You want people talking about your brand – and what you REALLY want is for them to sound excited when they do!  Excitement for your brand and your offerings is the foundation for hooking customers and generating referrals, and you can build it by creating a memorable experience with your brand.  But how do you do that?  Let’s talk about 3 elements of creating a memorable brand experience to hook customers.

When you are marketing a business, it is pivotal that you have a clear message and communicate it equally clearly.  Those who have taken workshops with me on referral marketing know why it is so important to craft your controlled message and repeat it until people have it on loop in their brains.  (Read here for why this repetition is so important in your marketing).  This is a technical way to cut through the clutter in their minds and make sure they have the right understanding of what you can do for them.

But keeping them interested is the way to get them to stick with you in the delivery of your message.  Consistency of message doesn’t mean you have to be boring.  Creating a brand experience can be a captivating way to hook them in.

Consistency of message doesn't mean you have to be boring. #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smb #entrepreneur #marketing Share on X

Have you ever had a teacher that told you to “show, don’t tell” in response to an essay or a paper?  It’s the same idea. And what your teacher didn’t want to say was, “I’m bored.”

You want your audience to be crystal clear on your brand’s message.  But you get bonus points if you can give them a story to share along with your message.  That story comes from their experience with your brand.

There are many elements that could go into creating a memorable brand experience.  Let’s start with three!

Tone

First of all, before you start investing in any fancy bells and whistles, tone can do the trick all by itself.  Saying the right words is one thing.  Saying them uniquely is another.  Think about someone you know who is a great storyteller.  Or someone whose content you love to follow.  They are saying words that wouldn’t matter nearly as much if they came from someone else.  It is the way they deliver it that makes you keep thinking about it and repeating it to others.  I live in Seattle, and in Pike Place Market there is a bookstore on one of the lower levels that is always occupied by the same employee.  He speaks in a sing-song voice, has an encyclopedic knowledge of the content and location of every book, and remembers people.  Visitors come back just to see him.  It’s not about the bookstore.  It’s about the guy with the sing-song voice and the photographic memory who really listened to you.

Co-creation

A great way to get people excited about your brand is to have them co-create something with you.  This works because they aren’t sharing your story, but their own.  They may be part of a group of many people who are co-creating, and in that case there is even extra validation that it’s worth taking part.  There is a burger shop near me that used to have a haiku wall.  They had a special piece of paper they would give out to people who wanted to write a burger-related haiku while they waited.  They put all the haikus on display for other people to read while they waited.  In the end, everyone who wrote the haiku had created not only their own haiku, but an art display of sorts.  And the conversation they might have with friends later would encourage friends to go to that awesome burger joint to find the haiku on the wall.

Interaction

If you don’t have a way to co-create a brand experience and build something with your audience, you might have a way for them to interact with the thing you built.   Interaction creates interest, excitement, curiosity, creativity, challenge, or any number of other emotional responses to enhance your message.  It could be a walking tour or a scavenger hunt.  It could be taking part in a tradition.  To make this work, you want to engage the senses in some way.  Looking for the Hidden Mickeys at DisneyWorld adds a totally different layer to the experience of being there.  Fulfilling the quest becomes a story of its own, and you can’t tell the story without talking about DisneyWorld.  You might even have looked up DisneyWorld because I just mentioned it.  And now you might want to go and find them!

With all of these elements, there is a theme.  Putting your brand on showcase is a way to keep people excited about it.

Putting your brand on showcase is a way to keep people excited about it. #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smb #marketing Share on X

So, if you feel secure in the clear, concise message that you need to get across to your audience, start looking for ways to add texture and interest.  This second layer is what will keep customers coming back.  Think about how tone, co-creation, and interaction could work with your brand so you can create a memorable brand experience.

If you were thinking about event marketing (hosting some sort of event as a means of creating a brand experience), I recommend you check out this tip for some insight on what that process might look like for you!