5 enterprise marketing lessons from #HamiltontheMusical

Yes, I admit it: I’m a “Hamilton” addict, marveling at the brilliant lyrics, challenging myself to commit the words to memory. I’m online following the great time the cast is having in the show and with each other, and I’m devouring the 800-page biography of our first treasury secretary like it’s a page-turning romance novel.

If you’ve somehow missed this cultural phenomenon, “Hamilton” is a record-breaking Broadway musical about the USA’s first treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton, told in the poetic prose of the hip-hop vernacular. As a line in the show says: “This is not a moment; it’s a movement.”

I hear my friend Spike Lee has seen “Hamilton” eight times. I would, too, if I could. This magnitude of societal and cultural impact happens once in a generation.

What does this cultural phenomenon teach enterprise marketers about how to create unprecedented demand for your product and win fervently loyal followers? We business marketers will never be Lin-Manuel Miranda clones – he’s extraordinarily gifted – but here are five things I do take away from my fandom that I apply to my work:

1. Deliver impeccable product that over-delivers and delights

The script and lyrics of “Hamilton” are a marvel to behold. New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley wrote: “’Hamilton’ consistently finds muted, blurring shades — of feeling, of morality, of character — within its incident-and-fact-packed story without ever sacrificing narrative clarity. And the sheer scope of what Mr. Miranda crams into his precisely but exuberantly chiseled lyrics is a marvel.” Well said.

Enterprise software vendors must design and market products that exceed expectations or risk losing customers. Software with a UX that’s a pleasure to interact with, that delights users — this is critical in our cloud-based businesses where adoption, loyalty and renewals fuel revenue.

Business users now have high expectations of their technology vendors, emboldened by their B2C experiences where vendors have modeled their behavior so well that their every need is met before it arises. (Think Amazon.com.)

2. Perpetuate the perception of scarce resources

Demand that outstrips supply is the clearest indicator that your product is hot. Sure it’s easier to flex the supply of cloud software (add more seats), but here the parallel can be made to tech companies adding staff, data centers and infrastructure to scale rapidly to keep pace with the growth of the customer base. (We’re hiring! Our servers are at capacity!) Let the market know you’re bursting at the seams – but you’ll handle it.

Of “Hamilton’s” scarcity problem, Ben Brantley of the New York Times wrote: “I am loath to tell people to mortgage their houses and lease their children to acquire tickets to a hit Broadway show. But “Hamilton” … might just about be worth it ­– at least to anyone who wants proof that the American musical is not only surviving but also evolving …”

“Hamilton” tickets are hard – but not impossible – to get. The committed ones (like me!) find a way.

3. Keep interest high by releasing fresh engaging content regularly

The “Hamilton” team posts new content daily from a program called #HAM4HAM, which is the “show before the show,” when cast members, Broadway stars and friends of “Hamilton” gather at the Richard Rodgers theater stage door and perform spoofs related to Broadway musicals and other plays. This content is shared on their site, YouTube and all over social media. This is only one example of how the team keeps fresh content flowing daily to engage fans. The marvelous way they stay fresh using social media will be covered later in my post.

Enterprise marketers could learn from this, as the creation of content that keeps customers engaged, whether you generate it or your users do, is key to sustained interest and possible upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Who on your team has the assignment to keep fresh content flowing? Do you have a group of users who generate content about you that they share in their networks? Most businesses are finally waking up to this opportunity. The challenge of feeding the content beast daily requires a robust content marketing strategy.

4. Leverage employee advocacy — with authenticity

The cast of “Hamilton,” from the stars to the ensemble dancers, are all active on social media. Actually, that’s quite an understatement . I feel I am intimately familiar with the entire cast because they are so genuinely forthcoming about being in the cast, the experience of being in a runaway hit show, living as young actors in New York City — all of it! What better way to get prospects excited about your business than showing them how excited you are to be a part of it?

So many companies struggle with how to get execs and employees to authentically show up online as advocates for the business. Execs are so much more effective with social when it’s clear they write their own posts. SAP’s CEO @billrmcdermott is great at this. Companies have teams executing employee advocacy programs using tools like Voicestorm, which only deliver to the degree the authentic voice of the employee comes through in the way posts are shared with their networks. It’s easy to tell when the authenticity is there and when it is not.

5. Build community among customers and followers

Community. It’s how I cut my teeth in this social media world, and no matter how big each new platform gets, genuine interaction among like-minded individuals passionate about a topic builds loyalty like no other tactic. Think @TheCR — The Community Network. Think @sapcommunitynetwork.

We #HamiltontheMusical fanatics populate our feeds with our latest experiences, discoveries and masteries of the content. There’s so much to unpack in the script and the Alexander Hamilton biography that we educate each other when we learn something new or have codified our obsession into logical steps.​

The age range of fans populating this community ranges from kids and teens to boomers like me.​

So when you see me on Facebook opining about some new twist in the #HamiltontheMusical saga, know that I’m actually working, honing my marketing skills. Seriously, there’s much to learn here to make our businesses more successful and our work more fun.

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