Well seeing as it is Monday again and we have to come back inside after enjoying a spring weekend (we just got rid of our snow and finally our spring fever).
I figured I would continue on with my favorite Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns that I have found around the web. Happy Monday everyone!
Ego Boost
I love when simple concepts are the ones that make the biggest impact. This one is fun, innovative and feeds male ego at the same time.
Jaws Eats Bus Passengers
I am huge fan of the vehicle wrap. When done well you will always get attention. Your audience is bored waiting in traffic, it has movement and it is memorable. All the makings of a campaign that will be talked about at dinner tables and push your message along.
Half a Bus Stop
The last time I had a blog post that had the message to use less we had a huge discussion about green marketing and the merits and morals of advertising.
The impact this one creates is great. One of the best ways to get attention is to take a familiar object and turn it’s concept upside down. Good job Denver Water!
Is IKEA taking over the world
It would seem that I have accidentally created a public transit guerrilla marketing post I will continue with the theme. As the one above it is a great job of taking the familiar and playing with perception. I hope that it does not rain.
Unless you’re an uber famous Hollywood star, then chances are you ask this question almost every time you purchase something (unless it’s toilet paper): Why should I buy? For one thing, some Hollywood stars probably do use their money as toilet paper. But the point is money isn’t exactly an issue for them, so they don’t put much consideration into most price tags they come across. For us Average Joe Consumers though, we’re on a constant hunt for value. We’re like a real-life version of The Price Is Right; with every successful move hinged on the price of a product or service. Now, apply this mode of thinking to your prospect’s perspective.
Every time a potential client is presented with your product or service, they will ask themselves why they should buy from you. This is a natural reaction—people have a natural propensity for procrastination. However, when you multiply this by the effects of today’s economy and then multiply that by the thousands of new small businesses entering the marketplace on a daily basis, well, you sure have to give them a helluva good reason why they should buy from you.
Now, hopefully you’ve been following along and enjoying our articles, so perhaps you’ve heard us mention unique selling point (USP). Your USP is the answer to your prospect’s question as to why they should buy. Make it incredibly obvious what makes your business different from the masses. These are the one or two gems that make your business a necessity in your prospect’s life. Take note of an important element in that preceding sentence. You need to make sure you keep your focus on just a couple distinguished aspects of your business. Include more than that in your marketing and branding efforts and you’re going to sound like a recent graduate’s resume, listing everything from “habitat improvement” for mowing lawns to “sales experience” because they buy groceries on a regular basis.
Spread your apparent specialties too thin and throw fluff at your prospects and they will see through you. And remember, Newton’s Third Law here: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This can go two ways for word of mouth (WOM) marketing. Most people only talk about getting clients through WOM, but if you come off as the recent graduate in your business pitch, then you may lose clients through WOM. Just think about all the countless blogs and online forums here on the Web today. An obvious trend is people’s absolute love of discussing hate. People are just tickled pink that they now have the opportunity to complain about anything at all that bothers them. Whether it’s the fact that one of their feet is bigger than the other so they have to buy two pairs of shoes or that they visited some person’s website and thought it was nothing more than a cheap ploy, word will spread about your business.
Your specialty could be the fact that you’ve never once been late or missed a deadline or possibly your stunning customer service which never allows the phone to ring more than three times and the promise that they’ll get a live person on the phone every time. Write down your business’ top 10 attributes, and then narrow that last to your top one or two. Now, make sure you’re striving for attributes that are not only top-notch, but are also distinct from other competing businesses.
Just be ethical, present your business in an honest manner, keep your USP simple and laser-beam focused, and prospective clients will then know why they should buy from you, and only you.
Check out these other articles for more information: Well I Should Hope So and People Buy Benefits, not Features
This is a guest post from the very talented Patrick Walsh. Patrick has 20+ years helping big, small and bootstrappers like us see that our current marketing and advertising isn’t working for us as well as it should be.
His Company Map business Growth Strategy helps you to optimize your message in the three critical areas of business, you’ll discover the profit power you have, right now, within your business just waiting to be tapped.
When you make an advertising claim, don’t think about it in terms of coming out of your mouth; instead, think of it in terms of it entering your prospect’s ears.
When you do this, you will realize how ridiculous, non-compelling, boring and flat-out stupid much of the advertising you see and hear sounds.
What we’re trying to accomplish here is simple; we are going to discuss a common sense evaluation you can use to judge whether or not your ads, ads you’re spending GOOD money on, are any good.
Wouldn’t you like to know if what you’re writing and spending your advertising budget on is any good–before you actually spend the money?
The first evaluation you need to use is pretty simple. It is also, however, the one most likely to be failed. It is called, simply…
Well, I Would Hope So!
Whenever you say anything in your advertising or marketing, ask yourself if the prospect will immediately respond to what you’ve said with: “Well, I would hope so!”
To illustrate this; write on a piece of paper why a prospect would favor your business over the competition.
Then use the “Well I Would Hope So” evaluation and see if the answers hold weight.
Let me give you an idea by giving you some of the answers from other industries. A huge printing company gave as their number one reason to choose them over the other sixteen zillion other printers: “We help the non-professional print buyer understand the various options available.” Here’s what you should say to that kind of claim: Well I would hope so! You’re a printer! Isn’t that what you do? See how ridiculous that answer sounds?
An insurance agency claims in their advertising that “they’ll be there for you when you have a claim.” Well, I would hope so! What else would they say?
See how this works? Just read any headline or any claim out of one of your advertisements and then see if it spawns this response: Well, I would hope so!
These usual, lazy communicator claims, are like your barber telling you that your hair will be shorter after it’s cut, or the gas station telling you you’ll have more gas after you fill the tank.
Always, always, always use this important evaluation question whenever you make any claim.
Go ahead and take this test right now.
Answer the question: “why would anyone choose you over your competitors?”
Then honestly evaluate your answer against the “Well, I would hope so!” evaluation.
If you can’t come up with the answer instantly and articulate it well, you can bet that your customers don’t know why either.
I design websites that increase a companies profit and branding.
The above sentence is the statement I give all of the people that I meet face to face and ask me the question “What do you do for a living?”. After that introduction, I instantly have them hooked and am followed up with a “How” or “Wow” in which I then proceed to explain in a bit of further detail some of the specifics of my blog design company. If you run a business, a sentence like this is priceless to your profitability.
When I say “one hit wonder” most will think of a musician who releases one great song but is never seen again. That is the complete opposite of what this introduction can do for you. This one sentence can make or break many deals. Time is money, and attention spans are increasingly small today so anything you can do to instantly grab the attention of the person across from you, your computer screen or promotional materials puts you far ahead of the pack.
Get your company and your opening statement reviewed
What I’d like to do is have anyone reading this to leave a comment letting me know what you do for a living and a possible one hit wonder sentence you use or could use and I will go through them and list everyone’s replies in a future article along with my thoughts on each; what the positives of the sentence is or what could be done differently.