Go From Blah, Blah to BIG AH-HA!

The other night I hosted a private “ask Mike your most pressing marketing questions” webinar for my High Impact Marketing members and one of my members, Tim Murphy of Murphy Industrial Products asked a rather interesting question:

“Mike, can you tell us what concepts are on your mind right now, that have you the most intrigued? Or maybe it’s a strategy?”

I love the fact that Tim, who is a good B2B marketer, is always looking for new insights and ideas to grow his business and to be honest his question made me pause for a few moments to collect my thoughts.

I wanted to share part of my answer to Tim because it’s a good reminder for any business owner.

One concept that has me most intrigued and one where I try to help as many folks as I can is the notion of “going from blah, blah to big ah-ha!”

In other words, how can “ordinary” businesses break away from the cycle of noisy, hype-filled marketing; rise above the competition; present their products or services in new and unique ways in order to connect with their ideal target customer?

Blah, blah marketing is what ordinary business owners do. It’s the kind of noisy, “me too” marketing you see all around you… in your mail box, in print ads, etc. It’s the same old, same old stuff.

Big ah-ha marketing is what high impact marketers do. They know the value of standing out,  being different, getting personal; and wrap their marketing campaigns around big ideas to solve their customers’ biggest pains.

I’ve written about the idea of wrapping your products and services around a big idea many times and a quick search on this site will yield other articles about the importance of positioning your offerings in new and unique ways.

It doesn’t matter if you sell pizzas, mortgages, or industrial lifting and tie-down products like Tim Murphy.

Today’s success in business mandates intentional thought and implementation of marketing messages that are not the typical messages found in your industry space and instead bring something new, newsworthy and different to your prospects and customers.

Dan Kennedy preaches, “Show up along. Show up differently. Show up with something ‘new.’”  This is HOW you make your prospects and customers have a big ah-ha!

The legendary marketer, Claude Hopkins, author of Scientific Advertising, did this when he turned around the marketing of Schlitz beer back in the early 20th century.

If you click on the ad below, you can download a mini swipe-file of several Schlitz advertisements Hopkins created along with my commentary.

 

So how does one go about this exercise of developing a big ah-ha message?

Unfortunately, there is no shortcut here. It requires effort, thought and the ability to think creatively, but here are a few ways to get you started.

Remove yourself from being the doer of what you do and put yourself into the position of information-seeker or buyer of what you do. Think like a new prospect or customer.   What would you like to see or hear relative to your business?   What would get your attention? What would get you to buy?

Survey or ask current customers what they like about your product or service. Ask them what sets you apart from the competition. Ask them to complete this question, “I like doing business with <insert your business here> because…” Then use their own words in your next marketing campaign.

Network with other marketing-oriented business owners who understand high impact direct marketing. Iron sharpens iron and there is nothing like having a network of smart business owners to help you hone your own marketing messages.

Today’s big takeaway? Forget the blah. Do something different. Stand for something unique and help your prospects, customers, patients, or clients have their own ah-ha with your product or service.

Thoughts or comments?  I would love to hear from you, so leave a note below.