Marketing Genius is a series created by BuzzFarmers to give virtual high fives to anyone who develops a unique (and brilliant) marketing idea worth talking about.
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re unabashed business blog watchers here. Our idea of fun, whether at the office or in the privacy of our own homes – during our leisure time, no less – is checking out the latest leaps and bounds in creative content marketing.
That’s why we were doing back flips a few weeks ago after reading Mixer Direct Marketing Director Daniel Loeschen’s post on Wistia’s Community board. The full-service video hosting and analytics company counts us as a happy client, as they do Mixer Direct. With Wistia’s imprimatur, we knew Loeschen’s message from Louisville would be worth checking out, and we were richly rewarded.
“After trying an infographic about industrial mixing, videos about processing, and tweeting about motor horsepower, we quickly learned that people don’t care about it,” Loeschen notes. “How am I supposed to do content marketing for industrial mixing equipment in an industry that will never be popular unless something blows up or someone falls in a tank and gets chopped up?”
Funny, perceptive, and inspiring, the post goes on to discuss how Mixer Direct overcomes a challenging product to promote by asking their customers to participate in creative content marketing via video series. It’s not the first time this strategy has been employed, but the combination of quality, commitment, and effectiveness in Mixer Direct’s videos is rare indeed.
“We found out that if want to showcase what we can do as a company we need to show what our customers are doing and attach our name to it,” Loeschen writes.
“For instance, we have built mixing equipment for the National Algae Association who discovered that if they agitate their water, their algae can get the nutrients faster thus producing a higher yield, they then take that algae and somehow process it into useable fuel.”
And there are many more creative uses where that came from.
Loeschen’s approach allows Mixer Direct to unfold their brand narrative through the voices of those who know their products best.
This exceeds standard testimonials and encourages customers to participate well beyond their purchase. If Flange Mount Mixers, Economy Tote Brackets, and Hydrofoil Impellers don’t make for fascinating material, the stories behind the businesses who buy them definitely do. We’re talking legendary barbecue joints, modernized moonshiners, and chia seed growers here. Goldmine stuff, guys.
Mixer Direct’s Creative Content Marketing Genius
Here’s Mixer Direct’s creative content marketing genius as told through their blog videos and Loeschen’s own words:
Mixer Direct supplies equipment to the likes of US Chia Seeds, 11 Wells Distillery, Hillbilly Stills, The Wishmaker House Bed and Breakfast, and Tops BBQ, among many others, while their blog now spotlights that equipment in action – and gives those customers more value in the way of earned media for their own marketing efforts.
After discovering that people in social media don’t care much about industrial mixing equipment, there had to be a way to gin up some interest, right?
[blockquote who=”” cite=”” align=”left”]”So if I was going to keep my job and grow this company I had to come up with a new strategy. I knew there had to be something shareable and interesting about what we do here. On a whim one day I started looking through our long customer list and I quickly learned that we have a plethora of content if we just reach out to our customers.”[/blockquote]
“We decided to contact customers we were interested in and asking if we could visit them and make a video telling their story, what they do, and how they are using our equipment,” Loeschen adds.
[blockquote who=”” cite=”” align=”left”]”It has been a huge success and not only are those videos shareable and really helping jump start our social media growth but they are also being embedded on those customers websites, which means links, which means rankings, which ultimately means sales. Changing our content marketing strategy to really full on video strategy has increased our organic traffic, helped us bridge the gap between a very technical and uninteresting industry to the general public. Our organic traffic, quote volume, and conversions have increased month over month for the last 6 months.”[/blockquote]
“After going through all that I am a firm believer that in this age of online marketing, content marketing can work for any industry, no matter how ‘lame’ it might seem. It takes some creativity and imagination to find what works. Typical content marketing and inundating the internet with infographics might not always be the answer.”
We dig it. We’re believers. In fact, we like to think BuzzFarmers practices a little creative content marketing of our own. Do you like Mixer Direct’s work as much as we do? What about barbecue and booze? Let us know in the comments!
