Look, not every product on the market can be a sexy, shiny object. The reality is that sometimes aspects of life require products or services that are, well, just plain boring. Does the average person get their kicks chatting about retirement plans? Likely not. How about medical equipment? Yeah, that one’s not exactly a rip-roarin’ time, either. What are you supposed to do if your product falls into the boring bucket? You can’t just toss out the bucket behind the woodshed. We need your product! At least, someone out there does. Here’s our proposal: rather than looking at this as something boring and hard to talk about...
Look At It As An Unexpected Opportunity
If you feel like your business is a little boring, odds are that’s because it’s somewhat complex. The more complex, the greater opportunity you have to be the expert. This is huge, as the amount of info on the web continues to empower buyers and undermine sellers. Everyone's an expert, now. The more intricate and nuanced your business, the more your customers still need you to inform them. Holding the power of the expert makes it easier to gain trust. Buyers are wary these days, and having their trust is the way to get the dotted line signed and the deal closed.
Make Sure That You Know What Your Customer Cares About
Being an expert doesn’t just mean knowing your boring ol’ product through and through. It also means knowing your customer. Maybe your business isn’t right for everybody, but the reality is that you do have an audience out there. So ask yourself, what does that audience care about? What’s important to them? How do they want to feel? How does my product answer that? When you hit those points, you’re adjusting your message. Technically, no business has to be boring. You may have a dull product, but the way you talk about it doesn’t have to be. That’s because if you know what people want to feel via your product, you can speak to their emotion, and that’s never boring.
Talk About Your Product Without Talking About Your Product
One of the best ways to do this is to talk about your customers, not your product. In sharing your customer's story, you’re showing potential buyers that you care about those who invest in your company, and it talks about your product without being too salesy, which will drive people away in an instant.
While Gatorade isn’t exactly a boring company (contrary, they have some of the best marketing on the planet), they often do a great job of telling a story without mentioning their products once. In 2016 when Peyton Manning retired, they ran this ad. The content being expressed in the video doesn’t say anything about the product, but the values and sentiments being expressed are a part of Gatorade’s own brand story.
Or how about Eporun, a European clean energy company working with the German Ministry for the Environment? Not exactly riveting from the get-go, now is it? But look how they took an artistic spin on their product, with more brilliance than we can unpack in one sitting. The 2007 commercial is really more of an art film, even winning some awards at Cannes. Nothing is said of the clean energy company. Instead, a hardly-noticeable wind turbine model rests on the desk behind our main character. The company doesn’t bore you with policy. They don’t even beat you over the head with ethics. They simply personify their product in a way that strikes a chord with their audience.
How can you start looking at your company through the lens of opportunity? Challenge yourself to sit down and make a list of all the things your customer cares about or has questions about. Then formulate a strategy for how you can answer those cares and concerns without harping on and on about the dull facts surrounding your product. Strike for the heart and you just can’t lose, no matter what you’re selling.
Think you have an unsalvageable, boring business?! Tell us in the comments. I bet we can come up with at least one unique spin via the lens of opportunity.
If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy these other related articles:
- How to Find Your Voice and Use it in a Blog
- What is Authentic Content and How Do You Create It
- Why Every Business Needs to Start Using Video Marketing
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