These are super simple and really work, but many small businesses get cold feet when it comes to actually executing these proven tactics.
1. Do the opposite of your competition – Do you want to be your competition or do you want to beat your competition? Standing out is essential but the temptation to simply copy can be overwhelming. If you are copying others the best your marketing can ever hope for is a tie, more likely you’ll be seen as a generic Johnny-come-lately. Instead think of a way to do the opposite type of marketing in order to put your business in direct opposition. With great messaging this will boost your branding and sales much faster than the copy-and-paste approach.
2. Use truly interesting and original headlines in print ads and direct mail – This can be tricky business because the headline needs to be relevant while also tying in some eye-catching and brain-teasing copy readers can’t help but look at twice. Businesses have to do this to get noticed. You just have to or you’re wasting your money because people throw away that stack of junk mail in the box with barely a glance and they skim over print ads unless something absolutely forces them to look harder. If you can’t commit to getting out of your comfort zone then don’t do this type of advertising, easy as that. Here are tips to help you get some ideas: 1. Check out a couple tabloids and read the headlines. 2. Play the “7-degrees of Kevin Bacon” game, but with your product or service and see if you discover some interesting connections. 3. Forget about your project for a few minutes and indulge in some mind games and riddles.
3. Use deadlines – Deadlines create urgency, but not every business thinks they have a deadline. Seriously consider creating one if you fall into this category through limited-time offers and other techniques.
4. Emotional pictures work better – Most businesses use generic actors, usually in groups, doing something generic. It’s as if businesses are using pictures just to use pictures. Your pictures should make people feel something, something related to your product or service of course.
5. Talk about benefits over your product or service – That’s pretty simple. The focus should always be what your product or service does for the customer. For some reason though this idea often gets muddled with other stuff. Here’s an example of how it can get muddled up. “We are the top stain remover.” Okay so this is a mistake, believe it or not. The thinking is, “Well they want to remove stains so… TOP STAIN REMOVER yeah!” Too many connections need to be made in that sentence though, and it’s still about the product. The benefit of that sentence is, “This Removes Your Stains Better than Anything.” See, the first one sounded okay right? Until you heard the one that talked about benefits then you saw the difference. So just sort of go over everything and make sure you’re not getting the product confused with the benefits.
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