- The luggage shop that greets you with a hug isn’t boring. (The owner always asks, “may I give you a hug today to say hello?”)
- The golf course that organizes a picnic for families once a year on the 18th green isn’t boring.
- The pet shop that organizes a bus from a senior citizen home for those who would like to play with a puppy for a few hours isn’t boring.
- The restaurant that has random acts of key lime pie desert for everyone when the spirit urges – they too aren’t boring.
- The company whose on-hold message has a different joke each day – that’s not boring.
Boring is the Enemy of Great Marketing
How are your business fighting sameness and that feeling of meh? What tactics are you going to employ in 2016 so that you not only get noticed but get a little extra love for breaking through the blah, blah, blah of most afternoons?
Most businesses don’t realize how much they blend into the woodwork. What are you doing to stand out from the category by bringing an idiosyncratic, human element to your company? Can you get someone to stop and notice you – instead of blending into the wallpaper?
Let’s face it, most businesses are boring and way too serious. A little fun goes a long way to making a customer want to come back.
When I was in college, we used to go to Koch’s Deli for lunch in West Philadelphia. It was always ridiculously crowded. The lines were out in the street. Louis or Bobby would walk around the line with slices of pastrami in hand that they would share with the waiting guests to make their wait a little more tolerable. The business has new owners today, but they still give away samples while people wait because it’s fun and you are family.
I haven’t eaten pastrami in over twenty-five years, but the memory of these experiences still linger like the smell of pickled meats. I don’t remember any experience like that from any other restaurants in the neighborhood. Koch’s was truly remarkable.
Five Tips for Anti-Boring Brigades
- Have each employee create a strange but wonderful list of silly ideas that might make a customer smile. No limits or guidelines on the list except it must not offend your audience.
- Find a local high school class and ask a teacher if they would give this assignment to budding business or arts students. Provide a small reward or gift for the best ideas. Kids don’t care about your rules or what is proper – they love stuff that is fun and their ideas might be just the antidote your business needs.
- Create a meet up with a smart marketing facilitator who could take several small business owners through a brainstorming session to create dozens of great ideas together. What works for the dry cleaners might also work for the take-out deli or a light manufacturer too.
- Call the owners of companies who are in the same industry/business as you in other cities. Create your mastermind group to share ideas that have worked for others in different markets. Someone may have some fun, anti-boring ideas that you can borrow and that won’t interfere with their business if it’s one thousand miles away.
- Create a contest online that allows anyone to submit an idea on your website that suggests ways to bring some fun to your humdrum marketing.
Companies have both internal and external customers they need to engage with every day. Bringing an anti-boring mentality to those relationships, means you are being thoughtful, intentional and acting like a human being.
Would you like a slice of pastrami?
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Need help jump starting your fun brigade? Want to bring more humanity and happiness into your customers day? Let’s talk. You bring the bagels. I’ll bring the coffee. Connect with me here or sign up for my blog here.
