Beyonce's Epic Marketing Masterclass

What to Apply To Your Online Business Or Brand

Pay What You Can Coaching

Every once in awhile I open up my doors to a limited number “Pay what you can/Pay What It’s Worth Coaching” This is a great way for me to work with creators who are looking for coaching support but might not be able to pay my normal hourly coaching fee (for whatever reason-I’m not worried about why)

Click here to make a payment via PayPal. I will confirm receipt of the payment and then we’ll schedule our call for sometime next week.

How to Pay

I’ve shared my account details for either PayPal or Venmo

• PayPal: michelleismoneyhungry@gmail.com

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How to Leverage a Moment

I must admit that I was mentally checked out on what was happening with the Super Bowl. Neither one of the teams that I was rooting for, played in the game so I wasn’t really invested in the outcome of the game. Instead, I was excited about watching Usher and the Super Bowl Commercials. Was it just me, but I felt like most of the Super Bowl commercials really missed their moment? They were weird, confusing and didn’t integrate the product that they were trying to share with the commercial messaging. There were a few commercials that did well…but there’s one commercial that stood out from the rest.

I also plan on sharing what any of this has to do with YOU…

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Beyonce’s Verizon Commercial

As Beyonce, Jay-Z and the guy who used to own Twitter sat in their premium box, Beyonce looked completely unbothered as the final pieces to her plot to break the internet wove together.

The clues had been out there all along.

About a week before the Super Bowl Beyonce started to dress…a little bit country and a lot more Texan. In fact, at the Grammy’s she was wearing a very Texas outfit. As a Coloradan, I loved it! Then I started to notice her everything seemed a little different.

Then her Super Bowl Commercial aired. Verizon’s Network was front and center in the commercial as well as Beyonce’s past record concepts. At first I thought my eyes were deceiving me. Then she mentioned the following line at the end of the commercial “Okay, they ready-drop the new music”

SAY WHAT

Twitter went wild as we all started asking ourselves “Is Beyonce serious?! Is she blessing us with her genius?!”

Why, yes, she was.

We made our way to all of the streaming services and kept hitting enter until we were able to listen to the two songs that she dropped.

Wait, Beyonce just dropped some Country Singles.

How did the BeyHive react? Some people paused and then they gave it a chance. If you’re wondering, I love both songs. And, no, it’s not the first time that I’ve listened to and enjoyed country music. In fact, I have several country songs on my different playlists. Many sung by Black Country artists. Check out Mickey Guyton, Tanner Addell, Breland and more.

Then the BeyHive Delivered.

• The Hive actually understood the Verizon Commercial concept and how it connected to having Beyonce in it and to what the product actually was.

• Beyonce’s songs ended up being #1 and #2 on numerous music charts.

• Black artists in the Country Music industry were all lifted up AT THE SAME TIME. Social media follower numbers went up, listening streams went up and more.

The excitement, the energy, the Beyhive was joking about throwing their cash at Beyonce for any upcoming events, outfits that need to be warn and more.

Beyonce’s Marketing MasterClass

I talk a lot about focusing on intentionality in our approaches to our business. Beyonce leaves nothing to chance and focused on details that may have seemed small, but actually mattered to her audience.

• She started wearing concept clothing related to a project (weeks before)

• Dropping “Easter Eggs” hidden items that surprised and excited her audience.

• She said nothing.

• Beyonce chose to collaborate with a brand that allows you to share what you’re working on while support what the brand is doing.

• Flipped the script-All of Beyonce’s branding switched to the country music concept.

• Leverage a large event-Beyonce shared her message with over 100 million people at the same time.

• Coordinate content to optimize a moment or a mood

No, we aren’t as big as Beyonce. But, we can optimize a lot of the different tactics that she used with her album release.

Biggest Lessons Learned

Build Your Own Table

What I keep thinking about is the fact that Beyonce is releasing a Country music album. Even though Country Music has a large part of its roots in African-American music culture, it has been notoriously difficult (almost impossible) for Black artists to break into the space.

