Marketing Inspiration

The Deviant Approach to Creativity

Take a look around your office—what do you see? The traditional mix of memorabilia, photos from company golf tournaments and perhaps a few mementos from some recent successful product launches?But you probably don't have a poster of the Sex Pistols above your desk. And Amantha Imber of Inventium says its deviant imagery, or something of similar shock value, might be just what you need for optimum brainstorming.

Imber points to a Jens Forster study that looked at deviance and creativity. "[They] hypothesized that objects or pictures that relate to the concept of deviance in some way, such as a photograph of punk rockers, are likely to promote divergent thinking," says Imber. The research team divided participants into two groups and tasked each with devising uses for a brick while looking at posters of the letter X repeated in a four-by-four matrix.

For the first group, each of the 16 Xs was the same color; for the second group, one X had a different hue from the other 15. The second group, staring at their deviant X, produced more ideas and exhibited a higher degree of creativity.

In the event your CEO or clients object to radical office décor, Imber recommends meditating on events from your rebellious past to stir up inspiration. "Thinking about one's deviant history is a great way to get the brain geared up for some creative thinking," she says.

Your Marketing Inspiration: Concentrating on a deviant image or memory may help activate unconscious thoughts that lead to good ideas, and more of them.

Get to the Po!nt

Creating Your Company's Own Online Reality

"While many business owners are beginning to understand that information is the currency of the Internet," says Rick Sloboda of WebCopyPlus," few act on it." Yes, your business has the potential to create a website that can go toe-to-toe with larger corporate sites, but there's a chance that ill-defined, irrelevant and self-centered content may conspire to undermine this natural advantage.

Instead, use language to create an online reality that impresses your target audience. "The right web content will make you concrete and credible on the ... Internet," he says. Here are some tips on creating the right image:

• Use customer-centric copy. Small businesses tend to be preoccupied with their own story. People who visit your website don't want to hear about you; they want to know what you or your product can do for them.


• Publish case studies. This is something larger companies do—so why shouldn't you? It never hurts to offer a detailed examination of a successful project. In addition, case studies build a sense of trust.


• Put your guarantee in plain sight. Highlighting your promise communicates confidence, and creates a sense of stability.

The Po!nt: "Your web copywriting doesn't describe reality, it creates it," says Sloboda. "In fact, every word you feature on your website has the ability to build—or damage—how prospects perceive you."

E-mail Marketing

Four Tough ESP Questions

Now, wait just a minute. Don't hand that online campaign to just any email service provider (ESP)—at least not before you ask some hard questions.
Here are four tough ones that SendLabs' Josh Nason says you should always ask an ESP:

• What do I get? You might want a full-service shop that handles everything from software to creative services, or you might prefer an a la carte approach that complements your in-house skill sets. Make sure you know upfront what the ESP can and cannot provide.


• How's your customer service? Ask how long it takes an ESP to respond to reported problems: the industry norm, according to Nason, is within an hour. Also investigate how their service levels might vary based on the plan you choose.


• What will this cost me? Most ESPs charge either by the month or by the campaign. "There are positives and negatives to both," says Nason, "so … communicate your list sizes, your deployment habits and your needs" to find the right payment plan.


• What's the word on the street about you? A quality ESP will have a relationship with an email reputation monitor that confirms email arrives safely, provides blacklist monitoring and offers spam checks. "Feel free to ask [an ESP] what their latest reputation score is," he says.

The Po!nt: "If checking out a company's site or speaking with a rep gives you that not-so-confident feeling, there's probably a reason for it," says Nason. So keep looking until you feel comfortable. By asking the right questions, you'll find the right fit.