Branding Brilliance

Optical Illusions Create Memorable Marketing

Looking for a little creative inspiration to spice up your marketing efforts? 

The whole Mighty Optical Illusions website is pretty fascinating, but particularly their attention-getting ads and billboards sections. You may not be advertising on billboards, but certainly you can get some good ideas for thinking “out of the box” and getting creative with your marketing.  Optical illusions create memorable marketing! 

If you want to see more pictures like this one:

Go visit Billboard Optical Illusions  pages on the Mighty Optical Illusions site:

http://www.moillusions.com/2006/12/deceiving-billboard-ads-part-i.html

http://www.moillusions.com/2008/05/deceiving-billboard-ads-part-ii.html

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7 Tips to Creating Incredible Credible Marketing Materials

Businesses are constantly trying to balance marketing hype with reality.  Of course, you want your marketing materials to grab your prospect’s attention, but you also want to set some expectations — because after all, you have to deliver on your promise, right?!  

Request a copy of our marketing kit!

Head on over to HP’s Small Business Marketing Guide to see the article I wrote on creating incredible, credible marketing materials.   I gave readers seven practical tips for creating do-it-yourself marketing materials.  Enjoy!

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Dear Famous Internet Marketer

Last week, one of those “famous” internet marketers sent me an email.   He was mad because people were taking too long to see the value of his product.   His readers would hem-and-haw before making a purchase.  I’m sure his email was meant to be some type of psychological ploy to get you to buy his info-product.  But it sure backfired on me. 

I wondered how much this guy could really know about marketing. So here’s what I wanted to say to him.

Dear Internet Marketer,

I know you think you have a fabulous product, but if there’s anyone you should be mad at, you should be mad at yourself.  You obviously haven’t done a great job of communicating the value of your product. You are being defensive instead of understanding that people are wary and you need to assuage them and prove to them that your book is different. It’s not that they wouldn’t (or don’t) invest in their business. It’s that there are a lot of internet marketer snake oil salesman out there promising something for nothing.

I work primarily with professional service and technology companies and hear that same indignation all the time.

“I can’t believe they bought from that shmuck when we’re a jillion times better…we take over their unhappy customers all the time.”  I know.  It DOES HURT when someone doesn’t see your value. It hurts your balance sheet as much as your ego.

As you may well know, ‘building a better mousetrap’ is only step one of building a successful business. Communicating how and why that mousetrap is better (a.k.a. MARKETING) is the key to blowing out your sales.  For all of you who are out there feeling under-appreciated and a best-kept-secret.  You have two options.

1.  Call and cry on someone’s shoulder. 

(Net effect: You’ll know you have friends who care and you’ll temporarily feel better.)

2.  Improve your marketing so that your product or service looks as good as it actually is. 

(Net effect: Pretty soon you’ll be selling more and attracting more of the clients who value you.)

Simple, huh?  So which path will you choose?

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What did you think of the Superbowl ads

WOW, that Superbowl was exciting!  I’m not much of a sports fan, but I really watch because  I love to watch the Superbowl advertisements (and OK, I love an excuse for a party too!)  Normally my Tivo zaps all ads for me, but for this one day, I eagerly anticipate the advertsing.

My first impressions are that I:

• Hated the GoDaddy ad
• Doubly hated the NBCLA ads that were SO LOUD
• Was grossed out and vaguely annoyed by the Careerbuilder.com ad with the naked guy touching his toes
• Loved the Bud ads - clever use of their iconic clydesdales
• Thought the Coca-cola morphing avatars ad was just downright strange
• Loved the eTrade babies ad - very cute and clever
• Thought Denny’s will get the best bang for their buck due to their strong offer, and their appeal to the frugal buyer.  Get them in once and they’ll probably come back again.

What did you like or hate about the Superbowl ads? Did you learn anything from the Superbowl ads that you can apply to your own marketing?

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Creepy old advertising

With the economy and the election all that people seem to be able to talk about, I thought I’d provide a moment of light-hearted levity.   Can you believe these ads?  I think in some cases here there’s a little TOO MUCH truth in advertising - and in other ads, no truth at all.  

