Tribal Seduction

Seeing that this week was kicked off with Veterans Day here in the U.S., I thought it would be timely to share a quick New Media Marketing example where over $4.2 million dollars was raised for military families in 7-days! It is a good example of how New Media combined with Tribal Seduction strategies work with any size Tribe.

Rush Limbaugh was the catalyst for this big charity drive for the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. (An organization dedicated to helping the children of Marines or Federal law enforcement personnel who lost their lives while serving our country.)

Now… love him or hate him — no one can deny that a loyal Tribe of 22-million weekly listeners is pretty solid evidence that Rush is a master at playing the Tribal Seduction game.

I’m a big proponent of modeling success to cut the learning curve. I’m impatient and I don’t like to work any harder than I have to. So I’m always looking for real-life examples to get where I want faster and with fewer mistakes. I don’t care what side of the political isle, industry, business, or obscure niche I find an example.

In the case of this charity fund raiser case, Rush developed a New Media Marketing strategy that you can learn from and model, no matter what the size of your Tribe.

Extensive details leading up to this 7-day campaign aren’t necessary, but I’ll add some of the most surprising to the story as we go along.

So let’s get rolling. You with me?

Record breaking charity event — New Media powered…

Five channels were used to make this game plan work. One “traditional” channel, and four New Media channels.

The traditional:

• Radio

The New Media channels:

• Podcasts
• Online Video (YouTube)
• eBay
• Blogs

What’s encouraging for small business owners and entrepreneurs about this example? It’s that mainstream, traditional media outlets had nothing to do with the success of the effort.

Getting the word out was a grassroots effort. It spread virally when the Tribe (and those sympathetic to the Tribe’s cause,) began using New Media channels like blogs along with additional podcasts and online videos.

The result — 201,000 pages created in one week around a unique keyword developed for this campaign. You can see this awesome display of the power of New Media power in the actual search results on Google.

Yes, yes. I know. You might be thinking, “Yeah, but Rush has a Tribe of 22-million people. That won’t work for me.”

Am I telling you that you can go out and make millions of dollars in 7-days? No way! That would be a load of BS. ;-P

What I am saying though, is these New Media channels work in proportion to the size of your Tribe. They work every time you use them. Yet, you do need to be using them in a strategic way.

Here’s what I mean…

Tribal Seduction in action

Technology only goes so far. It’s the publicity and marketing strategy of this 7-day campaign that really yielded the results. Makes sense, right?

There were a number of Tribal Seduction principles employed to get the word out, raise awareness and raise the record-shattering money in 7-days. But three really jump to the forefront.

Follow along with me here for three minutes and you’ll see all three principles in action:

1. You must know your Primal Key

Since I kept background details to a minimum, you may be wondering what was actually auctioned off on eBay.

It was a letter. Sure it had some liberal U.S. Senators signatures on it. But it was still just a few pieces of paper. Yet those few pages of paper yielded $2.1 million dollars!

Obviously no paper is worth that much money. So why was so much money raised both within the auction bidding and directly in donations to the charity?

It is the “e” from the Tribal Seduction formula DAVeK — emotion!

The value people assign to a purchase is determined by the emotion they attach to it. The sooner you realize that people assign monetary value based on emotion, the sooner you’ll unlock the full profit potential of your business. It’s not about the product itself.

I don’t care if you provide personal services, sell your own products, or promote the products of others — you had better get your Tribe emotionally connected with something bigger than any product or service.

In Tribal Seduction this is your “Primal Key.”

Your Primal Key should be something the Tribe can bond together over. People can’t emotionally bond with a product. But they can bond with you and each other when they are emotionally vested in the mission or movement surrounding an object, product, or service.

In this example, Rush did it with a letter. He triggered emotions of patriotism and honor for our fallen heroes.

Apple did it with the iPod. Their Primal Key is a movement built around freedom and flexibility.

What is your Primal Key?

Answer that and you’ll unlock your full Tribal Seduction power.

2. Be true to your personal brand to gather a huge Tribe of Loyals

Rush never pulls any punches. He speaks from the heart and says what his audience is already thinking. He gives voice to their thoughts, concerns, and ideas.

Rush doesn’t care what the “haters” say. Only what the Loyals have to say. It’s like I’ve said for years; if your message is not strong enough to turn some people off, it’ll never be strong enough to turn anybody on.

You need to be just as true to your style, your beliefs, and the language of your Tribe. These are the things that build your personal brand and allow you to connect on an emotional level with your Loyals. And emotional bonding is one of the most critical Tribal Seduction factors you can have.

3. Throw yourself fully in the game to get your Tribe surging behind you

Rush put his money where his mouth was. He pledged to match the final bid on eBay with his own money. The final bid was $2,100,100.00. Rush’s matching of that gave the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation over $4.2-million.

By throwing himself fully in the game, it encouraged others who could not afford to get in on the eBay bidding to take action on their own. They donated directly to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. This helped raise hundreds of thousands in additional donations.

Again this is a solid principle. It’s got nothing to do with the size of your Tribe.

Deb and I saw this in action back in September of 2005 after hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi. We issued a $1,000 matching challenge and our Tribe of just a couple hundred Loyals, and they responded to raise over $13,700 in donations in 48-hours.

Don’t let the size of your Tribe stop you from playing full out.

Get in the game!

So what’s your Primal Key? Is your personal brand defined? Are you willing to throw yourself fully into the game?

Let’s hear what you’ve got!

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