If you can make a message stick with your prospects, you don’t have to spend so much money repeating it. But how do you make it stick? Here are three simple ways.
Humanize It.
Think about Apple’s “I’m a Mac. I’m a PC.” — or Allstate’s “Mayhem.” They took the product or its intangible nemesis and let them talk. Not only did we all remember them; we looked forward to seeing them again. More important, they tattooed the benefits into our brains.
There are infinite ways to do this. If you save prospects money, try a runner, saying, “I’m your budget. Want to know how to make me go farther?” Or someone doing yoga, saying, “I’m your budget. And I just love to stretch.” Or maybe it’s a degree you’re marketing. “Hi…I’m your resume. And I’m feeling a little empty inside, like something’s missing…”
Make it relevant. Make it funny. And you’ll make it stick.
Flip the Script.
This one’s simple. Take the bad result of not using your product or service — or false assumptions about using it — and turn them upside down.
For senior living, show an older couple in a retirement community. The wife is on the phone with their adult daughter. The wife says, “Hold on…let me ask your Dad,” then covers the phone. In a quiet voice, she tells her husband, “Shae wants to know if we’re bored here.” Then the senior couple bursts out laughing — breathless, hysterical laughter.
Or the college degree variant: “No, honey…your father and I love having you living at home.” Whatever it is, flip it with smart, sharp writing and see what happens.
Compared to What?
Especially with an intangible like a service, using a physical object to illustrate the benefit (or the downside of not buying from you) gives the prospect an easy way to recall your point.
The most well-known example is the egg and the frying pan: “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.” But anytime you can use an object to show how you help — or the harm you prevent — the more likely it is to stick in people’s minds.
Not only is this inexpensive, but it often works across all media. So it can easily move from a billboard or direct mail piece to a social media post or a video.
The next time you find yourself falling back on the same old phrases and ideas to sell what you sell, try one of these approaches and see if it sparks some new thinking.
And if you need a spark, consider Idealogy’s Out of the Box Day, now available in a convenient Zoom format as well as in person. It’s a great way to bring your team together and find new ways to think about old challenges.