We received a sales email last week suggesting that we need to be a ‘purple cow’ and ensure that our email marketing ‘stands out from the crowd’. The email suggested that it’s about always making sure your content is ‘special’ so that you don’t just ‘fade into the background’; a sentiment we don’t wholly agree with.
It transpires that this company drew inspiration for their email from the book ‘Purple Cow’ by American marketing Guru, Seth Godin; the book encourages businesses to ‘be remarkable’, and whilst we do appreciate the sentiment we’re not sure that the related emailer tells the whole story…!
Being remarkable is not easy; in fact, it can in its own right become a full-time job. Richard Branson didn’t become ‘remarkable’ overnight, nor did Sir Alan Sugar or Usain Bolt. Each may have been born with the makings of a ‘remarkable’ person (depending on your view of nature versus nurture), but actually to get there, it took them a lot of hard work and determination. If we instead look at the brands that many would call ‘remarkable’ or some other, similar descriptive idiom, Red Bull has a huge budget to invest in stratospheric stunts, and Apple had a dedicated and hard-working spokesperson Steve Jobs for a while. So if you don’t have the big budget, and you aren’t a PR machine, how do you go about being ‘remarkable’?
Remarkable comes in many shapes and sizes; the dictionary gives two distinct definitions “extraordinary” and “worthy of notice or attention”, which are arguably at two very different ends of the spectrum. For example, a marathon runner raising money for charity is ‘worthy of notice and attention’, particularly in their own circle, but potentially only Paula Radcliffe and other marathon marvels could really be described as ‘extraordinary’. Asking around the office, ‘what do you glean from the word ‘remarkable’’ and the answers included ‘being very good at something’ and ‘doing something that someone else can’t do’; again, both perfectly appropriate answers, but ones which illustrate just how broad a term ‘remarkable’ is. So how do you set about being ‘remarkable’ and do you even need to be? Do you focus on being very very good at something, or is your ultimate goal to be untouchable?
‘Remarkable’ depends on your business, your market and your competitors too. If you hold a patent for an innovative and unique product that fills a need, that may make you remarkable; if you’re very good at what you do, but you work in a saturated market and you have a lot of competitors, there’s still opportunity to be ‘remarkable’. The question to ask is do you really need to be? What will it help you achieve? Well that depends on you, your ethos and what you want.
Where to start on your ‘remarkable’ journey…
- First, stop TRYING to be remarkable; if we had a pound for every client who wants to be ‘different’ etc. etc. you know the saying! Actually, it’s not about being completely different to everyone else, it’s about being you. Start by being the best that YOU can be, and work out how to tell people in a way that engages with them, and you’ll be well on your way!
- Be consistent; aiming to ‘be remarkable’ can be tiring, particularly if you haven’t listened to point one above! Instead, stop trying to be ‘the most innovative’ or ‘wacky’ or ‘unusual’ and instead, be consistent and reliable. There’s nothing worse than a company that does a one-off, bonkers promotion that grabs your attention, only for you never to hear from them again! We’d much rather have individuals / businesses that are consistent, are experts and who provide information we actually want to know about and look forward to receiving. Nothing ‘remarkable’ about that, but just as effective!
- Be creative; this doesn’t mean blow a huge budget on an idea that only lasts as long as the funding does; if you’re going to be creative that way, then make sure it lasts, just like comparethemeerkat.com did. Instead, look at how you can be creative in your everyday; it makes it more relevant, more engaging and easier to sustain, just like when O2 went gansta on twitter.
- Be human; now this is a tricky one, because you don’t want to be posting pictures of a drunken night out on your professional page, or to partake in the trend to post a birds-eye view of your dinner, but you do want to let people know you are a human, not an automated feed. Focus on how you can be useful, helpful, interesting or innovative; also see whether you can take something offline and make a real, not just virtual difference. It should be simple to do and may even be very small, but it’s these personal touches which help make you ‘remarkable’. Here are some examples from the beginning of last year, that show just how effective ‘being human’ can be…
Now, perhaps it is the word ‘remarkable’ that has created a little confusion; perhaps instead of using a word that has so many connotations and meanings to different people, we should instead relook at our aspirations. Maybe words like ‘consistent’, ‘reliable’, ‘expert’ and even ‘engaging’ are far better; after all, they stop trying to make brands ‘stand out’ and instead focus on developing and maintaining a desirable reputation and a loyal client base.
So no, we don’t fancy being a purple cow right now; we do like some of the sentiment but perhaps for small and medium businesses, we need to substitute the word ‘remarkable!