Is Your Marketing Gutsy Enough?

If your marketing campaigns are not scaring you in the slightest, those campaigns are putting your customers to sleep. You are most likely spending too much on marketing and advertising for too little ROI.

Successful marketing today requires you to “take a chance” or “put it all out there.” Seth Godin states in his book Linchpin that you must step out of your comfort zone or be doomed to the status quo. And Joe Pullizi in Epic Content Marketing recommends, “don’t be afraid to take sides on matters than can position you as an expert.”

One example of fearless marketing is Nordstrom’s return policy. Nordstrom trusts its customers enough that it will take returns on special items such as evening dresses, even as competitors like Neiman Marcus have implemented strict “no return” policies on these items because some folks will return the dress after wearing it once.

Another example is the Zappos employee who went to buy a pair of  “out of stock” shoes at a local store (and competitor) because a customer needed that pair of shoes for an important business meeting.

While gutsy marketing examples are plentiful on the retail side, they are far too few in the B2B world. Most companies create boring, self-serving content, blast you email sales pitches and expect you to show up at their event trade show booth with no incentive.

Here are a few fearless marketing ideas for healthcare and technology companies we’ve devised at Clarity Quest that may get you thinking out of the box:

• A healthcare software provider issued a challenge to event attendees to bring their most pressing problems to their trade show booth and if the company can’t come up with a solution in 4 weeks, they issue the prospect a gift card. This not only engages a techie audience that likes to “stump the experts” but it gives the company insight into the industry’s most pressing interconnect problems and assures they get the prospect’s contact info.

•  Truthfully assess your partner’s products and post your opinions. I love the women’s work fashion review site Corporette because the author gives her opinion on clothing and shoes, even those which advertise on her site. And she opens up the reviews for readers to post as well. Sometimes I agree with her, and sometimes I don’t, but I read her blog because she takes a stand.

• Entice new prospects with a free strategy session and offer them $1,000 if they don’t think it was worth their time.

Our marketing agency very frequently provides advice for free to start ups when we know very few will turn into paying customers. But those that do are extremely appreciative and loyal customers.

Is your marketing gutsy?  Post your courageous examples below.

Author: +Chris Slocumb