No "meme" isn't a typo and Got Milk, the more commonly know phrase, is actually a marketing meme. If you've opened up a magazine or watched TV in the last ten years you've seen the fun and memorable Got Milk ad campaign using celebrities with a milk mustache. Chances are it got your attention and you remember the phrase, "Got Milk".
A good meme is simple, provocative and infectious. An effective meme rolls off your tongue and sticks in your mind. Others remember it and pass it along to their friends and colleagues. It's the cultural equivalent of a gene. For those of you without a national advertising budget, helping prospects and clients quickly grasp what you do and having them spread the word about your services is a form of zero cost marketing that you can use.
You may already have a tagline, slogan, or catch phrase you use in your marketing, but does it work as well as a meme? Like a gene, memes synthesize complex information, concepts and ideas and pass them along with little effort. They communicate what you do in a few words or in a short sentence. They enable you to get across the benefits of your products and services to prospects in a form they'll remember and repeat to others.
Does your current title, tagline, or catch phrase:
Effective marketing memes focus on a specific clientele and a solution, or better yet a common client problem. For example, "I help independent professionals attract more clients", identifies a market and a client problem. It also invites the follow up question "How?" FedEx grew their now billion dollar business with the meme, "When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight".
Whether you use a meme in the elevator, on your business card or in your mailings, it should help your prospects know whether you are taking to them and define you as someone who can help them solve a problem, and prompt prospects to ask if your products and services could help them, too.
GET MEME
The "Got Milk" campaign used both words and images to get their message across. If you are only relying on words, you may need more than two, but limit it to less than ten. Use the following steps to write your meme.
Once you have these draft memes, try them out. Some may elicit blank stares; others will prompt people to ask questions or start listing names of people they know who could use your products and services. A good meme can start a chain reaction in people's minds and prompt them to move from prospect to client. When you hear people repeating your meme to others, you'll know you've got one that works.
Coming up with an effective meme isn't easy, but its the lowest cost and most valuable tool in your marketing tool kit. You may be pushing prospects away with your current tagline instead of helping people understand what you do and, more importantly, what you can do for them. So get meme, and get going with your marketing.
2003 ? In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.
About The Author
The author, Charlie Cook, helps independent professionals and small business owners who are struggling to attract more clients and grow their businesses. To get the free marketing guide, '7 Steps to Get More Clients and Grow Your Business' visit www.charliecook.net or write www.charliecook.net
affordable house cleaning Park Ridge ..Part 1A few weeks ago I attended a seminar sponsored... Read More
Too much goal setting and strategic planning can leave you... Read More
With the help of balanced scorecard strategy map, it is... Read More
Businesses tend to avoid doing their annual business plan thinking... Read More
How often does your company make a quantum leap forward?... Read More
If you are a manufacturer wanting to use your business... Read More
Anyone who has been watching the Idaho Market Carefully for... Read More
I love the excitement of starting up a new home... Read More
If you own a pressure washing business one of the... Read More
Every decade we seem to come up with a buzz-word... Read More
Human beings are rational agents. Rationality endorses one to take... Read More
Many business start-up kits or consultants will tell you one... Read More
In this small article we'll concentrate on farmers associations and... Read More
Note to Rite Aid and CVS: It's not about the... Read More
With a heightened awareness of opportunity, ideas can often be... Read More
Writing a business plan to help you direct and manage... Read More
Running a business, whether it be an offline multi-billion dollar... Read More
So you've decided to write your own business plan because... Read More
It's easy to lose sight of what needs to be... Read More
As a franchisor it is imperative that you seek, find... Read More
Before becoming a netpreneaur, I was an entrepreneur. First, I... Read More
The trick is to determine what uniquely identifies your best... Read More
If you own the mid-size business and actively work in... Read More
Have you ever done a SWOT analysis? No, it's not... Read More
Twice a year, Bill Gates goes to a remote island... Read More
affordable house cleaning Mundelein ..I read once that something like 30 percent of all... Read More
A recent conversation started with a typical question, "How's business?"... Read More
Diversify - to make diverse, give variety, to balance, to... Read More
As fast as you can say business disaster, your business... Read More
Strategic planning and consulting is the strategy roadmap to manage... Read More
ACTION PLANNING: Action Planning is a process to develop strategies... Read More
Want to become more strategic? Add these traits to your... Read More
Cassy was an employee of a nonprofit who had been... Read More
Can you imagine going on a road trip without knowing... Read More
Writing a business plan to help you direct and manage... Read More
Q: A key investor in my business has suggested that... Read More
Many of us are discouraged by the networking events that... Read More
Regroup?is this a new management trend? Not a chance! Regroup... Read More
To Grow (Catapult) Your Business That's Why.When it's in your... Read More
When in doubt, cut that out! Yeah, yea, doubting Thomas... Read More
This will make some people angry as hell, but it's... Read More
There is so much small business information available today that... Read More
Growing your own small business can be one of the... Read More
We all know that nothing runs without a plan, and... Read More
There is a story, about a business owner who wasn't... Read More
Why do so many companies languish and watch as their... Read More
If you own a pressure washing business one of the... Read More
A well known, national chain of restaurants discovered that certain... Read More
The current state of the available technology at the disposal... Read More
Ask Yourself three simple questions that affect your strategy planning...... Read More
Strategic Planning |