Juicy Tips on How to Stand Out with Creative Traditional Brand Marketing in a Cluttered Digital Age

A journalist recently asked me to weigh in on a modern branding conundrum: “How can small businesses successfully use creative traditional brand marketing in a world that is increasingly reliant on a cluttered digital marketing landscape?” Here’s what I told him ...

Smart marketers know that the challenge is not always about out-spending the competitors (which is nearly impossible for small businesses), nor is it about mastering the newest “shiny object” when it comes to digital marketing (i.e., you don’t need to rush off to a class on “TikTok for Business”). Smart marketers focus on standing out in authentic ways that resonate with consumers — they focus on creating and clarifying what makes them “meaningfully different.” There are so many ways to do this (many of which I tackle in my book, Think Like a Marketer: How a Shift in Mindset Can Change Everything for Your Business); here are 7 juicy tips to get you started.

1.      Advertise What You Don’t Do, Because Everyone Else is Advertising What They Do

Here’s a great exercise to try when clarifying your brand story and preparing to release another traditional marketing tactic (whether it’s a print ad, broadcast spot, direct mail piece or telephone script). Make a list of items about your business in which every sentence starts with “We don’t” or “We won’t.” Perhaps you don’t charge retainers. Or you don’t hassle customers about product returns. Or you won’t take on business that hurts the environment. Or your in-store sales associates don’t work on commission.

Do your customers, partners and key stakeholders know the details about what you don’t do and where you draw lines in the sand? If they’re unclear about these guidelines, consider what it might mean to your story if you were upfront and unapologetic about these points of meaningful difference. Take a cue from Southwest Airlines — while everyone else is producing another ad about great fares or comfortable leg room, Southwest is advertising that they don’t charge baggage fees. #BagsFlyFree

2.     Speaking of Flying, Let Your Freak Flag Fly

Small businesses (and large ones!) can have big personalities and they can craft cute, or even quirky, personas. Advertise that you’re the company where 6,000 “employee” dogs come to work (Amazon) or feature your freakishly giant purple Adirondack chair (Julie’s Park Café & Motel) on the highway billboard for your local restaurant. Encourage your employees to wear silly name tags with “stage names” and share those oddities in your advertising images and messages.

Quirk is different; personality is endearing; endeared customers are more loyal. 

3.      Allow Your Customers to Sample, But Have Someone Else Pay for It

Sampling strategies can be part of your advertising strategy. Giving away your products, services or insights as a way to build your brand and attract a customer base can be very effective. When you give things away (within reason and in the short term), you’re creating value for your customers so you can ultimately capture value for your business through loyal, delighted customers who come back for more (and are willing to pay!). But it can be difficult, expensive or impossible for small businesses to afford to “give away” anything. So consider how to get someone else to pay for it, and how to incorporate news about your sampling strategy in your advertising efforts. 

How to get someone else to pay for it? Remember that we live in changing times when it comes to retail, and the rise in popularity of “subscription boxes” is a notable example. Think about how to insert a sample of your product into a subscription box or the shipping boxes of another popular company’s products. Consider selling advertising on your blog or podcast site, so someone other than the end user can pick up the tab. This will allow your potential customers to see the value you provide, but in a way that allows your business to save, and make, more money. 

Not sure about that “getting someone else to pay for it” idea? Remember that sampling your product or services creates huge return on investment, whether you’re selling Bagel Bites or business coaching, and that many sampling opportunities are low-cost or even no-cost. (This blog post, for example, is a “sample” of my know-how and my consulting capabilities, and it cost me nothing but my time to write.) Be sure to check out Chapter 3: Give It Away! in my book, Think Like a Marketer, for practical, actionable ideas about how to create a sampling opportunity for your business. 

4.      Be Creative with Your Marketing Tactics

Traditional marketing can be expensive, so small business owners should be thinking about ways to get the most bang for their buck. Don’t just place an ad — place it on the perfect day (whether it’s appearing in a print magazine, a radio or TV broadcast or even in a digital form). As you determine your business’s marketing strategies and associated tactics to reach your target audiences, it’s important not just to choose promising tactics, but also to be creative and smart about your execution of those tactics. 