That beauty micrometer looks painful.   And who knew Lysol could create such a happy marriage?  Now where does that Lysol go?  WHAT?  Not on the floors or appliances?  Oh my….

http://www.weirdomatic.com/creepy-ads.html 

Enjoy.  Focus on the positive.  Control what you can control.  And stay tuned. Subscribe to my workshops newsletter if you haven’t already.  I’m putting together a session, “The 7 Secrets to Small Business Advertising.”  And though I admit my session won’t be nearly as funny as these ads are, you will see big mistakes current day small businesses make all the time. 

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Twitter Guide - Business use explained

THANK YOU JOHN JANTSCH!

Recently I spent some time trying to explain Twitter for business to a client. After the conversation, I kept thinking ’someone should write a guide’ but just didn’t have the time. Well thankfully I wasn’t the only one in need, and John Jantsch has answered my request. If you are wondering about Twitter for business uses too, check out the rest of John’s blog and his free beginners guide.

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What is your marketing perspective

Are your marketing messages crafted through a business owner’s eyes or through a potential client’s eyes? 

A business owner sees the cost, the time, the effort and energy that goes into creating a marketing piece. The business owner’s perspective is that marketing is meant as a means to sell something. A potential client sees an opportunity - to save money, to learn something or to look or feel better - based on the offer, the ‘what’s in it for me’, and whether or not it captures their attention. 

If you get too caught up in the business owner’s need of marketing and selling vs. the potential client’s need to be educated and informed, you will be off-target in your messaging, making your marketing expenditures less effective.

Owner focused:  We’re offering a 25% discount if you buy before 8/31!
Customer focused:  You can save 25% if you act before 8/31!

Owner focused:  We’re the best in the country, and have won the grand-poobah award 10 times!
Customer focused: Our award-winning team will make sure you achieve fantastic results.

Now, what can you do about it? Start looking at your marketing from a different perspective - the perspective of the people that buy your product! Before you say it - yes, there are thousands of reasons that people buy your product, and no, you can’t realistically figure them all out, BUT you can ask your current clients why they buy, and then use those ideas to find more clients!

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5 Tips for Hiring a Graphic Designer or Marketing Agency

My friend and fellow Duct Tape Marketing Coach Randy Vaughn of MarketingTwins.com sent me this hilarious video.  Well, for those of you who HIRE designers, this might not be so funny, but for those of us that are sometimes asked to deliver on impossible demands, this video definitely struck a nerve.

Graphic Design Process of Designing a Stop Sign

How could this team have produced a better outcome?  Here are 5 tips for companies hiring graphic designers and marketing agencies.

1.  Begin with the end in mind.  What do you want done?  Leave the “how” to the professionals.  For example, if you say, “I want a big, red blinking box that says STOP” – that’s what you’ll get.  But if you want someone to STOP, a graphic designer can often find a less obnoxious, but more effective way to accomplish that same objective.

2.  Every partner logo does not need to be on everything. 

3.  Every perspective does not need to be included.  You absolutely CAN get “too many cooks in the kitchen” and end up with nothing but stone soup.   (That’s a story from my childhood, where every kid comes in and asks for something to be removed from the soup recipe. “I don’t like carrots.”  ”I don’t like onions.”  “I’m a vegetarian, no chicken please.”)   Pick a voice.  Stick with it.

4.  Marketing research has its place, but PLEASE apply common sense to your findings.  Just because you market to women doesn’t mean you have to make everything PINK. 

5.  Don’t feel obliged to have all the answers.  Give the graphic designer or marketing agency an opportunity to speak up.  They are trying their best to please you!  But they can’t read minds.  And they don’t want to be rude.  You may know your company and product better than anyone else on the planet.  But you have presumably hired a graphic design or marketing expert, someone who has spent years honing their craft.  Usually they are thrilled to tell you why they are making the suggestions they’re making.  You just have to ask, then come together as a team to make a collective decision.

If you continue to do what you’ve always done,
you’ll continue to get what you’ve always got.

Any other suggestions for working with a graphic designer or marketing agency?     

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They’re just words - or are they?!

