Lady GaGa performs at Canada's Wonderland in Toronto
This is the sixth post in the new blog expert series called: Successful Corporate Blogs and we talk about a very personal thing…YOU!
Everything is about marketing if you think about it.
Even if you’re applying for a job you’re marketing yourself – telling your prospective employer why he should hire you over somebody else, and it’s no different on the Internet.
Assuming you have a great product or service, how on earth do you become more visible than your competitors?
A lot of it is down to an individual’s confidence and personality. The people I know in internet marketing are never afraid to get publicity. They’ll team up with other people in their particular niche and get on video as much as possible to discuss aspects of the business. It’s all about self branding.
Products do not sell themselves; somebody has to market them to get them from the warehouse to the consumer. You have to treat yourself as a commodity. Lady Gaga did it and she gives us a clue. She stands out because of her crazy attire; she certainly isn’t the best female singer in the world.
Marketing yourself is about being larger-than-life and being everywhere all at once so you become instantly recognizable. On the internet you can be an actor – you can build a persona that really isn’t you. Although it matters that people trust you and you continue to build relationships, you become rather like a movie actor playing a role. Johnny Depp is by some accounts a quiet family man who lives in rural southern France. On screen we all know and love him as the lunatic Jack Sparrow, or the peculiar Edward Scissorhands.
Understanding your target market thoroughly is the key to this. Study closely what your competitors do and see how they interact with their audience and what they’re doing to be so successful. If it means you have to make some crazy videos, why not do it? If nobody else in your niche is producing outstanding videos then you have the perfect media to show the crazy side of you. All you need is one to go viral and you’ll find your business taking off rapidly.
Of course a lot of it depends on what you’re promoting.
I used to follow an Internet marketer who was heavily into micro beers. Every video he made featured a different beer which he would guzzle throughout, and the more beer he drank the more he cursed. I never bought anything from him, and I haven’t heard from him for quite a while. I’m not saying you should do something as extreme as that but he certainly got a lot of people’s attention and probably made a lot of money – more than enough to pay for rehab!
There’s always an angle, always something you can do to make your business stand out.
What that might be may not be obvious at first, but don’t be afraid to experiment. All you need is confidence in yourself and your product.
What are you going to do to stand out?
Please share your views in the comments below.
Previous posts in this Successful Corporate Blogs series:
Successful Corporate Blogs: Are You Really Writing For YOUR Audience?
Internet Marketing Is Easy When You Use This Technique
Internet Marketing Is Easy When You Use This Technique Part 2
You’re right Andrew, you need to stand out in the crowd of millions if you want to be successful online. And honestly, your image/product doesn’t even have to be cutting edge, it just needs to stand out. Lady Gaga took a page out of Madonnas book, but shes wildly popular because she stands out.
Exactly, Tory.
How do you stand out?
Andrew
Hey Andrew
I was just speaking about this with my partner and interestingly enough I suggested, as we were scripting a Facebook video course, that we needed to speak to the camera like we were speaking to a best friend after having a couple of beers. The more I write, the more I try to “loosen up” and be myself. That’s what people want – authenticity – not canned BS.
Lady Gaga makes me gag, but I get the point 🙂
Cheers
Mark
P.S. not sure why my picture isn’t showing up on my posts??
Mark,
you are right…visitors want to see the real people – no someone else.
Re: Pic. Not sure. Have you changed your email address?
Andrew
I never thought being told to be like Lady Gaga would be good advice. Haha. I do respect that she has branded herself though. You have to be different and provide your consumers something unique.
Katie
…and its pretty hard to do. Lady Gaga has to be one in a million.
Andrew
Totally agreed with you, will try my best to do what you teach in this blog post.
Corinne
What’s good attention?
Andrew
Andrew,
Nice example on Lady Gaga. It caught our attention. What am I going to do to stand out? Well first of all, it pays do be ourselves even in the internet. Somehow it will reflect, even if we try to market it in a different way. Furthermore, we must follow our passion (lucky for those who found it). And lastly, we must study marketing (if we haven’t been able to figure out how to market ourselves in the segment or niche that we want).
Lishiel
So you are going to be yourself…like many others are.
You follow your passion…like many othes do.
And you are going to study marketing…like many otyhers do.
How does that make you stand out?
Andrew
>>She stands out because of her crazy attire; she certainly isn’t the best female singer in the world.
Right but honestly any music critic will tell you that she has solid technical skill above and beyond *most other pop stars*, vocally. She has the technical prowess to back up the insane outfits.
>>She stands out because of her crazy attire; she certainly isn’t the best female singer in the world.
Right but honestly any music critic will tell you that she has solid technical skill above and beyond *most other pop stars*, vocally. She has the technical prowess to back up the insane outfits.
Fred
I agree she is good but I think there are better…Alicia Keys?
Andrew
In my three years of blogging, I’ve wavered on which direction I wanted my brand to go. At first, I thought I would work on health issues, then “how to blog”. I’ve decided on MMA and it’s a perfect fit. I believe that I stand out in a very crowded MMA space.
Gaga rocks!! She’s a very unique creature int this world.