Key Messages
Stand Out With Atypical Marketing: How To Generate Leads With Unconventional Tactics
Gaining attention for your product or service in a crowded market can be difficult, as most people just follow the herd.
It doesn’t have to be this way, however.
With some creative marketing strategies, you can stand out from the competition and attract customers that are specifically looking for what you offer.
In this book, you’ll find sections on how those businesses with limited resources use experimental tools to create atypical marketing solutions that make them different from the competition—no matter their budgets.
You’ll see examples of things like mailing candles to keep restaurants afloat and offering free ice water at supermarkets to turn them into tourist destinations.
There’s also great advice on why having a nemesis is motivating when it comes to marketing efforts.
By utilizing these tried-and-true strategies, you can stand out from your competition and attract the customers you want!
Different Tactics Are Needed To Stand Out From The Crowd In Marketing
Standing out from the crowd is essential if you want to get noticed by prospects.
The human brain is designed for survival and is skilled at filtering out sensory data that it deems unimportant.
Over time, if something proves to be neither an opportunity nor a threat then it will become familiar and eventually be ignored.
This phenomenon is known as habituation, and it’s why embracing difference in marketing efforts is vital.
Take personalized marketing emails, for example.
Once they became common wisdom, they stopped feeling special; what was once land-grabbing became something to just brush aside when it comes up in your inbox.
This goes to show that if you’d like people to pay attention, you have to make choices that are different from those of others.
To get noticed by prospects – reach different and distinguish yourself from others – Natures Nutrition has made sure their product stands out with BioPerine – a patented black pepper extract which has been proven to improve absorption of many herbs and spices.
Without forgetting about the added bonus of boosting absorption up to 2000x better than normal turmeric capsules!
Start Identifying Your Target Prospects Before Taking Any Marketing Actions To Reap Greater Rewards
Before embarking on any marketing experiment, take the time to build a list of target prospects.
It doesn’t matter if you currently have customers or not – this step is essential for conducting successful marketing.
If you already have an existing customer base, begin by ranking them from most to least revenue over the past two years.
This list helps you determine which customers get the most value out of your product or service based on how much they spend.
Then ask yourself this question: “Which customers am I happiest working with?” Mark those down as well.
Finally, cross-check your list and double-check that your top-ranking customers who bring in the most revenue are also the ones that leave you with a smile.
Those represent your preferred target prospects — create a goal of finding one hundred people just like them.
On the other hand, if you don’t yet have any customers, remember that there is still a way to identify potential candidates for our ideal customer profile: look at those around you — vendors, friends, colleagues and even rivals could be useful sources of information when it comes to pinpointing which group of people should be targeted with an experiment.
Building an accurate list of target prospects is one of the most important steps on any marketer’s journey!
Taking this step will significantly improve your chances of success and prevent leaving money on the table or wasting time pursuing wrong leads.
We Need A Clear Mission And An Awareness Of The Competition To Market Effectively
If you want to be successful in marketing, you need to set clear goals.
This means knowing your purpose and understanding the objectives of your target audience so that you are better able to meet their needs.
It’s also important to keep an eye on your competitors and determine how you can outmaneuver them by doing things differently.
Having a clear goal for your marketing is essential for maximizing the results of your experiments.
Think about why you are engaging in marketing activities – is it for customer retention, newsletter sign-ups or selling particular products? This objective, known as a “win”, is the top of the metaphorical mountain that will provide motivation throughout the process.
When setting your goal, consider what are you going to give to prospects and how they can benefit from it.
For instance, if you offer window-selling services, then explain why installing new windows will help homeowners with drafts and cold weather.
Then establish who your competition is and what tactics they employ so that you can stay one step ahead of them.
Once these three steps have been taken – outlining objectives, understanding customer needs, and keeping an eye on rivals – you’re ready to begin budgeting for all of your marketing activities.
With clear goals in mind, you’ll be well on track to achieving success!
The Key To Spending Wisely On Marketing: Let Your Odds Determine Your Investment
The key to success in any business venture is knowing when and how much you should invest.
When it comes to marketing, the same principle applies: let your odds of success determine how much to spend.
This simple three-step calculation can help you arrive at a ballpark figure to guide your efforts.
First, calculate your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) – the average revenue that one customer will bring in throughout their time as a customer.
Multiply the average annual revenue by the number of expected years doing business with that customer.
For example, if an author expects to sell eight books per customer and make $3.50 royalties for each sale, then that author’s CLV would be $28.
