By Bill Glazer
Before I became a coach & consultant to small business owners, sales professionals and internet marketers, I was running the family owned menswear business when a disaster struck.
To be honest, it could have been a disaster. Instead, it was an OUTRAGEOUS success.
Here's what happened. I came into the store one morning and discovered a sprinkler had malfunctioned and we had three inches of water in the store. I called the insurance company and made a quick settlement and then I realized I had a lot of merchandise but most of it wasn't really damaged. Yet I had to liquidate it... F-A-S-T!!!
So I wrote an advertisement and I put in all the facts.
Imagine that. I was so OUTRAGEOUS that I used facts!
The facts were these: I had a sprinkler malfunction, I made a quick settlement and now I needed to sell merchandise... fast! I put the name of the insurance company and the policy number and other settlement information in the ad so that readers would understand this was real.
I also presented the ad as an advertorial - meaning it was designed to look like an actual newspaper story (see below). Thus, surrounded by real news, the ad looked like real news. So not only was I presenting the facts; I was presenting them as news. News you, the reader, needed to know.
I had a great sale but here is the truly OUTRAGEOUS part. The insurance adjustor who handled my case saw my ad and wanted to know why I didn't put his name in there. So I ran another ad telling the story of my insurance guy and the best part is - he paid for the ad!
Yes, that's O-U-T-R-A-G-E-O-U-S!
Here's an interesting fact about the Sprinkler Malfunction story and why I used an advertorial. I used an advertorial because they are read three times more often than other types of ads.
But why is that?
That's the beauty of OUTRAGEOUS Advertising. You don't need to know why. You only need to know that it works. These are not guesses I am presenting you. These are proven OUTRAGEOUS techniques that work.
Why do they work?
It works because people notice OUTRAGEOUS things.
Why do it? Because everything else is boring, and there is a lot of it out there. Each day, you may think you see 20, 30, maybe 40 advertising and marketing messages - but the truth is that each person each day is exposed to about 3,700 marketing and sales messages. Thus, your job, as an advertiser, is to stand out among that clutter. Yes, each person sees 3,700 or so marketing and sales messages every single day. Most, we don't even notice because they are boring.
Cutting through that clutter and boredom is not easy - unless, of course, you are OUTRAGEOUS.
The Gage Menswear Sprinkler
Malfunction OUTRAGEOUS Ad
Stand Out or Get Thrown Out!
The competition for attention is intense. As a consumer, you know that, and you know what gets your attention.
Facts are hard to ignore and the facts are these:
- People are bored
- People are overwhelmed
- People like to be amused
You can be like everybody else and be treated like everybody else. Or you can be OUTRAGEOUS.
Think about the biggest day for advertisers in America - the Super Bowl. What happens? People watch the biggest football game of the year, and they watch the commercials. Why is everyone interested in the commercials? Because they are OUTRAGEOUS, and people love OUTRAGEOUS advertising!
The best part is...you can be OUTRAGEOUS without spending Super Bowl money. People will love you and you'll earn super money!
7 Steps to Apply OUTRAGEOUS Advertising in Your Business and Your Life
Step #1: Understanding that everything you do to advertise and market your business can be OUTRAGEOUS. In fact, I've found that OUTRAGEOUS Advertising works in every media there is from Offline to Online. It doesn't matter!
Step #2: Understanding that you are NOT your customer: Whenever I deliver a seminar on OUTRAGEOUS Advertising there is always somebody who approaches me after I finish speaking with..."Bill, I love your kind of advertising, but it won't work in my business because my customers or clients, or patients, or prospects are too sophisticated for that kind of advertising."
While I seldom get into a heated discussion over it, they are typically dead wrong. They're wrong for the same reasons that I mentioned earlier in this article. Their customers, like everybody else's customers, are bored and overwhelmed with the advertising they see and generally like to be amused.
Step #3: Train your brain to look for ideas in "obvious" places. In chapter '4' in my book, OUTRAGEOUS Advertising that's Outrageously Successful, I show the "now" somewhat famous Diner Placement mailer that I created for my Menswear stores. This idea came to me when I was sitting in a Diner having dinner with my wife.
The truth is you can receive inspiration for your OUTRAGEOUS Advertising in just about anything that you encounter in your everyday life if you train yourself to constantly be on the lookout for it.
Step #4: Train your brain to look for ideas in "unobvious" places. I thought of ideas for creating OUTRAGEOUS Advertising while I was riding a Donkey in Santorini, Greece and riding on a Camel in the Negev Desert in Israel.
The important point is that you can get inspiration for OUTRAGEOUS Advertising ideas anywhere and everywhere if you are constantly thinking of how you can use them.
Step #5: EVERYTHING can be OUTRAGEOUS including YOU! Throughout my book you'll see example after example of how people position their businesses OUTRAGEOUSLY, position their products and services OUTRAGEOUSLY, and position themselves OUTRAGEOUSLY.
The point is, don't limit your thinking about OUTRAGEOUS Advertising. Once again it can be anything and anyone.
Step #6: S & D: This is a concept that is so powerful that I wrote an entire Chapter (Chapter 10) in my book about it titled: Swiping Ideas and Deploying Them Into your Business. The important thing is that even if you don't consider yourself creative or you can't find ideas to apply OUTRAGEOUS Advertising as I suggest in Steps #3 & #4 above, you can S & D (Swipe and Deploy) them from others.
Step #7: Discover that OUTRAGEOUS Advertising is FUN! This is one of the biggest bonuses to applying OUTRAGEOUS Advertising. You'll find out very shortly after you apply it that not only will your customer love it, but you'll find it to be the one thing that you do in your business that you'll enjoy doing more than anything else (with the possible exception of making the extra income that the OUTRAGEOUS Advertising brings to you.)
This was true in my retail menswear stores and it's still true in my Glazer-Kennedy Insider's Circle marketing company. Sure my customers and now Members are always looking forward to the next piece of OUTRAGEOUS Advertising that comes from me, but I really find it fun to think of or discover the next one that I create.
Now don't get me wrong. My menswear stores were hugely successful as my marketing company is today, but I no longer think of the how much money I make. I just know that by applying OUTRAGEOUS Advertising that's OUTRAGEOUSLY Successful, the money will come and I have a great time figuring out how to attract it.
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