Top Ways You Can Be a Marketing Contrarian

Do yourself a favor. Go and pick up your community paper or marketing flyer. Spot anything? Yup. It all looks bland. Very rarely do I see a business ad that catches my attention and makes me stop to think and want more information. The truth is that most small businesses have a tough time selling themselves. They don't know what the best way is to stand out from the competition. If you'd like to excel in the advertising arena, you have to be a leader, not a follower. In life, but particularly in business, leaders are typically contrarians.

The Oxford Dictionary describes a contrarian to be, "a person who takes a contrary position or attitude." Why do you need to be one? Because contrarians stand out and get noticed. Contrarians aren't scared to do what no-one else is doing, which can lead to spectacular results that imitators never experience.

Here are the top methods to being an advertising contrarian:

Do the Opposite

Remember the episode of Seinfeld when George started to do the exact opposite of everything he had ever done before? All of a sudden he got a fine job, a new apartment, and a girl. Now, it may not be a good idea to pattern your life on the fictional George, but there's a grain of truth to his tactic.

Contrarians look for what everybody else is not doing. Then, they bridge that void by doing the opposite. The same rule can and should be applied to advertising. For instance, if you are a real estate agent and everyone else has pictures of home exteriors, a contrarian might advertise interiors. Raise the contrarian bar further by taking up a controversy that educates your prospects and impresses them with your expert information.

Exercise the Superiority Factor

This is your look, your feel, your design, and your character. Look at the adverts in your paper again. Zero character. Zero charm. What to do? Catch their eye with a design, a logo, or an image of you with two of your latest happy clients - or you standing at your town's "Welcome" sign holding up a giant golden key. Make sure your sales collateral leaves a notable and unique impression on your prospects by using professional and consistent branding that clearly communicates who you are and what you do. That means that if you are a real estate agent, you've got real estate agent branding that immediately identifies your professionalism and the sort of property you work with.

Consistency Instead Of Spot Advertising

You will be much better off taking out a half-page advertisement on a continuing basis rather than a full-page ad less frequently. Consistency is what works. This is why so many marketing efforts fail, they do not run for enough time. True, some are simply awful ads, but others are removed much too quickly. Even a mediocre ad placed regularly will produce more response than a brilliant ad placed for only a brief period of time. There are a few individuals would disagree with me, but my own personal research has proven again and again that consistency beats spot advertising every day.

Quality Above Quantity

Contrarians don't market every single product they have for sale. Actually, you may want to consider just advertising one. "I can't do that!" you might be thinking. "I've got 20 critical products." Well, I have news for you: it's all in the presentation. When entering into the arena of advertising, it is important to plan a campaign by asking yourself some critical questions:

"Where am I going to be advertising?" Study your local publications. Before you even think about placing an marketing ad live them. Breathe them. Know them in and out. Know the competition - inside and out. You cannot be a contrarian without knowing what everybody else is doing.

"Who is looking in these publications?" The more that you know about your target market, the better. Everybody examines ads for many different reasons. They could be shopping, comparing features for an upgrade, inventory managers hunting for product options or other businesses looking at the competition. It isn't just customers anymore.

"Am I advertising myself, the area I work in, my niche, or just a product?" The answer could be any or all the above, but you won't know which one is the best till you've identified something that nobody else is doing - something that is going to set you apart from your competitors.