The internet marketing space has had a ground swell in recent years. What used to be the only a few daring settlers in the Wild, Wild West now is a big city of permanent urban dwellers. All you have to do is peruse your Facebook feed, do a Google search or look at your LinkedIn notifications to see that there is a LOT of deafening white noise.
Nearly 150 billion emails are sent per day. When you add in the fact that there are 55 million status updates and 350 million pictures added to Facebook alone each day, and you can easily see just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the power of the internet.
In order to stand out, get noticed, and command attention, you need to think about your “WTFF.” Have you ever seen an ad, a promotion, or an email subject line, and thought, “What the FRICK??!!” Think about what last stopped you in your tracks, made you want to take a closer look, and made you want to make note of the person, place or company that was able to say “made you look!” This can be a positive or a negative notice, but you did notice, and that is often what counts.
Everyone should have a certain degree of the “What the Frick?! Factor.
One of my most favorite companies to follow is Spirit Airlines. Their email subject lines are deliciously irreverent and often unbusinesslike but entertainingly inappropriate! Things that make you say “what THE??!” are things that are memorable, interesting, outside the box, DIFFERENT, shocking, weird and/or FUN.
Getting people to pay attention is more difficult than giving up daily visits to Starbucks. But once you get your audiences’ attention, you can keep it if you’re cool, interesting, fun, and providing a high quality experience.
Like Starbucks!
My brand is known for an amusing and quirky marketing style, outside the box graphics, and occasional Facebook antics that not everyone “gets” but they definitely get noticed.
I’ve created a “Bestie Brand” with my girlfriend Andrrea. I once photoshopped a banner we were both featured on and created a Vegas Adventure on Facebook that got a lot of our friends talking about for weeks.
Branding, marketing, and promotional efforts don’t always have to have a call to action, or lead to a sale directly. That’s what everyone does. Business is about relationship building, it’s about creating connections with a community, and setting ourselves apart in our industry.
Fortune 500 companies are hiring Creativity Consultants to stay innovative, fresh, and ahead of their competitors. Creativeness is a commodity you can absolutely cash in on as well.
Learning to be creative is like a muscle, the more you flex it, the better it becomes. Look for opportunities to get your community’s attention with things that fun, whimsical and even nonsensical. They’ll pay attention to what you put out next, and be more likely to take a closer look when you have products and services to sell.
Take some time to develop your very own “WTF?!” and you will find that your company gets much more attention! Make it interesting and shocking, but, in the best interests of your company’s image, you might want to keep it on just the right side of inappropriate—entertaining but not offensive tends to get the most positive attention.