Inventing an infographic is one of the most fun ways to bring your creative brain to the task of attracting new customers. Scroll down to the zombie apocalypse to see what I mean!
As you know, there are a zillion ways to promote your small business online, from coupons and contests to banner advertising and promoting your good citizenship.
But sometimes, it’s good to take time out to focus on something fun — you may just touch your customer’s funny bone.
How to have fun while marketing
“Sure,” you say, “I’ve always enjoyed infographics, but how do I make one that sells my business?”
Well, the trick is: you don’t have to sell your own product or service outright. In fact — don’t. You do need to invent an angle that relates somehow to your business — but the real key is to connect to something people already want to hear about!
A prime example of wacky but effective
The infographic below from What Shed is a perfect example! Somehow they came up with a perfectly reasonable connection between their own service (providing advice and reviews on backyard sheds) and zombies.
Take a look and I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a natural fit. Sure, it’d take some cleverness to think it up, but “cleverness” might really just mean: they took some time out to think, browse ideas, take a walk, sit with some crayons and paper paper.
I imagine their creative person was looking around at today’s most buzzy trends. I imagine they noticed “zombies” is a theme that never dies (haha) and in fact has only become more and more trendy in the last decade — with popular films, shows and games like The Walking Dead, Resident Evil, World War Z, even ParaNorman for kids, and literally dozens more every year. Heck, zombies are so popular even the CDC uses The Walking Dead to teach a few disaster preparedness lessons.
So they set to work on the germ of an idea — “how might zombies relate to advice about sheds?” — got inside a zombie fan’s head, and executed it brilliantly. Then they smartly decided to promote it as Halloween approached, with a simple introduction: “we thought we would do a small guide to help you protect yourself just in case you happen to be part of a Zombie Apocalypse this Halloween.”
Now it’s your turn!
Drop everything else for 30 minutes, browse a few news and entertainment sites, and see if creative juices start flowing. If that seems valuable, maybe you’ll decide to commit several hours to some “fun” — it’s good business! Remember fun for you means fun for your customers.
Thanks to WhatShed, “the UK’s leading review site for all your garden building needs,” for the original, wacky infographic!
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Who is John Paulsen? A former small-business leader myself, I feel your pain (and joy) and hope you’ll enjoy the blog. I launched and ran a well-regarded production company in San Francisco with a team of 9 brilliant, hard working people. I learned to manage a wide array of tasks a small business must handle — business strategy, facilities design, HR, payroll, taxes, marketing, all the way down to choosing telecom equipment and spec’ing a server system to help my team collaborate in real-time on dense media projects from multiple production rooms. I’ve partnered with and learned from dozens of small business owners.
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