What’s love got to do with your marketing and public relations campaign?
The answer is: Everything
“What the world needs now is love sweet love”
“I want to know what love is”
“Love can build a bridge”
See, the greats all knew it.
What you might not have realized is that love is the key to your marketing campaign. In honor of this Love Day, I thought I would share with you why we have started calling Olive a “Relationship Agency”.
If you want to cut through the clutter today, you are making a big mistake if you are putting all your eggs in one basket. In today’s blog, I outline how building a mutually beneficial relationship with the targets on whom your success or failure depends, is much easier than you think. Many people think public relations is synonymous with media relations, but it is so much more than that. It’s the art of building relationships, and at Olive, it’s our specialization.
One very unfortunate thing happened over the last four years that has been a little difficult to undo: we started relying on remote ways of doing everything. Convenience has won out over connection, but at Olive, we believe it’s gone too far.
What the world needs now is connection. That’s why we also refer to Olive as a “Connection Agency”.
In the past, you could create a strategy that could stand alone on media relations and social media. And, if you are lucky, you still can, but what we believe is: the difference that makes the difference is that human piece (ahem, peace). And peace comes from connection.
In fact, solitude is used as punishment — it’s called solitary confinement. If we want to thrive, we need to connect.
If your success or failure depends on building a strong relationship with your target audience, how do you do that? You stop thinking about your bottom line for a second and get back to the basics. You create authentic relationships, and the money will follow.
Step 1: SHARE. What do you have in common with your target audiences? Without effort, most businesses or organizations already have something in common… the offer or mission that is at the core of the business or organization. In kindergarten, they teach kids to find things they have in common and build relationships from there.
Step 2: CONNECT. How do you make them aware that your connection means a lot to you? It’s quite simple. You respond to their needs. You care about what they care about. You acknowledge your shared values. You express gratitude for their shared interests.
Step 3: BUILD. How do you build consistency, so they know they can depend on you? Just like in any relationship, you follow through. You do what you say you will do. Your products or services deliver on the messaging you created. Your customers are clear about who you are and what you do, and it makes them feel safe.
Step 4: CARE. How are you checking in to show them you care? In a personal relationship, this can be in the form of a handwritten note, a text, or a phone call. You make plans with them. You make time for them. How can you carry this through in your business?
Step 5: CELEBRATE. When you get together, how do you make it special? How do you make sure they feel included? At Olive, we love to create ideas that bring people joy. We LOVE to make people feel special.
Step 6: PERSIST. Keep it simple. No need to love bomb anybody. Keep it cool. You want to be able to stay consistent.
Step 7: GROW. How do you grow your community from here? Build creative campaigns that invite them to invite their friends who also share like values and interests. As we move into this next era of connection, you can keep it simple, but keep it real. Instead of a big party, make it a meaningful speaker with a talk and a meditation. What will give you an opportunity to connect more deeply? Maybe it’s something light and fun like an ice cream social or an outdoor picnic. Maybe it’s a simple thank you with a personalized gift or a photo booth that allows them to capture the memory.
You might be thinking right about now that it sounds like too much work. Well, that’s where we come in. We have been perfecting our relationship skills for years. Let us do the thinking, creating, and delivering. As a Relationship and Connection Agency, we can give you all the guidance you need to help you build strong relationships with your audience.
Don’t get me wrong… you still need to invest the time into building a strong online presence and you still need to make sure your voice is being heard and endorsed by media, we just don’t want you to get too carried away with automation and forget about connection.
To get you thinking, here’s an easy way to think about those audiences and how you are connected:
Step 1: List each audience. It might look like staff, media, investors, consumers (break your consumers into key demographics).
Step 2: Under each audience, create a list of what you have in common. What are your connections? What are your shared values? What shared outcomes do you want?
Step 3: Under each item from #2, list the ways in which you can make them aware of shared connections.
Step 4: List each of the mediums you determined and now apply a person on your team who can help you with that and then apply a budget.
Step 5: Dream up ways to make them feel special and valued.
Step 6: Determine what you can do now to get started right away and set goals for scaling your plan.
At Olive, we really believe in sticking to a plan with some big stretch goals to always make room for surprises. Sometimes the very act of going through this process starts to stir the energy in your business and resources will start effortlessly showing up to support you. Always listen to your gut. If it doesn’t feel authentic, do not proceed. This isn’t a game of manipulation, it’s a game of authentic connection. Rest assured there are plenty of the right people who will be drawn to what you are doing when you focus on building beautiful relationships from the heart.