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A three-time Tony award winner and marketing company founder with a lifetime marketing portfolio of $7 billion did not mince words when he talked about the importance of authenticity at Inman Connect Las Vegas, in his marketing track session, “What marketing lessons can we learn from Broadway?”
As much a life coach as a marketing executive, Tyler Mount exhales honesty. He verbally bullet-pointed for the crowd how to be better at marketing with a narrative of digestable, self-effacing witticisms and slides with example after example of why some social posts won’t result in new business, and what makes others go viral.
“We are culturally built to believe there are limitations on us,” Mount said. “Today’s conversation is far bigger than real estate; it’s far bigger than business. It’s about the power of authenticity.”
“Our adult lives are really dedicated to figuring out what is true and what was just put on to hide our differences.”
Mount appealed to those in the crowd who may already be confident in their business, suggesting they too are vulnerable about things they’re not willing to share. Everyone is vulnerable about something and accepting that, Mount concludes, can lead to marketing success.
“Did you know that 86 percent of consumers believe that authenticity is the key factor when choosing a brand to support,” Mount said, referencing a McKinsey study. “That 90 percent of millennials cite authenticity as the number one factor in who they follow?”
Mount played two different social posts, one being a high-end social media production for a fashion brand and an organic, manually edited Reel from a woman sharing how she altered and dyed a dress she needed for a wedding. The first had impressive viewer stats, but they were proven paltry against the second’s statistics. His take is that advertising budgets don’t always equate to campaign success. What matters is the person in front of the camera.
“If you are showing up in the online space being anyone other than who you authentically are, you have already lost,” he said. “At the end of the day, social is not a venue to sell; it is a venue to connect.”
Mount reminded the crowd that no one is looking up your website; they’re looking at you through the lens of Google. That means every instance of your online persona — the old real estate team pages, previous brokerage biographies, lagging social accounts and headshots with bad haircuts — are all there for the consumer’s judgment.
“Google is the epicenter of your ecosystem,” he said. “Instagram and LinkedIn are highly searchable and indexable. If your Instagram looks like trash, the consumer perceives your business as trash. That’s a fact.”
Mount does work for Ryan Serhant, whose website has a profile of him, about which Mount said, “I can’t control.”
“I have to ensure that despite not having control over it, that the information there is accurate and that I’ll be perceived appropriately by my potential consumer.”
An active LinkedIn account, Mount said, is a must. He referenced a client who still had “grocery store manager” as her job from years past.
“People, how are you ever going to get that listing agreement signed when your LinkedIn is this outdated? It implies that your business and your ability is outdated, too.”
Stopping his stage pacing for emphasis, Mount shared his golden rule for marketing.
“Consumer perception is truth,” he said. It’s not always accurate,” he noted, “but that’s not the consumer’s job. Theirs is to make decisions based on what the web says about a person. The consumer presumes accuracy; therefore, it’s true.”
Lastly, Mount reminded the audience that they are not sitting among competitors, but their community.
“At the end of the day, you were born to be original. So don’t die a copy.”
