Outreach marketing aims to take marketing back to basics and clear out all of the noise and trendy names for building relationships. To put simply-it consists marketing to the right people with the right people.
Consumers are no longer an extension of your brand, rather they are part of your brand and have a strong voice. Embracing this concept just amplifies the word of mouth recommendations circulating around the digital world.
Pretty cool...
The following 3 brands do an exemplary job of embracing outreach marketing and I think there are some pieces of their strategy that you can weave in to your own so take a look!
Char-Broil
Char-Broil isn't just innovative when it comes to grilling, they are ahead of the game in the way they work with advocates.
Instead of trying to scale their blogger outreach program, they've developed a network of "all-stars." A ton of time is spent growing and nurturing relationships with these brand advocates. In return, the all-stars write about Char-Broil on a continual basis. Brilliant because when a sources recommends a brand more than once, the recommendation is trusted and actually causes action as opposed to simple awareness.
Check out this post which gives an inside look on how they have created such an effective strategy.
Ford
I put Ford on this list because of their authenticity in all of their marketing strategies.
They send cars for social media users and bloggers to test drive and simply ask for sincere posts-even if the review is negative. They do a great job of harnessing real and authentic voices on all social channels and amplifying them even further utilizing their own assets.
I also admire how seriously they take disclosure laws-something a lot of brands could learn from so here is a link to their disclosure guidelines.
Electrolux
Electrolux is a perfect example of a GINORMOUS brand marketing for their consumers with their consumers. They've completely revamped their marketing team and strategy which has shifted focus from product marketing to consumer marketing.
Among many innovative changes the one that I think is the most innovative, that any type of brand any size can implement, is that they knocked down the "silos" that exist across branches of their brand and have created an integrated and cohesive approach to marketing.
For example, members of the digital marketing team were moved to the consumer experience teams so that these two strategies weaved together in one. Brilliant.
This shift in marketing perspective has advanced Electrolux as a leader in its industry. "Our transformation is driving growth. In the first quarter of 2014, The Electrolux Group delivered its ninth consecutive quarter of organic growth," wrote Marykay Kopf-CMO for the Electrolux Group in this post.
I'm always on the hunt for awesome outreach marketing strategies. Please reach out or share in the comments below if you want to tell me about how you're an outreach marketing rock star!