creativity in marketing – you’re not trying hard enough
Here’s a thought: I was just checking the stats on my Christmas card email blast.
That one email blast with a Christmas card drawing by my daughter was clicked through 830 times (that equates to 830 individual email addresses). That not the impressive statistic.
The impressive statistic is that is was VIEWED as of this writing 1,574 times.
Many people viewed it once but almost 300 people viewed it between 2-17 times!
It’s just a Christmas card right?
Actually, it was more than that…it was creative (all my daughter’s doing) and it was sincere.
Does this make me brilliant? No. I’m sexy, not brilliant….please get that straight. (j/k)
What those numbers (which could be exponentially bigger or smaller depending on your database) represent is people’s willingness, free will and desire to experience something creative…different. And honest.
So real quickly, let’s consider a missed opportunity.
You know what I DIDN’T get in the email once this holiday season? A Hanukkah card. Nobody sent me a Festivus card either.
Did they think I would be put off because that’s not what I celebrate? Heck, someone who thinks enough of me to send me a card for any happy holiday that is so special to them that they want to share it with me I will gladly accept. Wouldn’t you?
What about a St. Patrick’s Day card? Or a Canada Day card? Why not?
(Cue blowhard voice, deep. bellowing and full of gas) “Why Peter, it’s not professional! It might offend!” You know, this may be a personal bias (what offends me might not offend you and vice versa) but for example a Polish person who finds a special, fun, family tradition in Dyngus Day and who wants to send me a note telling me about it so that I might share in that happiness, does not offend me. I am honored even though it’s not my celebration. And I think “that’s different”.
If I saw a $5.00 coupon with that same note, I might question the sincerity of the sentiment
Don’t sell, just be sincere, be unique, be creative. Don’t include a press release, or holiday office hours or anything that screams “Me!” There’s a time and a place for that and certainly it’s still acceptable. But think different. Let’s your prospects become people and let those people see you as something other than a vendor.
Let them see you as a person.
How about we forget cards for a second…what else can you create for folks in your audience that just let’s them know you’re thinking about them?
What can you create that screams “Them!”? That you are thinking of them. Or that you just wanted to share this “fun” or “silly” or “special” something…just because they mean something to you as a person, as a respected individual.
If it were easy, anybody could do it. But you’re not just anybody.
What have you done that really made some client or prospect say “wow” in a good way? Or what ideas are now percolating inside you?
