Image via Wikipedia

Do you ever find yourself lacking creativity in your marketing? Let’s face it, it’s always easier to follow the leader, or the masses rather than come up with some form of originality. The great thing about mavericks such as Steve Jobs or Richard Branson, is that they show us what the power of creative thinking can do! Of course, the challenge lies in figuring out how to tap into your inner creative genius. Here are some great tips that can hopefully help inspire you to think outside the box.

•  Look outside your industry. I love the story my friend and peer Troy White once told me about a lobster ranch in Maine. Instead of competing against all the other lobster ranches to get local business they adopted an unheard model of membership. That’s right you bought a membership and a share of your very own lobster trap. You could receive updates on how your trap was doing and of course you received your share of lobsters. Now of course, memberships aren’t new….think time shares as a great parallel. What made this is so original was integrating this great experience into a new market.

•  Create services for your products or products from your services. Are you limiting what you offer as a small business? A great creative way to not only wow your customers but to continue to engage them is by offering that complimentary service or experience to a product, or a product to a service/experience. Look at Starbucks. Do you really think it’s their coffee that made them successful or was it the atmosphere and flexibility around the product offerings that make it so popular? Of course you have to look at Apple as well. Think about the commercials you have seen lately. Do they focus on the features of the iPhone or more about the apps you can use to make your life easier, more productive or just plain old fun? This same principle can apply to a small business. Remember these companies started out small too!

• Throw in the Kitchen Sink. I love this simple yet effective concept from Martha Beck. If you are trying to solve a problem and can`t come up with a creative solution, stop thinking about the problem. Instead engage in random activities. Read blog posts on the arts, business and medicine. Take your dog for a walk and then start knitting that sweater. When you get those great epiphanies they usually come when you start focusing on something else.

• Get outside feedback. I recall hearing Malcolm Gladwell speak and someone asked him how he came up with his brilliant ideas. He stated that quite frankly his original ideas weren`t all that good. But when we share our ideas with others and get their insight, our ideas become great. The problem in business is that we are scared to share our ideas in fear that someone will inherit them. Get over it and start asking for feedback and turn your ideas into gold.

While many of the examples or individuals mentioned here are famous or have gone on to achieve considerable success, this doesn`t mean that you have to hit a creative ball right out of the park. But I do know this. If you stop trying to think out of the box, your business is highly unlikely to get to that next level. Success is about growth and growth is about change and change comes from adapting a different approach. So it`s time to put on that thinking cap.

We need to start using some new improved superlatives in our marketing copy. “Great!” you say. Yes, that’s the one. Great really grates on me. Great is so overused that it may as well be blank space. Great carries all the impact of a cotton puff.

Now, there was a time when great really meant something. Take Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, conqueror of lands, founder of cities for example. Now, he is great. Somehow I just can’t see Product XX’s great online resources changing the political and demographic history of three continents.

Or maybe Ramesses II, Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty, known as the Great. Can you imagine the great new flavor of Processed Food XXX ruling unchallenged for 66 years, causing the building of cities and monumental sculptures that survive for 3,500 years? Or inspiring poetry such as P.B. Shelley’s Ozymandias “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”?

OK. Actually, I CAN look on Processed Food XXX and despair. But Processed Food XXX great?!?! Not a chance.

The Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s east coast is truly Great. The reef system is thousands of kilometers long, and hosts a diversity of corals and sea life unmatched on the globe. Somehow it just seems insulting to compare it to the great customer (dis)service system of Company XXXX.

So let’s stop claiming every new and old product or service is great. After all, when every thing is great, nothing is great.

There are plenty of under-utilized superlatives available. Pick up a thesaurus or a dictionary and take a look. Click over to Thesaurus.reference.com, Merriam-Webster.com’s Thesaurus or any of the other online thesauri and peruse some of the

august, capital, chief, commanding, dignified, distinguished, eminent, exalted, excellent, famed, famous, fine, glorious, grand, heroic, high-minded, highly regarded, honorable, idealistic, illustrious, impressive, leading, lofty, magnanimous, main, major, noble, notable, noted, noteworthy, outstanding, paramount, primary, principal, prominent, puissant, regal, remarkable, renowned, royal, stately, sublime, superior, superlative, talented, able, absolute, aces, adept, admirable, adroit, awesome, bad*, best, brutal, cold*, complete, consummate, crack*, downright, dynamite, egregious, exceptional, expert, fab, fantastic, fine, first-class*, first-rate, good, heavy*, hellacious, marvelous, masterly, number one, out of sight, out of this world, out-and-out, perfect, positive, proficient, super-duper, surpassing, terrific, total, tough, transcendent, tremendous, unmitigated, unqualified, utter, wonderful, abundant, ample, big, big league, bulky, bull, colossal, considerable, decided, enormous, excessive, extended, extensive, extravagant, extreme, fat, gigantic, grievous, high, huge, humongous, husky, immense, inordinate, jumbo, lengthy, long, major league, mammoth, mondo, numerous, oversize, prodigious, prolonged, pronounced, protracted, strong, stupendous, terrible, titanic, towering, tremendous, vast, voluminous,

alternatives to great. It is time to spice up and enliven our marketing language.

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software

Every time I think about blogging, I question what I should write about, whether or not I have the time, if people will read my posts, etc. But when I actually think about what blogging can do for our business, it’s really a no-brainer. Blogging is pretty much free marketing (and can actually be kind of fun!). So how can you go wrong with that?

I recently read an article stating that in times of economic crises (like many feel we are experiencing today), you should continue or expand your marketing budget. The logic was that if others are cutting their budgets, you have a “greater window of opportunity to get your message across to your market.” While I do understand this logic, it is always prudent, recession or no recession, to be smart about how, where and why you are spending your marketing and advertising dollars.

Traditional advertising often doesn’t provide the results businesses are looking for, so even if they have a robust marketing budget, organizations often look for creative (and low-cost) ways to market and advertise. Blogging is one such way, and it can be an extremely effective marketing tool. Not only are you putting content out there for others to read, but when people comment and link back to their blogs, it can start a cycle of exposure.

Aside from creating and writing your own blog, there are other ways to get noticed in the world of blogging. Just like others can comment on your blog, you should explore and find a blog you like, post comments and link back to your company’s blog. There are an abundance of bloggers out there, so you are sure to find at least one that provides interesting and useful content for you to read and comment on.  And since there are so many bloggers out there, another way to draw attention to your company is to act as a guest blogger for someone else in your sphere.

Both WordPress.com and Blogger.com provide free accounts, so take advantage of a free account and add blogging to your marketing mix.

Kristen Langham
Manager of Business Development
Palo Alto Software