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Having served my time in high tech marketing, I'm far from the world's biggest fan of acronyms, but I love this one. Maybe because I made it up. Not important. What's important is you give me a few minutes while I spell out how to SCORE BIG.
8 Simple and Smart Marketing Principles
Let's spell 'em out now.
S is for Singular.
Communications that cuts through the clutter and stands the chance to pierce the prospect's skull focuses on one big idea. This is easy. This is hard. This is fun. This saves you time. It's the most simple guideline of them all. But for some reason, it's the most ignored. How many times have you seen a headline which attempts to boast scalability, flexibility and interoperability? You can't remember, right? That's the point. Get a singular concept and hit it hard.
C is for Credible.
Know, like, trust. There's your formula for winning the sales and marketing sweepstakes. Trust is the hard one to achieve. You have to earn it. And there's no bigger trust-buster than lofty, questionable, bullshitty claims. Nix silly superlatives and don't go down the "world's most amazing" path. Be real. Be fair. Be honest and cash in on good old-fashioned credibility.
O is for Original.
Know a great writer? Great designer? Concept wiz? Handcuff 'em to your account. Me-too creative (an oxymoron, no doubt) blows. If you have something important to say, but say it in a predictable way, I predict you lay an egg. Be original. Or blend in.
R is for Relevant.
Whether you're boning up on advertising, content marketing, storytelling or any ploy aiming to persuade, you'll get your relevance lesson. Let me help you understand how to ace this one. Understand only one thing's relevant: the customer. Get to know their problems, pains and pleasures. Solve them. Relieve them. Please them.
E is for Entertaining.
E can be for a variety of things. "Education" is the runner-up. "Entertaining" is the winner because if your communications are dull, you're dead. No one tunes in. I always say "You can't bore people into buying." You can repeat and tweet that, but be a bro and tell 'em where you got it. Barry Feldman, philosopher in training.
S. C. O. R. E. - Are we good so far?
One more word: the itty bitty "BIG." I'm not talking rap artist. I'm talking running up your SCORE. Kicking butt.
B is for Big. Or Bold. (Or Both.)
Sorry. Broke my own S rule. Here's the deal: I want you be big and bold. Not small. Not timid. I want you to have a voice. A loud one. Or a beautiful one. Or an irresistible whisper. Essentially, I want you to have a point of view. Your stuff needs to take a stand.
I is for Intentional.
If you do marketing speak like I do marketing speak, you're familiar with the importance of setting an objective, selecting a workable metric for it, and using the "call to action." I've rolled this trio up into our "I," that is, "intentional." You need to have a purpose for everything you create. And it needs to be meaningful. I have a purpose with this post and it's not to show you how well I spell. I want to give you asimple and memorable checklist for your marketing efforts.
G is for Guiding.
Today's super-sharp marketing arrows hit the bullseye by delivering useful guidance. Create marketing that teaches. Create marketing that tells readers and viewers the way to go. Steer. Give advice.
That's what I'm aiming for here. I hope it helped.
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Content Marketing