You will see companies who believe that simply being listed at the top of a search engine result is all that matters. It matters, a lot, but without giving people something to rave about once they find you, and converting them into customers, fans, or something other than a ten second click, it is worthless.
If you doubt me, just question why you have heard of Nike, and not that other shoe and athletic apparel company who tried so hard to make you a customer. If you think it just comes down to massive amounts of money to spend, you surely forgot that Microsoft started in a garage. The founders knew what it meant to be creative, and they made that creativity clear in their market outreach. This can mean consumer marketing as well as marketing to investors, so make no mistake on that.
Marketing creativity is what makes things popular, and takes ideas to the next level. An example is the way Roche Applied Science, a company dealing in genome sequencing made something so geeky and scientific as apoptosis a fun topic. They knew who their market was, and reached them with their massively successful “Cell Death Tour” marketing campaign.
Marketing creativity is also what Matt Harding did for Stride Gum when he produced a video with 27,267,455 views and counting. It was creative enough that millions of people passed it along to their friends.
The list of examples is long, but I will try to keep this short by explaining that creative marketing often makes the difference between a ten second click and a massively successful market reach.
Creative Marketing Drags You by the Nose
You can try to ignore it, but what drags you by the nose to embrace a brand is the work of the creative marketer. Some may say that their market is more logic-based and that people are just looking at the numbers. Even if that is the case, they should really be looking at the explosion of numbers that happens with creative marketing that is perfectly crafted to reach the target.
Sure, marketing is a numbers game, and with enough numbers, anything can be a success. While many Internet marketers fight to be more visible, and with high-traffic to Websites being rewarded with unrealistic hopes, creative marketing is often neglected. I sometimes think that this is one of the top reasons so many people are getting the shaft from Internet marketers who make big promises about traffic, while having little idea what actually motivates a market.
Creative Marketing Does Not Just Mean Cute
When I say creative marketing, I do not just mean delivering a creative message, but also how to reach the right audience, and not just any audience. Reaching a lot of people is great. It allows the opportunity for people to share the message with the audience you seek. However, it also leaves a lot of chances that your marketing wheels are left spinning and stuck in the mud.
A Creative Marketing Proposal
As I was preparing a marketing proposal just yesterday, I was thinking about how to provide the best reach into the client’s target market. I had discussed the client’s marketing objectives enough to create a nine page well considered proposal. It dealt with many areas of math, geography, and demographics, but there was something more. While I was proofreading the proposal, I got to thinking about what makes marketers different. What is that key element that sets the great apart from the good in marketing? When I reached the portion of my marketing proposal dealing with cost where it explained that we do not breed elves, it struck me. Creative thinking is one area that truly sets marketers apart more than any other. I already knew this, but the tricky part is in expressing it.
Here is a portion of the marketing proposal, but I offer you this preface: Call me crazy if you like, but I am not a salesman. I give the facts, and I try to deliver it in a unique way. I will also add, as you may find here, that I do not seek everybody willing to drop a few dollars and dip their toe into the marketing pool to test the water. There are sharks in there, and I never want to see a client’s leg bit off by dipping their toe in. I want that diamond client that I was able to carefully carve out of the rough and polish with care. I want the one who is not afraid to be successful. I want the one who understands marketing creativity and the huge value it offers. When the client “gets it” I am ready to get to work. When they just want to follow the flock of sheep off the edge of the cliff, they call somebody else.
INVESTMENT IN YOUR BUSINESS
We see it all too often that price is the concern rather than wise investment in a company’s success. Our job is to increase the bottom line of your company. We don’t chase unicorns or offer elf breeding. Our work is based on real data, using real science that really works. This is not myth, and the return you receive will reflect the investment you make. In order to create massive success, you simply cannot do it with minimal investment, or with marginal marketing providers, as you have already witnessed.
In order to achieve both short-term and long-term results for your brand, we seek an initial budget of $25,000 with ongoing services to be recommended only following 30 day, 60 day, and 90 day benchmarking. We will not come back and ask for more money without a very good reason, and if we do, it is best that you spend it.
This initial budget will allow us to focus on the quality and quantity of your reach, and the creativity to achieve high conversion of your prospects into active customers and money in your pocket. It also provides the opportunity for proper benchmarking in order to make determinations of a performance-based opportunity between our companies.
The question of high quality and sustainable marketing should not include any questions of whether it is worth it. We will be pleased to provide enough quantitative data to show the value. The only question we allow room for is whether our clients care about their business enough to make a wise investment in its future.
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