I have to admit that although I’m forcing myself to work today, my mind is elsewhere – especially since two meetings were rescheduled last minute and I find myself with unexpected time available in my day.

Where’s my mind? It’s lingering back on page 880 of Ken Folliet’s book, “The Pillars of the Earth.” I read two books a month on average, and very few capture my attention to this level. I’m DYING to know what happens next. I’m completely engrossed in the characters and plot to the point where I’m more interested in hearing about their lives than living my own. Now that’s the hallmark of good writing!

But this is a marketing blog…what does a fiction novel have to do with small business marketing?

The point is that good writing makes a huge difference.  Good writing can be the crucial difference between campaigns that flourish, and campaigns that flounder.  I see too many small business owners who want to do it themselves, write the marketing copy on their own.  On one level, I understand.  Small business owners are smart.  They can generally read and write pretty well.  Why should they pay someone write the marketing copy for them?  They’re just words.  

JUST WORDS??? Don’t underestimate words! Words are POWERFUL. Words change lives. Words change history. The Declaration of Independence is… “just words.” Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is…”just words.” Your website is filled with “just words.”

Are those words compelling? Do you get leads from your website? Or do people’s eyes glaze over as they hunt for the nugget of wisdom and authenticity under the layers of marketing mumbo-jumbo?

If you are struggling to understand what’s wrong with your website or with your marketing materials and why you aren’t getting enough leads, contact us here at Tornado Marketing for a marketing or website assessment.   Our email is Tornado@TornadoMktg.com We’ll show you how to harness your power to grow your business!

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Why did we create the Tornado Marketing blog?

Tornado Marketing posted it’s 100th blog yesterday!! Time to break out the premium coffee (I would say champagne…but I still have to get some work done today!)

Writing our 100th post is definitely a milestone worth celebrating, but it is also cause for reflection. I spent a little time looking back at those 100 posts and got to thinking about the whole idea of blogging. There are hundreds of reasons to start a blog, and often those reasons can keep you going for a while - but what happens when that initial ‘umph’ runs out? What keeps us motivated to blog every day (or at least almost every day)? There are hundreds of articles out there about why you should blog - biggest among them probably being SEO - but there are noticeably less about how to get ideas for your blog. For example, the Tornado Marketing Blog is a blog about marketing. But, what does that mean? What topics does that allow us to talk about? For the Tornado Marketing blog, the answer is simple: Whatever we believe is important to know about marketing or business, and that we think our readers would find useful. If you look through our past posts, they have covered everything from creating your core message to using Twitter for business. But, just because we know what we want to write about doesn’t mean it is always easy to come up with things to actually write about.

With that in mind, we have put together a list of 5 things we do, and you can do, to make coming up with material for your blog a little easier:

1. Save articles you find interesting: If you see a post from someone else, an article in the newspaper, or a youtube video that you like, save it! Create a folder on your computer that you put them all into, that way you can go back and find them when you are struggling for an idea. (But always make sure to credit your sources if you are quoting something you’ve read or seen.)

2. Start wrting: Sometimes it takes a while for a post to develop, you have to work your way through all the ’stuff’ in your head to get to the meat of the idea. Often, I will just start writing the post, and worry about grammar, spelling and clarity later. Once I get my main ideas down, it is always easier to clean it up, rather than trying to ‘clean as you go’.

3. Enjoy what you are talking about: This should go without saying, but if you are writing a post about something you don’t care about, it is going to be a lot more difficult to come up with material. If you really don’t like your topic - change it!

4. Pose a question: Sometimes, despite everything else, you can’t come up with something to talk about. In this case, I will pose a question - favorite marketing quote, motto for living life, etc. These questions do a great job of starting a conversation with your readers, generating some buzz and getting your blog some comments!

5. Take a break: When your mind is cluttered with everything that you need to be doing today, it can be difficult to clear it enough to let yourself be creative. If this happens, I recommend taking a 5 minute break, going and getting some coffee, taking a deep breath and clearing your head. Once you have let yourself relax a bit, the words will usually start flowing more freely.

Now that I have given you my 5 tips for creating blog material - get to writing! If you want, you can get things started by leaving us a comment answering: What tips do you have for when you have writer’s block?

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