Tribal Marketing
Businesses of today are doing marketing in one of the following ways. Either they are making a noise or they are creating a voice. Brands are actually yelling at people and stuffing them with baneful content. By doing these companies assume that by yelling louder they will be able to drill down their voice in the throats of the customers.
Small businesses wrestle a lot with this kind of anarchy because startups usually don’t have enough money to yell at everyone. After the dotcom revolution, we know that people don’t pay enough attention to the ads they see every day. This is where tribes came to the rescue. But before we start let us start with the big question.
What is a tribe?
The internet has the power to reach million people without even taking a single step out of your home. From this, we can conclude that the future of marketing resides in creating a tribe that people love to join. If your product is inspiring people, they will join the tribe regardless of the geography or the color of their skin.
To put it simply – a tribe is a group of people interested in accomplishing a single goal. If you're able to lead the tribe in the right direction, word will spread without even asking.
What is Tribal Marketing?
Tribal marketing is a science rather than a technique. In general, tribes are called sleepwalkers. Sleepwalkers are obedient sheep that movie in the direction where the leader shows them. In tribal marketing people from one tribe communicates with the other tribe and share their experiences. This means when providing a customer experience which is above average, people share it with their friends and family and gathers a tribe around those people.
Why is the tribe beneficial?
When Al Gore set out to change the world, he didn’t do it alone. He created a movement – a tribe that spread the message on his behalf.
To build a tribe you don’t need a lot of people. You just need 1000 loyal fans. Once you gather that much amount of people, the impact will automatically take care of your growth.
This concludes that it is not about finding the maximum number of people who can benefit from your idea or a product; it is about finding those few people who are passionate about your idea as you are.
Once the idea is personal to them. They will drive your idea in the similar manner in which you want it to spread. Seth Godin – the marketing guru talks about ‘Tribes’ in his best-selling book.
There is no tribe without a leader. Seth Godin suggests to let everyone be their own CEO. There is no need for a title to do a great job.
Leaders have followers. Managers have employees. Managers make widgets. Leaders make a change.
Previously marketing was all about advertising, and advertising was expensive. For small businesses, it is all about engaging and connecting with the right tribe which will spread their message to the masses. Even today, it is all about touching those few pain points of people who are willing to buy from you if you understand and help them to solve their problem.
How to build a tribe?
It is not a rocket science to create a tribe that people will love. A company in New York tried to kill stray cats and dogs. The company killed around 4 million dogs and cats in 24 hours. Nathan Winograd took the initiative from ground level and created a tribe from that. The no-kill revolution was initiated to take care of the stray animals on the streets.
It all started with a single blog post that pleaded for help. The response that Nathan Winograd got was phenomenal. It was supposed to be a small campaign, which turned out into a full revolutionary movement.
My friend who owns a design agency started with two people. Now his tribe consists of 75 people working with him. How he did it? For a year he worked hard, and while pursuing his dream he gathered a team of people who agreed to help him out with his dream. This is how tribes are built.
Where to find your Tribe?
You have to start with a product. A service that is willing to solve a problem. Once you’ve created something worthy. You’ll be able to get the word out.
Everything starts with a vision. Then comes the distribution part. In this digital world, you need to spread your idea. Seth Godin knows how ideas spread and shares them in his famous TED talk.
Chip Heath and Dan Heath in their book Made to Stick talk about Why some ideas spread? While others are forgotten. You can use forums, Facebook groups, and even social media channels to spread your idea. Make a YouTube video on how to use your product or why your product is important for the people and what makes it different from others?
Use every medium you can get to spread your idea. Get your message out there by all possible means. Do not restrict your idea to just one channel.
To wrap things up
You need to start small and go big. There is no way you can spread your idea without a tribe in place.
Start with a small group of people. Make them fall in love with your service. And once they become your fan, ask them to share the good word out there.
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