This is the first post in our “Are You an Amateur?” series. In the series, I’ll highlight mistakes amateur marketers make when marketing online.
Differentiation in Marketing
I’m assuming that if you’re reading this blog, you are doing pay per click advertising. One of the largest problems I see with businesses doing PPC is that they do absolutely nothing to differentiate themselves from the competition. As an example, I target attorneys with a lot of my prospecting efforts. I identify law firms that fit our criteria, analyze their campaigns, and email them asking if I can send them a report outlining problems areas they could adjust to make their campaigns more profitable.
In doing this, I have analyzed quite a few legal campaigns. The problem I see about 99.9% of the time: their ads read just like their competitors. As an example, let’s say I prospected an attorney in Seattle. I see that he/she is advertising on the keyword “Seattle Defense Attorney.” When I look at the list of ads that appear for our keyword, they’re all the same: ”Seattle Attorney – 18 Years Experience. Free Consultation.” ”Seattle Attorney – If We Don’t Win, You Don’t Pay.” ”Seattle Attorney – Call Us Now for a Free Consultation.”
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Now, that’s not to say these ads are bad, as demonstrating your experience and pricing options are important. BUT, they do absolutely nothing to capture the reader’s attention. They all blend in together. Here’s an ad that would stand out for our same keyword:
“Seattle Attorney – Prison Food Sucks. Call Us Immediately!” or ”Seattle Attorney – Your Freedom is Being Threatened. Call Now!”
As you can see, these ads stand out. Not only is the approach way different than anything your competitors are doing, they tap into primal human emotions and subconscious fears (provocative, fear based ads are highly effective when used in the right context). When someone is facing a manslaughter charge for accidentally running someone over, I highly doubt they are worried about how much your consultation costs. Instead, they are panicking that they’re going to be torn from their family, lose their job, and have their reputation damaged. All they care about is staying out of jail.
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Clik here to view.
So, what if you’re doing something boring like trusts or tax law? You can still tap into emotions, desires and fears. Highlight the fact that families tear themselves apart fighting over inheritances. Highlight how partners screw each other over and how business owners need to protect themselves. Same goes for accountants. On the surface accounting is boring, but when you tap into the emotions surrounding people’s greed, people’s work ethic and getting what they ‘deserve,’ etc, you can really set yourself apart from your competitors.
That’s it for today. As you can see, differentiation in marketing not only sets you apart and attracts attention, it can also boost your campaign’s performance. So get out there and change those ads (and make sure you TEST them up against each other to determine high performers!!).
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