"I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death." Truer words were never spoken, Leo Burnett. If your marketing is boring, people won’t consume it. And if people don’t consume your marketing, it won’t generate sales. That’s why your [...]
You know how the first few times you hear a song you often don't like it? And how you don't remember the melody and the lyrics? But then how the song suddenly makes sense one day after you've heard it 10 or 15 or 20 times? Your customers react the same way with your marketing messages. [...]
Good on you if you want to take risks in your marketing. But don’t push things too far. For example, while humour can be a really effective marketing tactic, offensive humour will only upset your customers. Also, while it’s all very well to portray the glass as half-full rather than half-empty, you don’t want to falsely [...]
There are two groups in life: those who stand out and those who blend in. One group isn’t necessarily better than the other; it’s up to each person and each small business to decide which they prefer. But, yes, you do have to make a choice: you can be in only one group. I like to [...]
If you're wondering how to do good marketing, you might want to follow the EED rule. Educate. Entertain. Differentiate. Educate – use your marketing to provide your customers with helpful, relevant information. Leave them better off than when you found them. Entertain – make it fun and interesting for them to consume that information. Differentiate – [...]
When your rivals zig, you should zag. Here are three counter-intuitive marketing messages you can use to stand out and attract attention: If your rivals boast about having lower prices in their marketing, you could boast about having higher prices that reflect the product’s quality If they boast about fast turnaround times, you could boast about [...]
There’s a quote from legendary ad man Howard Gossage that really gets to the heart of marketing. “Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes, that’s an ad.” The moral to the story: if you want people to consume your marketing, make it interesting. If your marketing is boring, people will avoid it. But if [...]
The more memorable your marketing is, the more sales you're going to make. Sounds obvious, right? Except the overwhelming majority of marketing is boring and predictable. That's why you should look for ways to be creative and stand out. If you do that, people will remember your marketing, which will make it more effective. Here are [...]
Here are three easy marketing opportunities that small businesses aren’t often aware of: Using email signatures to link to free resources such as ebooks or events you are hosting Promoting your small businesses services or product offering in your personal voicemail Highlighting new products or special offers in invoices The last one is a personal favourite [...]
How do you grab the attention of your customers when you do marketing? It’s simple. Talk about them. A lot of small businesses make the mistake of talking about themselves, their products, history and their plans for the future. While all those things might be wonderful, customers are a lot more interested in themselves than they [...]
