In this episode, I share one of our most effective marketing tactics for Poshmark that I found purely by accident. More at www.bemovingforward.com.
Moving Forward is also available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.
Part 1: “Cobra Kai” Sweeps the Tweet
If you’ve been following me on LinkedIn or Twitter, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of the show Cobra Kai, a 30+ year sequel to the 1984 classic film, The Karate Kid. If you haven’t seen the show yet, go do that now. It’s on YouTube Premium and you watch the first two episodes without signing-up and can get a free trial to binge the entire show. Or better yet, wait till April 24th.
Not only am I a fan of Cobra Kai but I follow the show, its creators and many of the actors on social media. Last week, the official Cobra Kai social accounts announced an event on Twitter.
I’ve been on Twitter on and off for several years. At first, I didn’t really get it. It wasn’t until I had Winnie Sun on my podcast and she invited me to join her weekly tweet chat community that I started to engage and connect with people. Since then, I’ve been utilizing Twitter as a network, branding and outreach platform.
So, when Cobra Kai announced that it was going to hold a special Twitter event, I was excited to jump in. Similar to the Winnie Sun tweet chat, the during the scheduled time, The Cobra Kai twitter account invited people to join in the conversation by following #cobrakai.
The event ended up being a trivia tournament with just four questions. The Cobra Kai twitter account would award the first one to answer a question correctly with a portion of a larger graphic (which the public could see as well). At the end of the tweet session, all four pieces would reveal a poster along with the date for the season 2 premiere.
The first question came at 1 pm ET. I was at Panera (my temp office these days) and had several windows open, multi-tasking. The first question the Cobra Kai Twitter account threw out was a softball question: what year did Daniel and Johnny have their tournament at the end of the first movie. Any die-hard or casual fan will know it was 1984. Fans chimed in, sending in their replies. I was a little too slow on the draw and came in 4th or 5th. Regardless, I was excited to see the fiery red and black graphic tweeted out to the winner.
The second question came around 10 minutes after the first. As with the first, responses piled in; this time with even more people participating.
Then, silence.
The Cobra Kai Twitter account didn’t post the next question. Meanwhile, as the minutes ticked by, fans started posting. Many were asking how long it would be until the next one. As time marched on without a third question in sight, some expressed their enthusiasm, while others, their impatience. People were posting gifs, sarcastic tweets, while others were simply asking “when is the next question coming out, already?”
During this time, the Cobra Kai Twitter account responded to a few of these posts, sharing some Miyagisms about patience while winking and liking other posts. Soon, some of the fans started venting their frustrations by trolling the account, saying this was a “waste of time” and demanding that they “get to the point.”
Meanwhile, the Cobra Kai Twitter account sat and waited.
I went back to other work and almost forgot about the event until I saw the third question pop up, out of the blue. I answered quickly and won the third round; rewarded with the middle section of the graphic, now revealing itself to be a Cobra.
After, the Cobra Kai Twitter account waited some more. They pushed out a four-question trivia game for nearly an hour and a half! Finally, they posted the last question and once everyone chimed in, they rewarded everyone with the complete graphic – a beautiful poster of a Cobra with a II behind it, and the April 24th release date.
By then, whatever annoyance or impatience people felt melted away, turning into sheer excitement. But that wasn’t all. Immediately after the date, they released a teaser trailer for the upcoming season.
Cobra Kai “swept the tweet” and with just four questions, #CobraKai was one of the top trending hashtags for that hour and a half on Twitter. They played this game perfectly.
I wrote in the LinkedIn article that Cobra Kai masterfully used social media, including people’s perceptions, expectations, and turned them on their heads. I called it social media “judo” – leveraging the energy and skepticism people to drive attention and momentum. With the Twitter event, they did so again. Instead of being reactive, they used the frenetic, attention-deficit nature of Twitter to build up excitement for its upcoming season. Well done. If season 2 lives up to its social media hype and more importantly, the phenomenal first season, then we’re in for a real treat.
Part 2: A killer Poshmark marketing tactic that we found by accident
This week, I want to share with you one of my most effective and powerful marketing tactics that we use on Poshmark to generate followers and sales. Ironically, it’s one we discovered completely by accident.
Since we use Poshmark as an online channel for my Dad’s established retail store, we take all of our photos at the shop. This helps with branding and consistency. A side effect is that our “photo studio” has clothes everywhere. In the shop, mannequins align the back rows and during our Poshmark listing days (typically Wednesday), my Dad and his sales staff spend time dressing up the mannequins with the outfits that we plan to list. During the photo sessions, as I finish one listing, my Dad rotates out mannequins with outfits so we can create listings efficiently and quickly. An unintended side effect is that many of the clothes and outfits are visible in the background of the listing photos.
As we started gaining followers, we started getting questions about items in the background of listings. People would say things like “I love the dress in the back, do you have that one listed?” Or “Ohh, I really love that outfit, is it for sale?” Often, those items were ones we planned to list but hadn’t gotten around to yet, while others were items that my Dad hadn’t considered listing.
Regardless, this market feedback has been invaluable for building momentum and sales. Hearing that a potential customer is interested in an item is the next best thing to getting the “sold” alert on the app. We started looking at the comments to prioritize which items we should list as well as decide which to list period. This tactic has opened the door to more sales and deeper engagement with our customers. It was the best kind of “accident.”
Homework
Think about employing this strategy with your Poshmark store. As you list items, consider positioning other items you plan to list or are listing in the background. This works best if you have mannequins or friends who can model those clothes but even if they’re just on hangers, you’re increasing the visibility of your entire product line while maximizing the work that your photos do for you.
Part 3: What I’m reading / read
Saturday by Ian McEwan (***). A few weeks ago, I was on a date and after dinner, we stopped into a used bookstore. My date found one of her favorite novels and decided to buy it for me – a really sweet and thoughtful gift as next to food, books are the key to my heart. Saturday is a novel that takes place over the course of one day; starting in the early morning as a London-based physician sees a plane flying out of control from his window. The book takes place shortly after 9/11 which informs the thoughts and actions of the protagonist. The book weaves several stories, including his complex relationship with his family members, his duties at the hospital, and a car accident he has with a shady thug. All of the storylines intersect as the book shows us events from his perspective. While the storylines don’t always gel, making it seem like two separate books, it’s well written, moves quickly and largely entertaining.
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