It’s been a couple weeks since the Art of Marketing conference, but our minds are still buzzing with great ideas and inspiration from the speakers. We have really enjoyed sharing some of these ideas with you as part of our marketing mantras series. Last week, we shared our thoughts on the importance of social media as a two-way conversation. Before that, we discussed metrics and relationships. Today, we’d like to close off our marketing mantras series with mantra #4: Be different.
Several Art of Marketing speakers cited this crazy statistic: As a human race, we create as much content every 48 hours as we did from the dawn of man through 2003. Talk about information overload. So how do you stand out? You do something different.
All of the speakers touched on this idea, but no one expressed it as well as Seth Godin. He said that most marketers are stuck on the idea of reaching what he called “the boring middle.” They run ads that reach everyone and try to make their products things that everyone will want. But the truth is, there are very few products that appeal to the masses. Technology has facilitated the birth of niche groups who want unique things sold to them in unique ways. If we leverage this opportunity correctly, niches can be far more profitable for marketers than the boring middle. Today’s marketer must be adept at identifying these niches, making something original for them, and showing them how it will add value to their lives. It’s really as simple as that. So tell us, what are you doing to be different?
Image via Always Alice.
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