Day 5: Understanding IMPACT

Day 5 Video:

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Welcome to Day 5! So glad to see you today :-)

Today’s Learning Points

Our goal today is to cover:

What is the IMPACT part of the IMPACT Marketing Formula;
Why is IMPACT important;
Understanding the components of IMPACT;
What IMPACT means for your business, and;
What’s coming ahead.

What is IMPACT

IMPACT is the art of building a tribe, a loyal community that is not longer just following you but raving about you, your business, your products/services and what you stand for. It’s about going far beyond interacting and forming relationships, to embracing your IMPACT factor — that unique thing that makes your business stand out from the rest. Whether it’s your people, your promise, the delivery of your service, or the experience you provide — every human, every business, every product has an IMPACT factor.

IMPACT = Experience + Educate + Entertain + Empower

IMPACT can be the determining factor between mediocre success and exceptional success. It is the factor that builds momentum in everything you do online. It’s what makes you and your content “sharable.” It goes far beyond simply having “personality” or going “viral.” It’s hard to describe and there is no system for determining your IMPACT factor. It is best illustrated by “showing” you with examples you may be familiar with…

Gary Vaynerchuk used his IMPACT factor to not only catapult his family business into tremendous success (www.WineLibrary.tv), but also become a household name and best-selling author (Crush It).

Dove used their knowledge of their market’s (Dove’s Real Beauty Community) IMPACT factor to create an entire revolution around the real definition of beauty (Dove’s Facebook Campaign), translating into unbelievable success for a women’s beauty line.

David Meerman Scott has an entire book, World Wide Rave, focused on examples where IMPACT factors kicked in to create monumental success by going against conventional marketing wisdom.

Zappos! Shoes realized their IMPACT factor and embraced it by making it an entire company culture and direction for how they did business with their customers. They then used Social Media like Twitter to spread the word, turning the company into a multi-million dollar deal when it sold.

Barack Obama created an IMPACT factor by understanding his “market” and leveraging the power of social media to whip the political good ole’ boy network, becoming what many have dubbed the first “social media President.” (My political views aside, he ran an exceptional social media campaign driven by IMPACT)

And it’s not just the big guys learning how to leverage their IMPACT Factor:

Over half of the top Facebook Pages (by number of fans) are not from big brands or celebrities, they are from ordinary people building community around similar interests, simple statements, and other less complicated IMPACT factors.

Take a look at the Susan Boyle story, a Scottish woman from nowhere, who came out to inspire an entire world. Yes, she had talent, but even more so she had an IMPACT factor that catapulted her into the hearts of her fans.

The point here is, you may not be a Barack Obama or Susan Boyle, but you and your business have something — a story, an experience, a solution… something that is your IMPACT. It may be your story of success. It may be how you deliver an exceptional customer experience. It may be the uniqueness of your solution. Whatever it is, connect that with your audience, you’ll have IMPACT which builds momentum in your marketing efforts and loyal, raving fans.

Why IMPACT is Important

Without IMPACT, you will always operate in “cast the fishnet” mode. You’ll always fight your competition for a small percentage of a crowded market. You’ll never be able to differentiate yourself beyond price, features, and other basic premises. You’ll always have followers, subscribers, and traffic who’ve found you but never be able to keep their attention and turn them into loyal readers, fan, and purchasers.

Without the IMPACT you will waste time, money, and a host of other resources. Remember, from Day 4 — consistent, purposeful Engagement that includes IMPACT will help you build the kind of relationships that catapult the results you receive from online marketing with an unbelievable momentum. You’ll not only connect with your audience and collect leads, you’ll turn those leads into believers and ultimately, buyers.

IMPACT will help you have a voice and a unique presence in the marketplace that goes far beyond a brand or made-up persona. It helps you connect with your ideal audience beyond the visual, to connecting with them on the emotional. It is the glue that helps you build a bond with your audience — whereby they recognize you and your business as being a true, valuable member of their community.

