☕ The Art of Surprise and Delight (And What I Learned About Marketing from Iced Coffee)
Executing a surprise and delight campaign may be one of the most memorable engagements that you'll ever run
Hi! 👋
In The B2B Bite, I break down the most effective strategies and tactics to help B2B companies do better marketing.
Sent every Monday AM. Best enjoyed with coffee.
1,015 or so days ago, I was blessed with the most gorgeous little cherub of a human being in the form of my daughter.
It was a hard, beautiful, stressful, magnificent day. Just as you'd expect when you become utterly and completely responsible for the welfare of another human being for the first time.
She came at around 6am in the morning and we'd not eaten since lunchtime the previous day. After getting some sustenance into my wife - an absolute warrior of a woman - I popped to a local shop to get something to drink.
And I picked up an iced coffee. A Jimmy's Iced Coffee, to be precise.
Jimmy's is a local brand to me. Founded in my hometown in 2010, it's now stocked on the shelves of major UK supermarkets such as Waitrose, Sainsbury's and M&S.
Getting back to my new family unit and taking a quick swig of Mocha-laden goodness, I decided to pay my appreciation for the energy boost in the form of an Instagram Story.
And within a few minutes had this exchange with Jimmy.
Fast-forward a few days, I found myself the proud owner of a dozen or so iced coffee's, a bunch of stickers and a coaster I use to this day.
Is this example of a brand engaging with a customer experiencing a major life moment through social media unique? No. But it can teach an important lesson in the art of surprise and delight.
For the cost of a few pounds, Jimmy's cemented an already pretty strong brand affinity I hold with the brand. Now it's my go-to. My Anakin-Skywalker-to-the-Jedi-prophecy chosen one.
B2B brands can learn from this. Ask yourself the question - where is there an opportunity to create an experience my customers wouldn't expect?
Maybe it's through sending a gift or treat, like this example from Klaviyo who sent cookies to bunch of their clients?
Or what about hosting an exclusive, free event that offers access to a public personality, unique experience or something else it's impossible to get elsewhere?
It could be as simple as sending a note of congratulations when the occasion calls for it, such as when the organisation secures a new funding round or something similar.
Get creative. Executing a surprise and delight campaign may be one of the most memorable engagements (for you and and your customers) that you'll ever run.
Mixing it up this week with five must-follows on Twitter for you B2B marketers. Check them out!
@brendanmcadams technically works in enterprise sales, but his philosophy towards winning the trust of clients is very aligned with my own.
@AndraZaharia is a must-follow if you're at all interested in the intersection of content marketing + cybersecurity.
@tombangay recently joined me on an episode of my podcast. I learned so much from him on bootstrapping a B2B community to its first couple hundred users.
@bethanvincent has been building a great consultancy for start-up B2B brands over the last few months. We've also started hosting a weekly Twitter Space!
@taylorlagace is applying DTC methodologies around influencer marketing to B2B and it's fascinating to hear where he thinks the opportunities lie.
And that's it! See you next week.