How Tutankhamun connects with customers

There are a lot of very good videos and articles on LinkedIn and other social media. They provide evidence of the author’s expertise or skill, but many stand alone, with no links to anything else. If you are selling your services, this is a missed opportunity.

Every buyer is on a journey. Customers don’t wake up in the morning, reach for their phone and buy something. They go through progressive stages of Know, Like and Trust before they buy and advocate (known as the Buyer’s Journey), transitioning from never having heard of you to being a loyal customer. The marketing we do, including the videos we post on our websites and social media, play a valuable part in this journey. But only if we do what Tutankhamun did, which is to give directions.

THE JOURNEY

OK not King Tut himself, but the travelling exhibition. We recently visited this magnificent exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery including 150 artefacts from the tomb. It is exceptionally popular, and over 1.3million people visited the previous stop in Paris. How do you show the exhibition to that number of people without congestion, people getting lost or missing key exhibits?

Like many special exhibitions, this one is ticketed with timed entry. Every visitor embarks on a subtly managed journey. You watch a short introductory film, then you move progressively through the exhibition halls with directions where to go next. Thousands of people get to see the entire exhibition and exit, of course, through the gift shop.

The magic ingredients were the clear directions after each stage. Just as the visitors are on a journey through the exhibition, the visitors to your marketing content are also on a journey and need clear directions.

DIRECTIONS

There are two types of directions. One is to guide your visitors on to the next stage which could be to access gated content such as a more valuable video; download an ebook or register for an event. In the examples I mentioned at the beginning, it could simply be “Connect or Follow to see my next video”.

The other type of direction is more like the exhibition visitor who wants to divert to the enquiries desk or café. Your visitor might want to find out more about you and your business right there and then, so you need to make it easy for them to find your website address or business page.

LINK CONTENT TO THE BUYERS JOURNEY

If you want to make your marketing content work as well as the Tutankhamun exhibition, you just need to make sure your visitors are gently signposted towards to next activity on the journey which builds Know, Like and Trust and leads to the sale. You also need to have a link to your website which is easily accessible. And while you are adding these things, don’t forget some subtle branding to remind your visitors where they are!

This means the great videos you make, the informative articles you write and the events you run will all play an active role in moving your visitors towards to point where they want to do business with you.

Neville Merritt