Earlier today I read (and responded to) a question about email promos on a creative pro forum. The writer wanted to know what to write on his email promo and he wanted to know what everyone else was doing.
This is a perfect example of what I call Sheeple Marketing; that is, doing what everyone else done because “that’s what you do…baaa, baaa.” He was (I’m pretty sure) asking because he wanted to do what other people had already done with some measure of success. He wanted to follow the herd because what the herd does is safe.
Safe is not what you want to be in today’s marketplace. You want to be effective.
There is a ton of clutter out there. Clients, especially creatives who hire other creatives, get innundated with promos every single day. They have mental walls to block the mundane, the typical. They are fighting to get their clients to break out and be different, so why would they be impressed with you if you don’t show that same attitude?
I pointed out in my response that he should instead think about what might work for him. As a creative pro himself, and one who gets annoying spam (like all of us), what might work on him to break through the clutter? If he can’t get the data on what his targets definitely want, then the fallback position of “What would work on me, because I share commonalities with my targets?” is not a bad way to go. And it beats the hell out of trying the same-old same-old.
Might you come up with an idea that totally flops? Sure. It’s a risk. But if you don’t try you can’t break out of the herd.