When it comes to marketing, the best thing to do is expect the unexpected.

What?

Marketing is about more than tools and strategies. It’s also about how you make people feel. Good marketing is your chance to foster trust. It has the power to create a connection with people who haven’t met you in person.

It benefits you when your brand is predictable – especially when you’re talking to new prospects.

Early in a brand relationship, people might know what you’ve promised, but they’re not sure you can deliver it. As you meet their expectations, you establish a foundation of familiarity, trust, and balance to build a future on.

From there, you can leverage the power of the unexpected.

One unexpected thing after another isn’t strategy, it’s just chaos. But, used wisely, you can amaze and delight your brand followers with curated experiences that make a lasting impression. And although those moments are surprising to your audience, they can still be planned to a T by your marketing agency.

Let’s tackle a few examples.

Predictable: Branded Social Media Posts

What does it mean when something is branded?

Branded content sounds and looks like it came from you. It uses your brand’s distinctive voice, color scheme, logo, and other core visuals so it’s immediately recognizable. In today’s digital marketing landscape, a steady flow of branded social media posts is the most predictable element.

If you aren’t posting on social media, that’s weird. And for many people, it seems suspicious.

Predictable: Keyword Relevant Blog Content

As soon as you agree to work with a marketing agency, they should get to work doing the research to figure out your keywords. Keywords represent the words and phrases your future customers type into search. They enable you to identify topics for the helpful, informative content your customers crave.

Keywords are usually too vague to be a blog topic: Orlando orthodontic care needs to be narrowed down. But an experienced marketing agency knows that, for example, your audience is really looking for an article about choosing the best family orthodontist in Orlando – something that helps them solve their problems.

Predictable: Quarterly Email Campaigns

Email campaigns are indispensable because they empower you to build relationships one message at a time over weeks or even months. That’s especially helpful in industries like real estate, where a long time might elapse before a prospect is ready to become a lead.

Done right, however, email marketing can have the highest ROI of any digital marketing technique. It costs only dollars a month, yet it allows you to control the tempo of business by deciding when to provide special offers. Any email could entice someone back onto your website, so be sure you have a campaign ready each quarter.

Unexpected: Emotional Storytelling via Video Campaigns

By definition, you’ll do less “unexpected” marketing – and that’s part of what makes it so effective.

Unexpected marketing complements the predictable nature of your core strategy. It is usually executed on a seasonal basis, so your planning process can have some rhythm. But that doesn’t mean it’s limited to simple holiday sales. With unexpected marketing, you can create emotional, even vulnerable moments.

One of the best ways to do it is through video storytelling. When it comes to emotional connections, it truly is the next best thing to being there. A marketing agency can provide all the technology, equipment, training, and even scriptwriting for you to tell your story, but you are still the biggest part of that story.

Unexpected: Vulnerable Topics on Your Blog

There’s a reason why people almost universally trust customer reviews more than they trust what a brand says.

By and large, people are used to the idea companies will only cherry-pick the most flattering things to say about their own work. After a while, that can sound like blowing smoke. When you shake up expectations, addressing tough topics like failures and mistakes, you look like an authentic group of people, not just a brand.

Unexpected: Personal Letters (with No Catch)

Celebrating the big milestones and the little moments is part of what makes a friendship real. Unfortunately, all too many marketers start off on the right foot and then ruin it with an upsell. One thing we’ve noticed is that a postcard or personal letter with no marketing goal – one that just says “thanks” – is worth more than a slick ad.

The right marketing agency team for you should be experts in the predictable while providing creativity and clear communication to help you think through the unexpected. Contact New York Ave to get started today.