Blend Marketing Spotted in the Wild

Truth time. Your mission, your whole business, depends on sales. To obtain these sales, you need solid marketing that converts. Likely, what worked last year won’t deliver the same results this year. So what’s your plan? How are you going to refresh your marketing strategies and stand out from the rest?

My favorite radio station growing up was WHDA in New Jersey. It was a rock station that would spin my favorite tunes from Def Leppard, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Pink Floyd. Bear with me. This story is going somewhere. It’s potent marketing lesson.

I remember the first time I heard Hot For Teacher, by Van Halen, on the station. I couldn’t believe music like that even existed. I sat in front of my boom box one afternoon, mesmerized by the pulsing drums. The only thing that broke my Van Halen hypnosis was when the DJ came back on and announced, in that cheesy DJ voice, “That’s the brand new one from Eddie and gang!”

He continued, “Do you have your DHA bumper sticker? They’re cool, they’re free and they tell the world that you listen to the rock of New Jersey! Each day our WHDA crew is driving around New Jersey looking for our next winner. If we spot you with the bumper sticker on your car, you will get the prize of the day!” Talk about marketing. I saw more kids with these bumper stickers than Van Halen t-shirts.

DHA has been cranking out the tunes for decades now, and I still listen in. While I am not listening in on my boom box, I do have it playing in the background on my Echo. Sure enough, a few days ago the DJ said “Remember this blast from the past?” and the very distinct Hot For Teacher drum beat kicked in.

This trip down memory lane sparked an idea. I could use a blend technique to market my books (and you can use it too). Blend Marketing is the method of using a marketing practice that exists in another industry and implementing it, in some fashion, in your own. How can a “bumper sticker” for one of my books be “spotted in the wild”, and be awarded?

For me, this was a watershed moment of marketing ideas. I could do actual bumper stickers or magnets. I could have people post a “bumper sticker” on social media. I could make it a hashtag. I could ask people to add it to their email signature.

Running with the idea I started a Different Is Better (DiB) experiment. I invited readers to put a digital “Different Is Better” bumper sticker in their email signature. It was a keyed (trackable) link that connected to a site with information about the book. And, the key, tracked who’s email signature caused the click. That was how we spotted the email signature bumper stickers “in the wild.”

As the DiB Experiment progressed we found elements that worked well and others that didn’t. Adjusting accordingly to make it more effective. It became a unique marketing approach to see a signature with a colorful “bumper sticker” displayed in so many entrepreneur’s emails.

Thank you Eddie and crew!

My marketing game has grown leaps and bounds over the last 15 years. Here’s to yours evolving too.

If you want to try your own Different is Better marketing experiments you can pick up the book and get all the free resources.

Stand out among the crows. Be different!

You’ve got this!

-Mike

PS. – Pre-order my next book, Different Is Better, for more marketing strategies and become the one who gets noticed in your industry.

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