From Boring to Brilliant: 6 Ways to Spice Up Your Marketing & PR Efforts
A good, integrated marketing strategy is essential to organizations at all stages of the brand lifecycle. Leaders create and implement individual campaigns that are designed to showcase the brand, individual products, and key characteristics and messaging for specific audiences. When we put together so many campaigns for the same organization, sometimes it is easy to fall into a rut. You keep doing similar ideas, and maybe they are not having quite the same impact as they did in the beginning.
If you feel like you’ve gotten a little too comfortable with the status quo when it comes to your marketing and PR efforts, then maybe it is time to kick things up a bit.
Here are 6 ways to spice up your relationship with Marketing and PR:
#1 Play devil’s advocate
By far one of my favourites… Challenge yourself or challenge your team to question every aspect of the campaign you have created. Careful not to overthink the campaign, but set this out as an exercise to help you think differently than you normally would.
#2 Expand your team
As a small business, this one may be kind of tough when it comes to hiring someone permanently, but consider bringing in a consultant for a brainstorming session or two. Having a new perspective in the office can have a great impact on creative thinking. If you are a larger organization, you could hire someone new, or take the idea generation to a larger group. Talk to your IT team or your financial people. Feedback from third parties can prove invaluable.
#3 Take a field trip
A change of scenery can make a world of difference. If you are small (maybe just a solo entrepreneur!), head out to the park, a coffee shop, or even an art gallery. If you are working with a team, don’t be afraid to take things outside. Go for a working picnic, or sometimes it can be as easy as getting everyone to shut the computers down for a few hours to work as a group without distraction. Be inspired by your surroundings and the relationships within your team and networks.
#4 Show and Tell
Take an afternoon and have your team come into work with campaigns from other organizations (competitors or otherwise) that have had success. Talk about what you like and what you could maybe adapt for your own campaigns. It is not the worst thing to “borrow” an idea, as long as you make it your own.
#5 Talk to your customers
What kind of relationship do you have with your customers? Why not ask them what they think since they are the ones buying into your brand? I am not suggesting throwing your campaign idea their way for feedback, but sending out a quick email or social media status update asking them what type of content they would like to see, or even what they think the best part about your organization is, can really be eye opening. At your discretion and with clients whom you trust the most, you could even ask if they think there is any way they think you can improve.
#6 Go crazy
Sometimes, a “yes, and…” brainstorm is what you need to get you thinking outside of the box. Yes, and is an improv exercise that is designed to have participants think bigger. Once an initial idea is on the table, everyone then builds on that idea by saying “yes, and…” You can do this with a group or on your own if you are working solo, but the goal is to go as big as possible and build some outlandish ideas. It is easier to make a crazy idea fit within your goals, than it is to pull something from nothing.