If You Want Your Marketing to Get Noticed, Rough Up the Edges
Seth Godin makes a great point about being too polished. Since Americans are exposed to 3000 – 4000 advertising messages every day, we become numb quickly. Any message prepared by an ad agency isn’t designed for a consumer, it’s designed to win an ad award, which can then be touted as a success to potential clients. Ads aren’t very effective anymore: unless they are designed by marketing people.
Marketers want to provide a service (and sell a product) but that’s secondary to the primary goal of any serious marketing person. Marketers want to insert their product into your decision making matrix. Advertisers want to impress you. And since their Ad is one of 1000 that you will drive past, it will not make an impression on the consumer.
Advertisers make it a point to be polished, unless they are purposely trying to be rough. (Anyone remember the mange infested gerbils singing for Quizno’s? Rough? Yes. Ugly? Yes. Did it get people talking? Yes. Did it sell sandwiches? Do hair dripping rodents make you hungry?)
One of the suggestions a lot of direct marketing experts make is to handwrite copy onto the advertising piece. They have studies that show it increase the conversion ratio. Just like they have studies that show a PS increases purchases. Why?
People are just too busy to read a ad. But they will read handwriting on the ad, and they will read the PS. So handwriting is rough, it’s not polished typeset that is a certain size. Handwriting can be pretty, but most of the time we’re lucky if it’s clear. Be rough. Your consumers will notice.
Being rough means a human touch. Like handwriting envelopes to a small mailing list. Sure, they make computers that do the font, but if you print it out, it’s mass market and not as special. And come on, if you’re using a computer to print out a “handwritten” address, you’re trying to fool the consumer. Give it a personal touch and have a secretary start writing.
Can you find other ways in your business to add a rough human touch?
Not everything has to be perfect. Where did that concept enter into the business arena anyway? Perfection and polish do not translate into sales. Connection and communication usually do. How can you connect and communicate with your consumer to turn them into clients?
Marketers want to provide a service (and sell a product) but that’s secondary to the primary goal of any serious marketing person. Marketers want to insert their product into your decision making matrix. Advertisers want to impress you. And since their Ad is one of 1000 that you will drive past, it will not make an impression on the consumer.
Advertisers make it a point to be polished, unless they are purposely trying to be rough. (Anyone remember the mange infested gerbils singing for Quizno’s? Rough? Yes. Ugly? Yes. Did it get people talking? Yes. Did it sell sandwiches? Do hair dripping rodents make you hungry?)
One of the suggestions a lot of direct marketing experts make is to handwrite copy onto the advertising piece. They have studies that show it increase the conversion ratio. Just like they have studies that show a PS increases purchases. Why?
People are just too busy to read a ad. But they will read handwriting on the ad, and they will read the PS. So handwriting is rough, it’s not polished typeset that is a certain size. Handwriting can be pretty, but most of the time we’re lucky if it’s clear. Be rough. Your consumers will notice.
Being rough means a human touch. Like handwriting envelopes to a small mailing list. Sure, they make computers that do the font, but if you print it out, it’s mass market and not as special. And come on, if you’re using a computer to print out a “handwritten” address, you’re trying to fool the consumer. Give it a personal touch and have a secretary start writing.
Can you find other ways in your business to add a rough human touch?
Not everything has to be perfect. Where did that concept enter into the business arena anyway? Perfection and polish do not translate into sales. Connection and communication usually do. How can you connect and communicate with your consumer to turn them into clients?
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