The "Wet Towel" marketing strategy 💧

What's up newsletter fam,

Happy Wednesday! I hope you're already CRUSHING it this week.

Today, I want to share a story about a BOLD move I made with Hush during the pandemic…

And how it ties into my sales funnel and branding philosophy. 

But first, let me ask you something…

Have you ever wrung a wet towel? 

You twist and squeeze, and after a while, it feels like you can’t get another drop out.

This is exactly how I see many businesses approaching their sales funnel…

They try to get as many sales as they can, squeezing the bottom of the towel harder and harder…

Focusing on new marketing tricks, unique ads, and 50% off discounts…

Thinking that's the key to getting more sales. 

When instead, they need to keep soaking the top of the towel with water (branding)... 

That way it's always easy to wring out results from your marketing efforts…

And it's exactly what we did with Hush.

In the midst of the pandemic, when every NHL arena was a GHOST TOWN…

I got a call from the Montreal Canadiens offering me a sponsorship deal…

They were DEAD LAST in the league, but I jumped on the opportunity.

Why? 

Because I knew that investing in our brand, even when it seemed CRAZY, would pay off big time in the long run.

We dropped $150K to plaster "Hush" all over those empty seats…

And guess what? 

The Canadiens ended up making it to the FINALS that year…

And every time the puck flew past Carey Price, we saw our traffic SPIKE. 

It was that effective!

But we didn't stop there…

We wrapped streetcars to look like they were draped in our blankets…

We took over bus stops…

Billboards…

TV commercials…

Social media…

We went ALL-IN on building the Hush brand. 

All of a sudden, our other marketing efforts started OVERPERFORMING.

My ad team was CRUSHING it on metrics like CPA and CPM. 

Everyone on the team was EXCITED and their lives were a whole lot easier.

That's when I knew our branding efforts were paying off!

We trusted the process…

Kept pouring that water on top, even when it felt like we were throwing money into a void. 

Eventually, our investment in branding made every other part of our marketing machine more effective, from email to web to partnerships…

And, our top-of-funnel efforts kept the customers flowing, even as our competitors multiplied from 3 to over 73,000. 

But with all that being said you need to remember that building your brand takes time…

And most people don't have the patience to do it.

Because on day one NOBODY cares about your brand…

On day 100 still NOBODY cares about your brand…

But on day 5,000 EVERYTHING you invest in your brand pays off.

You cannot get tunnel vision when it comes to marketing metrics…

Instead, keep an eye on the bigger picture of your overall marketing efforts…

Which are working together to build your brand and drive growth.

Because without a brand, your top of funnel will be WEAK…

And with a weak top of funnel, you won't see any results at your bottom of funnel.

So, if you find yourself stuck wringing out a nearly-dry towel, take a step back and ask yourself: are you investing enough in your brand? 

Are you keeping that top-of-funnel soaked, or are you just trying to squeeze out a few more drops from the bottom?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. 

What are you doing to build your brand right now? 

What's working, and what's not? Hit reply and let me know – I read every message.

Keep soaking that towel.

- Aaron <3

P.S.

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P.P.S.

Have questions about building your brand?

Let's work together so your top-of-funnel is soaked with leads and your bottom-of-funnel is flowing with conversions. 

Get 1:1 coaching here!