This weekend I had the good fortune to spend some time with Elliot Sloan, lead singer of Blessid Union of Souls at a Train concert.
I often feel so focused on the day-to-day opportunities and challenges of online marketing that I fear losing perspective on traditional marketing; this experience was a refreshing view of event marketing, PR, and networking, as well as being a reminder of the importance of good relationships and the similarly between offline and online.In Arizona, west of Phoenix, beyond Litchfield for those of you that know the area, a remarkable new community builds resident loyalty and word of mouth marketing through their passion for their residents. A planned community, in which the developer has considered every aesthetic aspect of the township, Verrado is a unique neighborhood with a Main Street, lush parks, and homes built to return residents to the small town mentality of yesteryear. Saturday night, Verrado put forth a remarkable event with its annual Founder’s Day party at which local band Shiner opened for Train (who stole the night, with Aerosmith’s Dream On) to a crowd of 3000+ local families, investors, and potential new home buyers. Elliot Sloan and a few younger local residents joined Pat Monahan on stage brining Verrado a unique, personal experience.
The event delivered on what we strive to accomplish with our websites and customer touchpoints. Personalization is a goal of each business we run for the very reason Train delivered this for Verrado, customers (residents) feel a part of the experience, loyalty grows, and your audience brags (Yes, admittedly as I’m doing now for them).
A wonderful Natural Search analogy even comes to mind in that your page rank is a factor of how many quality peers hold you in high esteem. As the night wore on our motley crew left the concert falling on a local Karaoke spot. Elliot stepped up to the call and blew the night away with an Elton John hit. I too found the courage to warble for the audience and assure you, in any other environment, would have been pelted with fruit though, with good friends, and a proven recording artist by my side, I dare say the audience felt I was a hit. I assure you, that support of your website from quality peers is more valuable than anything else you can do.
My hat is off to Elizabeth, Todd, and the folks at Verrado, thanks to Elliot and friends for joining us, and my gratitude to Train for a great show which has giving me perspective of our lives online.