The fan-driven marketing flywheel

Marketing Powerups #71: Mariya Delano, Founder of Kalyna Marketing, shares her fan-based marketing flywheel.

Ramli John

Jan 28, 2024

Hello, and welcome to Marketing Powerups! 👋🏽

Today's powerups include:

How Coca-Cola uses AI in its marketing.
Ahref’s 6-step guide to B2B content marketing.
Mariya Delano’s fan-based marketing flywheel.

Ready? Let's go! ⭐️

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⭐️ Mariya Delano's fan-driven marketing flywheel

Marketing teams often focus all their energy on acquiring new customers so that they miss out on a big opportunity—harnessing the power of their product's fans.

Today, Mariya Delano, Founder of Kalyna Marketing, shares her fan-driven marketing flywheel.

1. Make compelling content.

The first step is putting effort into creating content that truly resonates emotionally with your target audience. Think carefully about what will pique their interest and make them feel more connected to your brand. Share content that reveals more of your brand's personality to hook potential superfans.

"Creating compelling content is where to start when you doesn't have an audience or doesn't have fans. It's compelling insofar as it's emotional. Often people tend to find me through my newsletter Attention Deficit Marketing Disorder, or through some of my LinkedIn posts, and in all of those cases, people tend to come to me through very long pieces."

2. Locate vocal fans.

Keep a close eye on who organically engages with your content, especially those who seem truly passionate and compelled by your message. These vocal fans provide a starting point to build real relationships and advocacy. Seek them out through comments, shares, mentions, and any other signals of interest.

"Then there was finding the fans because they found that tweet that I made. I don't even remember how they found me. I had, like, maybe 30 followers at the time. I didn't know what I was doing. And yet Rand, with half a million followers, is there being like, can I feature you on our website?"

3. Interact with fans.

When fans actively reach out to you with feedback, questions, or to share their story, always make an effort to respond respectfully. Particularly nurture those who show extra passion and enthusiasm. This makes devoted followers feel valued, understood, and bonded to your brand as more than just a customer.

"It ruins that moment of connection. Somebody felt so much drive to reach out to me and tell me something because they thought it was important to try to tell it to me. I feel like it would be slapping them in the face if I ignored them. I prioritize people who clearly seem to be the most emotionally invested, who seem to have the most meaning attached to their message."

4. Promote fans.

Look for organic opportunities to showcase your most engaged fans to your whole audience. Tag or feature them in content, promote their work to your followers, collaborate on projects together. Promoting your vocal advocates publicly strengthens your relationship exponentially and builds a community.

"I shout people out, I tag them in other people's comment sections. I referred them to other people. I often connect people to each other. I'm trying to do more collaborations and featuring people. Search engine land has been a very good way, actually for me to help people out and to build these relationships because I can quote them."

5. Learn from fan feedback.

Actively listen and pay close attention to feedback from fans about your brand, products, content and messaging. Whenever possible, put constructive suggestions into action and then close the loop by letting those contributors know their impact. This shows fans they shape your business, beyond just purchasing.

"It's listening and actually implementing it sometimes. And when I do, I often try to thank people directly. I've implemented it. Here it is. Here's what I did. Thank you so much. So they feel heard, they feel listened to, they feel cared about."

Free powerups cheatsheet 🔖

I’ve created a powerups cheatsheet exclusively for Marketing Powerups subscribers to apply Mariya Delano shares her fan-based marketing strategy..

→ Download and make a copy of it here (a direct link with no email required).

Mariya further explains her fan-based marketing strategy in the latest Marketing Powerups episode.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcast and Spotify now, or watch it on YouTube.

✨ Mini powerups

Fun-sized tools, links, and blurbs to boost your marketing.

📝 Ahref’s 6-step guide to B2B content marketing (guide):

Ryan Law, Director of Content Marketing at Ahrefs and former CMO at Animalz, interviewed content leaders from 3 top B2B companies to create this guide to B2B content marketing.

🤖 6 ways Coca-Cola uses generative AI for marketing (article):

Throughout 2023, Coca-Cola has embraced generative AI technology from OpenAI and Stable Diffusion in its marketing. Kriti Hines from the Search Engine Journal shares 6 ways they’ve used AI in their marketing.

🔥 A simple 5-step storytelling guide (LinkedIn post):

I love this infographic that shows 5 simple steps to improve the storytelling in your marketing. It can be applied to LinkedIn posts, blog content, video scripts, ads, and more.

That’s all for now, friends!

Have a powered-up day,