For instance, when I was directing marketing for a graduate business school, I wanted to take advantage of the “Football-Game-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named-Due-to-Trademark-Laws” season — it was a time when mid-career professionals of both genders were tuning into television and consuming a great deal of media (articles, videos, etc.) about the teams and the game. My target customers were coming out in droves for the football frenzy, and I wanted my employer’s brand to be there in the midst of it all. Thanks to some sharp thinking on the part of my media buyer at the time, we were able to do a “homepage takeover” with ESPNChicago.com the Monday immediately following the game (the proverbial “morning after”). This meant that millions of readers who were giving their full attention to the sports channel’s content were bombarded with messages and images about our MBA program — every single pixel of ad space on the homepage was filled with our branding. While we still utilized some traditional advertising methods, it was our creative approach that garnered us the success we achieved.

Make every dollar of your advertising budget count by getting creative. (And even sneaky, if you must. I will admit that we never hinted to the ESPN rep that the Monday date we were booking was the day after the game. We just kept saying we wanted an insertion order for “February 5th” hoping he wouldn’t realize he ought to charge a whole lot more for that opportunity. It worked!)

5.      Invest in the Perfect Images for Your Brand

What creates the first impression of your small business upon a new customer is apt to be a headline or a featured image used in your marketing efforts. Invest in quality, unique photography, and you will never regret it. Before you start designing new brochures, website content, a print ad, internet banner ads or anything else, get honest about the quality and variety of your photography collection. Just as people judge a book by its cover, they will judge whether your product is worth buying based on its photo. Testing your images is also important — try out which is more effective: showing the product by itself or showing the product being used by a person/model. It’s fascinating how small changes can affect sales. (And remember that if you are the product/brand, your headshots are everything! That’s why so many of my clients travel to Wisconsin for photo shoots with our preferred photographer, Daniel LaBelle, whose photography has ignited the brands of consultants, authors, public figures, and corporate CEOs, as well as product brands and even colleges and universities.)

6.      Use Research as a Promotional Strategy

Some companies hesitate to spend money on research because they want to conserve all their marketing dollars for “working media” (like the actual fees you pay to Google for a paid search campaign or the dollars you pay to a radio station for a series of commercials). But when done well, research is promotion. Take, for example, how mass surveys can leave powerful impressions on the audiences about the sponsors with sometimes thousands of people walk away thinking, “That was so cool how that company asked our opinions about their new products and wanted to understand us. I’m definitely going to check out their products.” Think about how client/customer satisfaction surveys remind people how much they love you and then trigger them to refer new clients/customers to you. Research can be its own kind of marketing, with the data unearthed during the research itself becoming the new story for your business and its marketing efforts.

Next time you’re thinking of placing an ad for a product, think about whether you ought to also (or instead) promote a survey or focus group, reminding customers how much you value them and that “We want your opinions!”

7.      Drive Customers to Your Best Sales Tool

Most brochures, banner ads, print ads, television and radio commercials, social media posts, and direct mail pieces have a call-to-action or hyperlink click-through to a mediocre business website. Business leaders of all stripes, by default, think that the farewell section of a marketing tactic should include their web address and perhaps, their phone number. But ask yourself, “If someone sees this ad and is intrigued, will a visit to our website be the experience that is most likely to turn them into a customer?” If the answer is “no,” encourage your customers to engage elsewhere (such as through a phone call), where the connection can be most meaningful. If your website is your best salesman, great.

But don’t forget that, as the good folks at Tempur-Pedic know, (“Visit a Tempur-Pedic retailer to learn more!”), sometimes the best salesman is, well, an actual salesman. 

For more juicy marketing tips for businesses and brands of all sizes and kinds, follow me on LinkedIn or Facebook and be sure to pick up a copy of my book, Think Like a Marketer: How a Shift in Mindset Can Change Everything for Your Business.