microMARKETING: From the One Big Thing to the Right Small Things*
[*Read to the end of the post to find out how to WIN A FREE copy of Greg’s new book!]
When I found out last summer that my friend Greg Verdino was writing a book, I thought “Finally! A chance to get inside of that brilliant mind of his!” And trust me when I say, microMARKETING does not disappoint.
And when I heard about the “lots and lots of small reviews” experiment, I invited myself to the party (thanks again Aaron & Greg!) and asked to blog about Chapter 9.
Just know, I did it for you dear readers! I was going to write a review of Greg’s book anyway (because I had already bought it, read it, and loved it), but this way I could score a FREE book to give away to one lucky micromarketer!
Success through the Right Small Things
“…the concept of the global microbrand—the seemingly humble small business that gets big results by thinking and acting small—not only isn’t oxymoronic; it is actually perfectly in synch with the times.”
Chapter 9 of microMARKETING spoke volumes to me. Not only because it brings together the seven shifts that Greg discusses throughout the book, but because it’s an example of a customer-centric business that proves you can put your customers or, ‘friends’ (as Lauren Luke calls them), at the center of your business and still generate revenue.
Before we dive into the story of Lauren Luke, let’s quickly look at the seven shifts (click for a chart):
- Resonate with masses of communicators;
- Tap into pass-along power and peer-to-peer potential of the network effect;
- Deliver mutual value through two-way interactions;
- Make a commitment to engage people directly in real time;
- Build meaningful relationships;
- Earn attention; and
- Have success through lots and lots of small things.
The Cinderella Story
Lauren Luke is one of the world’s best known makeup artists. You can find her product line, By Lauren Luke, at Sephora. But that wasn’t always the case. She started small. Very small. You see, Lauren was a single mom selling makeup products on eBay. To actively promote and drive traffic to her eBay store, Lauren started sharing photos of herself with various makeup looks along with the makeup kits she was selling. With that one change, Lauren started receiving correspondence from customers who wanted to learn her tricks of the trade. Being overwhelmed with requests, Lauren thought it would make more sense to just share her tips on YouTube. Video-after-video Lauren taught women how to apply makeup just like famous actresses, musicians or makeup seen in ads (a micromaven sharing microcontent).
And with time Lauren built up a base of fans (microculture) who watched her videos, learned how to do makeup and requested more (over 417K subscribers to date). Then on one fateful day, Lauren did a requested video showing how to do a Leona Lewis’ makeup look from her video Bleeding Heart (today Lauren’s video has over 3,672,922 views!). A video that eventually garnered the attention of an agency by the name of Anomaly (ironic in the beauty industry, if you ask me) that helped set Lauren off in the direction of her own product line.
Lauren is now an author, has appeared on multiple traditional media interviews and even has her own TV pilot.
Cinderella Kicks the Beauty Business in the Smokey Eye
On the day of unveiling her new product line, Lauren didn’t invite traditional mass marketing outlets. Nope. She did a few other things. First, Lauren made a video of her excitement to see her new product line so that “people who can’t come will still be able to see what I am seeing.” See, it wasn’t about garnering press. It was about being able to stay connected to her friends that had been with her from the beginning of her journey. Second, she invited a handful of bloggers and about 500 friends. And why not? Doing so opens the flood gates to thousands of pieces of microcontent from people who actually like you: Flickr photos, blog posts, tweets, Facebook wall posts, MySpace status updates…
Even today, years later, there are continued two-way interactions between Lauren and her friends.
“While the packaging bears Lauren’s name, the line itself is shaped (even defined) through the input from the community that Lauren has fostered over time.”
And these three things, my corporate marketing and agency friends, are exactly what makes this not only a micromarketing story, but a customer-centric story.
The beauty industry has NEVER been able to pull this off kind of branding, community, marketing or loyalty. Want to know why? Read Greg’s book! (I’ll give you a hint…they think BIG.)
Seriously. I didn’t give you all of the details here because Greg truly will walk you through how to use micromarketing for your own business. You’ll even get homework, er, I mean a worksheet, at the end of the book to help guide your efforts.
*Are you a Micromarketer? Prove it!
If you’ve made it this far, you certainly deserve a prize! Ready?
Share with us why you think you are a micromarketer (I think there is enough information floating around for you to figure out if you are a micromarketer or not) and what successes you’ve achieved and I’ll pick the winner. The caveat? You need to write a post about the book when your done. You know, to keep the small things going.
Simple, right?
No rules. It’s my blog, right? So discretion of picking a winner is all mine. Be forewarned, I am picky.
