These metrics — grabbed from two isolated sources, have proven to be the two most important things key stakeholders need to understand as they get ready for launch.
Whether you are launching a new product from scratch or a line extension, two metrics are key for success.
1. People in the USA need to see you in five (5) different places before they are aware that you exist. That means before they can even say, “Yeah, I think I’ve heard of them.” (This is according to a study from global public relations firm Edelman.) The number varies between cultures — it’s 17X in Singapore.
This means your launch messaging can’t just be on TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, MSNBC or just in TechCrunch or Advertising Age or Branding Strategy Insider. If people need to hear about you from five different sources, then you need to meet your potential customers where they are. So find out where they are — and let them see you there.
Even if you go viral, people will still want to see you in other places. Even your Avatar will ask, “Who are these guys?”
2. It takes 100 hours to make a friend. (You can google this factoid taken from a study by two sociologists.) Build “relationships” at the same time you’re gaining “transactions.”
One hundred hours is a lot of tweets, time on YouTube, FB, etc. Building relationships takes time — and even while you’re building daily performance metrics, you need to be thinking about repeat purchases and slowing churn.
Five places x 100 hours. This intentional alignment around the customer will focus your operating model on first-adopters and help build your company culture around priorities that matter. Over time, explains Forrester Research, this will help you gain competitive advantage.
The added attraction is that these metrics help give founders, CTOs and others not experienced in marketing a 3D sense of 1) the amount of content, and 2) the length of time it takes before true conversion and sticky advocacy take hold.
Working together, this knowledge will help focus talent on opportunities and processes that accelerate forward momentum.
Go for it.
Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Patrick Hanlon, Author of Primal Branding
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