tried it.

Actionable Marketing Tips

• Take advantage of the line to your physical or online door when possible. One way to do this is to offer samples. (Please note: Caffe Panne didn’t have to hand out samples. Although, I’ve seen this used effectively at Trader Joe’s.)
• Ask customers to take photos of the experience and to post it on Instagram with your hashtag.

► Madison Square Park BBQ Turns Into Fundraiser

For 16 years ending in 2018, Madison Square Park hosted “Big Apple Barbecue Block Party.” Taking place on the second weekend of June and requiring no entry fee translated to great weather for a family event. (Source: Eater 2018)

This massive event attracted about 140,000 people annually to fill their jonesing for massive servings of brisket, ribs, pulled pork and related foods. Master barbeque pitmasters came from across the US to show off their culinary skills and to attract new fans. Each master brought their specialized approach to this traditionally Southern form of smoked meat.

Unfortunately, the popular event outgrew Madison Square Park’s space. So while the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party had to find another location, the marketers at Madison Square Park Conservancy decided to use this event as the basis for creating their own fundraising event, known as ”Celebrate Big Apple BBQ”.

Held last night, Monday, May 20, 2024, the party ran from 6:30 pm–8:30 pm. Food options were provided by twenty restaurants.

Instead of paying for BBQ at each vendor, attendees bought general admission tickets for the evening that included all-you-can-eat barbecue, cocktails and music. Positioned as a fundraiser with proceeds going to the Madison Square Park Conservancy, General Admission tickets for adults were priced at $300.00 per ticket.

From a marketing perspective, understand that making this critical change from a free entry where diners paid for each food serving to a high-ticket fundraiser translates to a smaller number of people who pay a set fee.

Actionable Marketing Tips

• Realize that forecasting the different variables for a new Not-For-Profit event will be difficult. Where possible, get information from similar organizations.
• Tap into the power of key people on your Board to help raise the visibility of the event.