[Disclosure: I received a free copy of microMARKETING from Powered, Greg Verdino’s employer. However, I purchased my own copy to read and this review is based on that purchase (Greg's worth the $14.82 Kindle price, don't you think?). Don’t believe me FTC? Read this review. If you win the free copy of microMARKETING it is your job to disclose that you received the free book from Powered and me. Deal?]
[Images: Greg Verdino, Lauren Luke]
Even More Goodness! Related Posts:
Tags: 
13 Responses to “microMARKETING: From the One Big Thing to the Right Small Things*”
The Harte of Marketing by Beth Harte is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.theharteofmarketing.com. [If you have a question about what you can use from this blog, click on the above Creative Commons link to learn more.]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Restaurant Marketing and Own, Renilde De Wit. Renilde De Wit said: microMARKETING: From the One Big Thing to the Right Small Things* http://tinyurl.com/22ne4um [...]
I admit it, I’m not a micromarketer…yet. But the Lauren Luke example – and the concept in general – are inspiring and I look forward to reading other examples from the book.
Jim, I bet you’re more of a micromarketer than you know! I have a feeling you’ll really enjoy Greg’s book. Let me know what you think, okay?
[...] Beth Harte [...]
Will do, Beth. btw – I just started The Mesh, by Lisa Gansky, which would be another great book for you to give away.
I think I’m a microMARKETER because I spend time reading and reviewing each indidivual (in my case, editors) before I interact with them. It’s the small steps to get to the big finish (ultimately, a briefing or article with my client) – you should sweat the small stuff, sometimes!
How about a micro-fundraiser? In Dec. 2007 I started the Frozen Pea Fund on Twitter, to raise money to help those fighting cancer. It was the first grassroots Twitter fundraising campaign and was profiled in Shel Israel’s book Twitterville.
.-= Connie Reece´s last blog ..Social Media Engagement Guidelines- Surviving a Snark Attack =-.
Considering my own craft business…I’m a fond user of vlogs & YouTube would love to read this book!
Hillary
.-= Hchybinski´s last blog ..wordless wednesday =-.
Although I don’t consider myself an actual marketer because there are so many people so much more talented and experienced in the field than me, I think I naturally embrace the concept of micromarketing. The way I have developed my own “personal brand” (I really dislike that term but still have not found a good replacement yet!) is a pretty good example of micromarketing thinking. Start small, reach out, build relationships and enthusiasm, sharing and learning as I go. What I think is even more important is applying the same concepts to the work I do with clients. Showing them that it is the small steps to being more human online that help build the bigger word of mouth successes.
.-= Gloria Bell ´s last blog ..Philly “BloggerGate” =-.
Beth; Any small business person or professional is a micro-marketer, but its the use of social media channels that allows that micro-marketer to reach a large enough group of people to find an audience (allowing them to create the type of success you mention above)I think that the most interesting thing about the story is that Laura could not have achieved the unintentional results which make her success outstanding with some serendipitous events, and the exposure of social media channels.
I don’t want to win the book though – I would rather receive it from the author because I was smart and influential(like you) or help them achieve their own success by buying the book (sort of interesting that the author’s potential success will not be generated by micro-marketing though isn’t it? I love irony)
Beth – thanks again for doing this. And I LOVE the book give away idea. Nice job making this interactive with the Lauren Luke video embed.
Aaron | @aaronstrout
.-= Aaron Strout´s last blog ..Why Im Giving My Content Away to Social Media Informer for Free =-.
Hey Beth – Glad you jumped into the fray. Loved your full review for Serengeti and love this one too. Thanks so much for your support.
Connie – Frozen Pea makes a cameo in the book.
And everyone else – hope y’all enjoy the book!
.-= Greg Verdino´s last blog ..Lauren Luke “Bleeding Love” =-.
I probably could have gotten to this sooner but I just spent days watching how to make smokey eyes!
EventCamp East Coast (http://www.eventcampeastcoast.com) is my example of micromarketing. This event is being produced by three volunteers including myself. We had big plans on how we were going to spread the word about the event–the many different associations we would target in the area to ask for help. But we quickly found that the planning was taking up what little time we had to dedicate to the event (this is a labor of love after all).
We put out a couple tweets tagging our community and the community took it from there. Word spread like wildfire and 24 hours after announcing the event we had 7 people registered. Three weeks later and we are almost half-full. We still haven’t had the time to contact the local associations.
We also intended to reach out and ask for help from sponsors…but after those first tweets there was no need to. Sponsors started calling us to see how they could be involved. This is the real proof of the power of communities. We didn’t need to sell them on the value of sponsoring our event…they could see the benefits in real time.