The 3 Most Important Rules of Marketing

Across the globe people are spending millions of dollars and man hours to grow increase sales, elect people into office, influence change or raise money. Some are successful and some not so much. What is all the more intriguing is that some marketing campaigns are wildly successful and some,  awesome failures (picture the Hindenburg disaster and someone saying “oh the humanity”). At times the clear reason why the marketing campaign has flopped is just not that obvious. We as marketers have to be psychologists, and understand how people respond to things around them. If I may sum up human behavior, sometimes people are just unpredictable. That said, there are factors that always have an impact on the effectiveness of your marketing, and I’ve described them here. These are what I believe to be the most important things to consider and invest in when creating anything to market your business.

A marketing campaign failure

1. Good headlines. Copy writers are in demand these days. With the prevalence of  search engine marketing, social media and the importance of creating web content for blogs and more, fresh content is at a premium. The irony of the matter is  that all that content is only as good at the headline that will sell it. The subject line of an email, the tag line on a billboard, it needs to be simple and clear. It must be interesting, spark curiosity and  lead to a clear call to action.

2. Good design. People have been trained to appreciate good design. Even the left brained individual that can’t consciously discern the difference between good and bad, still subconsciously responds to good design even if they don’t know it. My late friend Steve Jobs took this into consideration with all of Apple’s products. They use a minimalist design, with simple use of color and shape. Think of their logo. It stands out, but yet it is extremely simple (todays version is just a white silhouette of an apple with a bite out of it). They have sold a tremendous amount of products by being meticulous about design.

3. Good distribution. In terms of advertising, the earthshaking tag line or catch phrase on an amazingly beautiful ad doesn’t get any response if it is not where the right people see it. Here are some thoughts when it comes to distribution: A terrible product on Walmart‘s shelves (the worlds largest retailer) will sell more than an awesome one in your yard sale. A “perfect” ad in a mens car magazine, selling a product targeted at middle aged women will not likely sell anything. 1000 postcards to strangers will sell fewer products than 100 marketing emails to past customers. My point is, your advertising needs to be put in the right place, your cool interactive campaign needs to be targeted at the right people in the right way. You must practice relationship marketing if your brand is going to be successful.

Consider this ad we designed for an industry magazine. We took all three of the above into consideration when preparing this ad campaign. Allow me to point out a couple points to illustrate.

Simple and clear is powerful. Don’t worry about earthshaking copy, when you just need an earthshaking headline. There is very little question of what the message is here. Think of a a good headline like the tip of a sword – if you are trying to pierce something, you use the tip of the blade first. Giving your audience all the information at once prevents any of it from being received so start with the point.

Contrast can been seen for miles. Consider contrast in two areas: design and message. Contrast in message is using the art of pattern interrupt by deviating from what is expected (we said think small instead of think big for example). Controversy is also a way contrast can get attention. Contrast in design includes choosing colors for backgrounds that make your subject standout. Contrasting design catches the eye (and is pleasing to the eye when done tastefully).