Last month, a team of marketers I know were in their office, brainstorming ideas for a new campaign. Partway through the session, a member of the team tossed out a great idea for a headline and the team leader said...
"That's brilliant... now let's see if we can make it true."
Two of the team laughed.
Because, you see, most marketers do NOT think this way.
Most business owners start with, "What can we say that IS true?"
This seems rational and honest.
But it leads to boring ideas, boring products, boring ads, and boring businesses.
A better approach is to start with what is NOT true (yet!).
Start with the biggest, boldest, most perfect promise, idea, offer, or ad... AND THEN WORK BACKWARDS to make it true.
How can we change our offer, our product, our process to MAKE it true?
What would we have to do for this to be true?
You end up with better ads, probably a better product, often a better service, and usually better customers.
In one of his excellent blogs, marketing and advertising guru Roy H. Williams said a couple of things about this idea that had me nodding vigorously...
"If you have nothing to say, don't let anyone convince you to say it.
Boring, predictable messages, in emails, on blogs, and social media, make you seem smaller and duller. They waste your time and your money and achieve nothing.
Entertainment is the only currency that will purchase the time and attention of the busy public. Are your ads entertaining?"
If you start with what's ALREADY TRUE and try to push that boulder up the hill, your ads, emails, and posts are probably boring.
But if you turn off your internal editor and start with what COULD be true and work backwards... now you get to tap into the weird and the wonderful... and that can lead you to all sorts of exciting places!!
