In today’s hyper-connected world, it’s easy for businesses to default to pouring all of their resources into online marketing. While there’s no doubt that digital marketing is crucial to surviving in today’s business climate, people often forget the effectiveness of face-to-face, guerilla marketing tactics.
Adding street teams to your marketing strategy can be one of the most effective tactics for building brand awareness and generating leads. On the other hand, it can also be a huge waste of time, money, and resources if it isn’t done correctly.
Read on as we tell you everything you need to know about how to execute street marketing correctly so you can bring more customers to your business.
What Is Street Team Marketing?
Street team marketing is a form of experiential marketing where your business can engage with customers in a public setting face-to-face.
Depending on your business, niche, industry, and location, the setting can vary widely. You can set your team up at big events such as music festivals, farmer’s markets, outside sporting events, or even just on busy streets on a sunny day.
Goals also vary depending on your company’s situation. Some examples of street marketing goals can include:
- Handing out informational flyers, coupons, and deals to customers
- Sampling new products
- Getting signatures for a political campaign
- Generating leads for a new app
- Building brand strength through the halo effect
If executed correctly, you can get great results from a well-planned street marketing event.
How Do I Set Up Street Teams For a Marketing Campaign?
It’s important to note that you can’t just send a group of people to a random location and expect to get great results. This will probably end up with a discouraged team wasting several hours (and dollars) with nothing to show for it.
Proper planning is crucial to running a street marketing campaign. Here are some important steps to planning out your event.
Define Your Goals
Your clients will most likely have several goals in mind (besides brand awareness) when they start planning their street team campaign. It’s important to have open communication and discuss these goals with them to manage their expectations.
Some questions to keep in mind when discussing with clients can include the following:
- What does “success” look like at the end of the day?
- How can we measure that success?
- How many downloads, samples, sign-ups, or signatures should be targeted per hour?
- How many customers should we aim to engage?
Locking in a clear goal and sharing that with everyone involved will help encourage the team to work together towards that goal.
Organize and Distribute Marketing Materials
No matter what you’re handing out — flyers, t-shirts, samples, or products — make sure you plan far enough so that each street team manager gets the materials on time. It is essential that every level of the campaign is well-organized to keep a cohesive brand experience.
Choosing Street Team Locations
Finding the right location is crucial to a successful street team campaign. You should have a deep understanding of the target market, and use that knowledge to target the best possible locations to reach the most people.
It’s important to note that the more specific you make your targeting, the better results will follow. If you attempt to target “everybody,” you’ll likely have few conversions compared to if you target a specific group of people.
Where does your target market hang out? Here are some examples:
- Business workers going on their lunch break at the local plaza
- People on their commute to the subway station
- Teenagers to twenty-year-olds at music festivals
- Young parents at farmer’s markets
Don’t skimp on the amount of research for this step; it’s vital to hitting your target goals.
Permits and Permissions
Don’t forget to consider the rules for the location you are going to market at. Think about how long it will take to set up in that location. Make sure you have all the proper permits for the location. If you risk getting kicked out of the area, it might not be worth the reward.
Make sure to do thorough research on where you’re allowed to go or you might end up wasting valuable time and resources.
Recruiting Brand Ambassadors
Make sure to plan for how much staff you’ll need for your event from setup to teardown. Consider how long it will take to train staff and teach them about the area. The more you do your homework on what is necessary, the better your staff will perform.
If you need to, think about hiring event staffing to help with the event. This can ensure that you have as many people as you need to hit your goals. If you do this, make sure to set aside an adequate amount of time to train them on the product, whether it’s a simple product giveaway or a technology download.
Advanced Marketing Strategy for Street Teams
Depending on your product, niche, and location, there are several different unique marketing ideas that you can take advantage of to get your message across. Some examples include the following:
Branded vehicles: Put your brand on bicycles, three-wheel bicycles, are pedicabs to cover large areas and catch people’s attention on the street.
Walking billboards: You can create walking advertisements by putting billboards on your brand ambassador. These are great for attracting attention from curious onlookers.
Take advantage of large events: Research what big events are going on in your area and take advantage of them. Whether it’s outside conventional halls, festival gates, or hotels, it can be an easy way to access large amounts of people.
Lead generation/social media: Offer incentives like discounts, free trials, or free products in exchange for email addresses to build leads on the fly. You can also connect with people by doing “hashtag” or “mention” campaigns in exchange for free products to connect with them on social media.
Start Bringing in More Customers
Organizing street teams to interact with your potential customers face-to-face is not only a great way to build brand awareness and generate leads, but it’s a unique way to stand out from other boring, generic marketing campaigns that fall flat.
If you’re ready to start engaging your customers with top-tier event marketing, make sure to reach out to Auctus Agency today. We’ll create an experiential marketing campaign for your customers that they’ll never forget!