• Grow and build your platform-Beyonce has a big enough platform to experiment with her content. Releasing a Country album was a HUGE risk. And for some people out of left field. As a woman from Texas, I’m not surprised at all that she would make a Country music album. Remember the Daddy Lessons performance that pissed people off at the CMAs in 2016. But Beyonce has the following:

  • Sales data-She knew where people purchased tickets for her tour, merchandise and more.

  • 320 Million Instagram Followers

  • 15 Million Twitter Followers (Significantly less than other celebrities on Twitter likely due to her audience)

  • 26 Million YouTube followers

Own Access to Your Own Community

• Grow your list-I’m convinced that she has well over 100 million people on an actual list that she could reach out to at any given moment. Next week I’m hosting a “How to Grow a Newsletter that Pays Workshop” on Thursday, February 22, 2024 at 6:00 pm MTN/8:00 pm EST.

Beyonce is big enough that she could circumvent the traditional mechanisms to break into Country music.

She could (finally) avoid the gatekeepers of Country music who are…

• A large part of the Country Music audience-I said what I said

• The Country Music Industry-I said what I said

  • Refer to the following historian researching the history of race and Country music: Amanda Marie Martinez

  • As of right now based on a thread that I was reading via Amanda Martinez, they are speculating that Beyonce is not submitting her music to Country music radio stations. Remember she has other ways to get consumers to her content.

  • I’ve also begun following a music journalist-Lorie Liebig who made some intriguing comments related to the Country Music industry and its likely willingness to even play Beyonce’s music. I’ve included a link here to a recent thread.

• It was reported that 10 years ago, Beyonce’s dad was reaching out to country music stations asking questions about what they needed to do to get an artist played on their station.

Lessons for You

I kept shaking my head in amazement as I watched Beyonce’s Marketing Juggernaut unfold throughout the week.

• Know your audience-Beyonce has the BeyHive. The day that I’m working on this post I’m wearing bee socks. I’m serious. Know what your audience is willing to do for you. In this case, she knew that we would take this leap with her. She knows the following:

  • Age ranges

  • Spending

  • Areas where her audience is likely to be found

  • Income ranges

• Create and Build to attract a new audience and expand your current audience-BeyHive Stans plus cross over BeyHive community members folks that you didn’t expect or know about because Beyonce has fans across cultures. In fact, today I just saw a white woman doing “Beyonce Texas Hold ‘Em” hair and it looked amazing.

• Don’t Focus on Popularity-I’m talking about awards and accolades-especially from spaces that might not “get” what you’re doing. It is clear that it will be an uphill battle for Beyonce to be recognized with awards via the CMAs. Let’s be clear, though, the CMA audience is not Beyonce’s audience. There’s also the continued refusal of the Grammys to reward her with Album of the Year.

• Stack your marketing-This week Beyonce did the following:

  • Super Bowl Ad

  • Music Release

  • Social Media Aesthetic changed

  • New York Fashion Week appearances

Resource Shout Out

CastMagic

I am a slow adaptor to new technology and digital tools. Usually I like to take my time because of pricing, wanting to see if the early hype is just hype and to learn from other people’s experiences. I had the opportunity to sit in a workshop that walked through how CastMagic can help creators create using AI. What I LOVE about CastMagic, besides the fact that it makes content creation easier-CastMagic doesn’t train an AI.

What does it mean?

That currently your IP (intellectual property) is more secure. Instead, CastMagic is trained only on what you share with it. The team was so helpful and I truly enjoyed learning about this cool tool. If you’re looking for an AI tool to use, but are nervous about IP like I am then CastMagic might be a good fit for your needs.

Optimizing The Opportunity To Serve (and Sell to)

To communities that others don’t see value in.

I’m sharing why it’s so important to pay attention to who isn’t being served. The business opportunity that provides to you and I’m sharing how I’m optimizing serving ignored communities within my online brand.