The world is choking on marketing materials, but a good street team can cut through the clutter like a breath of fresh air.
If you are looking to raise brand awareness, build loyalty and increase sales, you need to utilise the power of human engagement, says Joey Kercher, CEO of Air Fresh Marketing, writing for Forbes. Interact directly with consumers, enabling them to connect with your brand on a personal level, rather than via a computer screen.
The quality of the team is all-important. A badly executed street team initiative can prove both costly and counterproductive, and could potentially damage your brand rather than enhance it.
But how do you create an effective street team campaign?
BEFORE THE EVENT
1) Set a goal. What is the outcome that you want? Kercher’s company recently ran a project for a top ride-sharing brand, whose goal was to get as many consumers as possible to download the brand’s app by offering coupon codes for their first ride. So the team focused on this.
2) Be strategic. You need to know who your target audience is and where to find them in bulk. For the ride-sharing project, numbers were important so they worked in locations with high-traffic.
3) Budget realistically. A properly trained team is crucial to success. Your team should be capable of doing so much more than simply handing out flyers. They are your brand’s ambassadors. Provide a welcoming pack, hold an orientation/training meeting, and take proper steps to recruit the right people for the job.
DURING THE EVENT
1) Event manager. A professional team should have an event manager onsite, whose job it is to motivate staff and monitor activity. For example, are the consumers actually downloading the ride-share app?
2) Call to action. Don’t leave it to the consumer to figure out what to do next, or how to do it. Show them. With the ride-share project, the team’s job was to walk the consumers through the process of downloading the app.
3) Data. You need to be collecting consumer information as you go along, to enable you to plan future strategy. Is there any pattern to what type of consumer is more likely to engage with your brand than others?
AFTER THE EVENT
1) Measure outcomes. How successful were you, and how are you measuring that success? You could use a range of methods, including sign-up forms, pre-coded coupon codes, specific phone numbers or coded landing pages. The ride-sharing initiative was measured via intensive daily recaps and the number of redemption codes used regionally.
2) Fine-tune and repeat. Once you have analysed what worked, and what didn’t, make adjustments so that the next event offers an even higher quality consumer experience.
With so much going on online, street teams offer a valuable opportunity to build personal connections with consumers and get them to connect with your brand in a direct and rewarding way.