Dominic Smith is a senior writer and content strategist forRackspace Digital, the digital marketing infrastructure specialists.
Digital marketing, like the analog marketing that came before it, relies on word of mouth.
Clicks, shares, pins and retweets are all part of the conversation.
But a handful of companies go it alone, even after they achieve considerable success.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
A beautifully designed car that can be custom-ordered for delivery, direct from the Tesla onlinedesign studio.
It also gets credit for compassion and humanism thanks to slower, viral hits like Fireman Saves Kitten.
Those numbers are important for the success of GoPros digital marketing strategy.
The conventional wisdom is that no car could compete without winning over the showroom floor.
But Tesla, the company started by tech billionaire Elon Muskwho sidelines as the SpaceX pioneerhas disrupted that paradigm.
The company has no CMO and only a small marketing team.
Thirty-five high-tech storefronts across the US, Asia and Europe, do some of Teslas advertising for them.
Theyre set up like Apple Stores, in upscale shopping malls and on strategic urban thoroughfares.
Curious passersby slow down to take pictures on their smartphones and post them on social media.
The rest of Teslas advertising is done by curious journalists and online commerce.
But journalists love to cover the story of the technology and the bullish entrepreneur behind it.
Theyve both built exceptional products that strike a nerve with the buying public.
Each brand tells a compelling story, one that involves defying convention for something more urgent and exciting.
Thats okay with Tesla.
They just want your neighbors to post pictures on Facebook or Instagram when that first sleek Tesla drives by.