Understanding the components of IMPACT

The 4 E’s of creating IMPACT in your online marketing:

Experience: Experience includes every aspect of how your customer/client interacts with your business. From the visual presentation of your brand, to the events that occur during the sales process and beyond into customer service. It’s made up of the total experience, over time, of being connected to your business, from beginning to end — from the time we connect online, to the message I receive via your email marketing, through the purchase process and how you continue to nurture our relationship past the sale.

Educate: Educate is not only about sharing your knowledge, but also sharing the knowledge of others and helping your audience grow in their knowledge. Again, and worthy of repeating, showboating your own knowledge is not the point here. Rather, sharing and facilitating the spread of knowledge that is a benefit to the community you are serving. When you educate, you become a valuable resource within the community, seen as a valuable contributor. Educating helps you build credibility, authority, and influence.

Entertain: Entertaining your audience in meaningful ways can be a very powerful point of IMPACT. On the social web you can not be about “business” all the time. The value of entertaining your audience can mean the difference between being “sharable” and being just another voice in the market. Entertaining is about the emotional response, not always about laughter, but always about connecting to the human side of your audience.

Empowering: Everyone has a story to tell, IMPACT stories inspire their audience. Even the most ordinary businesses, plumbers, realtors, and others, have the ability to empower their audience. Empowering is all about investing in your audience, inspiring and motivating them, and simply being on their side. This should reflect in every point of contact you have with your audience.

IMPACT strategies and tactics might look like…

Producing parody videos that entertain and educate your audience about a problem they may be experiencing.
Creating a Facebook Application that empowers your audience to share their passion for a cause or similar interest.
Hosting a weekly podcast that entertains and educates your audience with interviews of thought leaders in the market.
Create a viral video that empowers your audience by telling your inspiring story of success.
Create a 30 day program to educate and empower your audience, that goes far beyond how your competitors offer value

There are many ways to create IMPACT… with no right or wrong answer. Your Target and Engage activities will help you understand how to create your IMPACT in the market, as will your expertise and experience in your market.

What IMPACT means for your business…

IMPACT tends to be the part of the Formula that businesses overlook the most. Yet, it can have the biggest impact (pardon the pun) on the bottom line. IMPACT is the kind of factor that does not show its value until you’ve actually received the benefit of it. Yes, you could receive results from your online marketing. No, those results will never be what they could be with IMPACT.

Like Engage, IMPACT is the factor that benefits every aspect of your online marketing. When you’ve used Engage to build leads and nurture relationships and you’ve used IMPACT to build a bond by creating an experience that educates, entertains, and empowers your audience — the money always follows. Your audience will be more likely to purchase from you. Your audience will be more loyal to you. Your audience will become your ally and ambassador.

Like Engage, typical marketing terms that relate to the benefits of IMPACT, include:

Increased word of mouth referrals, increasing leads.
Increased positive branding and awareness levels within target audience.
Increased feedback and communication with audience, leading to more customer insight.
Increased online visibility with benefits across entire presence, including SEO and beyond.
Increased credibility and authority within your market.

Bottom Line: The IMPACT will benefit almost every area of your marketing, when it becomes integrated into how you do business and market to your customer/client.

What’s coming ahead…

Day 6: Understanding Convert
Day 7: Understanding Monitor, Rinse & Repeat
Day 8: IMPACT Marketing Formula Tools of the Trade
Day 9: Target Step 1 Setting Up to Listen
Day 10: Target Step 2 Tracking & Learning

See you tomorrow!

Maria Reyes-McDavis

and WebSuccessDiva Team

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About the Author...

Maria Reyes-McDavis is a colossal geek brainiac, certified genius IQ with university degrees in Finance, Economics, Business Management and an MBA. Maria has served over 300 pro-level, digital marketing clients as founder of online marketing firm Digital Peas & Carrots. Maria is Founder and Editor of Hyphenated Americans, a conservative politics blog and Proverbs 31 Project an online women's ministry. Most importantly, Maria is a wife to her king, mother of 3, lover of basketball (Go Lakers & Clippers!), classic cars and is currently training for professional women's roller derby!