Next, determine what’s known as your Close Rate Odds – the likelihood that you’ll land a customer after getting their attention.
Look at past conversion rates as well as industry averages if necessary.
Using our author example from before, he figures his odds are 1:5 – i.e., for every 5 prospects there’s a chance he’ll get 1 sale – so his Close Rate Odds are 1:5.
Finally, use these two figures to estimate how much to spend per customer – divide the CLV by close rate odds – thus in our example it would be $28 divided by 1:5 or $5.40 per prospect on average (rounded up).
Now if he plans to contact 100 prospects his total marketing budget should then be around $540 ($5 x 100 prospects).
Although this is just a rough estimate it nevertheless provides an informed starting point for putting together a successful and profitable marketing strategy!
How To Sustain Prospects’ Attention With Clear Opportunities: Get Creative In Group Brainstorming Sessions
Successful marketing is all about sustaining your prospects’ attention and presenting a clear opportunity that appeals to them.
Michalowicz’ experience of the man in a cheap Statue of Liberty costume, who was advertising tax consults–though eye-catching, did not necessarily appeal to his potential customers.
According to the author, if you are struggling with coming up with effective marketing ideas that are separate from the norm yet appealing, then it’s best to gather together a group of people who can help you brainstorm.
Make sure these people understand your industry and come from different perspectives as well–you never know where the next great idea will emerge!
Once all the ideas have been written down, evaluate them by asking wheter or not it presents a clear opportunity for your target market.
Keep it simple–one example given by Michalovitz was Kasey Anton whose high-end restaurant stayed afloat by mailing birthday candles to previous customers which included coupons for free entrée at the restaurant, costing under $200 in all and earning her over $18000 in new business within a month!
If done right, simple and effective marketing can be enough to sustain your prospects’ attention and present an appealing opportunity.
Point Your Customers Toward Action With Simple, Clear Directives For Long-Term Gains
When it comes to marketing your business and getting the attention of potential customers, pointing them towards action by providing a simple and direct directive is an effective way to elicit the response you’re looking for.
Take Dorothy and Ted Hustead’s supermarket in rural Wall, South Dakota for example.
In 1931 right after the Great Depression era, their store was not attracting as many customers as they had hoped for.
But one hot summer, Dorothy came up with an ingenious idea: offer free ice water at the store!
She put up a sign that read “Come To Wall Drug For Free Ice Water” and soon people from neighboring states were flocking in to take advantage of this simple but effective offer.
Thanks to her clear instructions, Wall Drug became a major tourist attraction that continued to draw millions of tourists every year!
The lesson here is that when dealing with customers, it pays to provide simple but specific instructions on what you want them to do.
Make sure that your call-to-action offers instant gratification with long-term benefits so that potential customers can both benefit right away and in the future.
That way, you will maximize your chances of getting the outcome you desire.
Measure Success And Improve Your Experiments To Reap The Benefits Of Get Different Marketing
It’s essential to measure the success of your unique idea when attempting to engage with your prospects.
Following a Get Different workshop, accountant Gabe Piña ran an experiment where he sent 10 prospects a copy of his favorite business book and added a Post-it note.
While they appreciated the note, it didn’t lead to any new leads.
However, not all was lost as the final principle of the Get Different framework prescribes: continue to experiment further.
As such, Gabe improved upon his first attempt by adding five more sticky notes in each book on key pages.
He then offered up his own guidance and added his cell number for a direct call to action – “Call me” – which yielded better results versus before.
In fact, seven prospects publicly expressed their gratitude for the book and this engagement brought him more exposure than what he invested in the experiment!
Thus, it’s important that you measure your idea’s impact and write down your number of prospects, intended investment and outcome at the beginning so that you have accurate data for comparison if necessary at the end.
Failure happens sometimes but don’t get discouraged; there’s always another opportunity for success through experimentation!
Wrap Up
The central point of Get Different Book Summary is that marketers need to go beyond the average industry practices if they want to succeed.
To get noticed, you need to differentiate yourself and offer prospects a valuable opportunity – all while being smart with your investment and tracking results.
To find your unique positioning in the market, the advice is to search for “superlatives” or words ending in “-est.” Going through a list of a thousand options should help you find what resonates with your objectives and customers’ needs best.
Once you have selected a few that match up perfectly, give them a shot and see how far you go – this way, you can make for unique, successful campaigns and stand out from the competition.
