Last week, Kanye broke the record for the highest-grossing US tour, not based on ticket sales, but “based on merchandise alone.”* 

It’s not just Kanye breaking records, but merch is breaking records too.

Of course, it is Kanye, and hardly another artist can pull off that feat, but still, everywhere we turn, merch is having a moment. A recent Forbes article published under the title, “If You Notice Branded Merch Everywhere, You Are Not Alone – Here Is Why,” cited many reasons why modern culture has embraced our medium, and some of you already know about our interview with Adam Bluestein, author of “How Supreme-Style Merch Drops Took Over Corporate America.” 

Given the street-cred of branded merch, there has never been a better time to be in the business. Our category, long a second-cousin to other forms of advertising, has sky-rocketed past other forms of advertising when it comes to acceptance, celebration, identity, and reform.

But as you survey the large percentage of marketing in our industry, we’re not quite encapsulating the magic of the merch moment happening all around us culturally. It seems (on average) we’re not connecting the wonder that is happening with merch in culture with the magic we’re creating on behalf of clients. 

It’s as if the world sees merch as this incredibly inspirational experience but we still see ourselves largely as sourcing agents. The average distributor’s website is littered with randomized products, search engines that make the customer do the work, and messaging that reflects more an identity crisis than a UVP.

And mostly, there’s an obvious lack of inspirational stories powered by merch. This is ironic, given that within every distributor’s book of business resides dozens (if not hundreds) of fascinating stories worth sharing. (Think of all the fundraising merch responsible for raising millions, the employee kits shipped across the world in 2020 that united, bonded, and inspired employees everywhere, just to name a few examples).

In our intro to this series “Marketing is the New Sales” we shared the shift that has occurred with B2B buyers that reflects an almost exclusive embrace of digital marketing as a front line for sales. Couple that with the cultural zeitgeist involving merch and the highly visible street cred, our marketing should both reflect the magic of the moment and arrest the attention of buyers. 

But before we get into the mechanics of how to build a marketing engine that drives sales, we must first embrace the most basic part of the sales funnel, including two vital laws of attraction.

FIRST AND FOREMOST: BE ALLURING

Marketing, when done right, is a lead-gen magnet. Note that word: magnet. Good marketing pulls you in.

But pause and think with me for a minute: When a first-time visitor hits your website, (your new front door), what do they feel? What do you evoke?

Forget what you do, forget even what you want them to do for a moment, that’s like skipping essential ingredients in a multi-part recipe, you can’t just skip to the cooking part or the eating part without first whetting the appetite. 

Lee Fine with Juice Marketing says often, “we eat with our eyes first.” Our business is first and foremost a visual and emotional medium. It’s driven by the senses. It stands to reason then that our marketing should also be a highly visual and emotional experience. 

The classic lead-gen funnel is revealed in the acronym AIDA: awareness, interest, desire, action. Forrester claims the funnel is no longer a funnel but a waterfall. Hubspot simplifies the sales/marketing funnel into three steps: attract, engage, delight. 

Regardless of how you classify the breakdown of each level, at the very top of every example is the same: awareness, attraction, and interest. Or what I prefer to call by its more evocative cousins: intrigue, curiosity, and allure. 

Let’s leave the boring world of business nomenclature for a moment and think about prospecting like dating, and think of dating through the lens of the sales funnel (attract, engage, delight). Attraction is firstly, unequivocally, sight-driven. Something about someone catches your eye. Which then piques your interest. Which ultimately fires your curiosity. 

And it’s this insatiable curiosity that drives you: Who is this person? Where did they come from? What do they do? Where do they live? It’s basic, innate sense perception, and it makes us dig deeper. 

Do visitors to your website find you alluring? Recent examples of brands in our industry that are alluring are Advoc8 and TwelveNYC. And outside of our industry: Velocity and Wildish & Co. 

Is your marketing, first and foremost, and in the language of dating culture, desirable and attractive?

*Billboard Magazine

To read more, click here.

Bobby Lehew is the chief content officer at commonsku, this article is courtesy of commonsku, the work-from-anywhere platform that powers your connected workflow enabling you to process more orders and dramatically grow your sales. To learn more visit commonsku.com.