HOW TO ENGAGE AND
INFLUENCE
YOUR NEXT NEW CLIENTS
If you just go through the motions with technology and regard its role in your business as a necessary evil rather than enabler , you ’ ll miss out on huge opportunities for growth , writes tech strategist Sally Illingworth .
I n 2014 sales in our pizza restaurant were slow and it was becoming increasingly difficult to get people into the store , despite the high volume of menus we were distributing via maildrop every week . We needed to get creative , so I decided to get complimentary pizza vouchers designed and printed that were disguised as parking fines . On the first night of the promotion , I asked the pizza makers to make me a peri peri chicken pizza . When it was ready I walked to the nearby supermarket with the pizza and a handful of ‘ parking fines ’ that entitled each recipient to a complimentary medium pizza when they purchased a large one . After posting around 30 ‘ fines ’ on car windscreens and handing out pizza samples , I was asked to leave by security ...
The good news : sales rose temporarily due to voucher redemptions . The bad news : two weeks later we were back at square one . Sure , a few more local people knew about the brand , but they likely forgot about us shortly after .
This challenge for traditional bricks and mortar outlets has not disappeared . The challenge of becoming , and remaining , top of mind is increasingly difficult . Traditional marketing tactics support the ‘ becoming ’ part of being top of mind , but seldom do they support the ‘ remaining ’ part of the equation - unless you give someone a flyer everyday ( which is not ordinarily recommended in the world of marketing and margins ).
A better way to stay top of mind
In 2018 I became fascinated by content on social media platforms . In particular , I was intrigued by how video could be used to help you become top of mind - and stay there for at least a couple of days as it continues to populate a newsfeed . I decided to start recording short videos on my phone for the LinkedIn platform to experiment with the goal of understanding how to emotionally engage an audience online .
Before long , I was garnering hundreds of thousands of views on my videos and thousands of reactions ! My follower count skyrocketed and I began to attract commercial and career opportunities as a result . I realised that technology advancements have transformed the way we communicate and therefore the ways in which we can , and should , establish , develop and leverage influence .
What struck me most was the fact that it was costing me nothing but time and energy . No design costs , no lengthy corporate processes , no cost per unit with Australia Post - nothing . And further , I was tapping into global audiences . I was effectively building raving fans across the globe .
At the time , I was still involved with the pizza franchise ( at a corporate level and as a franchisee ), so I found myself being contacted via the platform about opportunities and offers relating to franchising , procurement , catering and employment . Colleagues started to joke about how my approach to communication for
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