Marketing Monday: Get Creative

Yesterday, I talked about my discouragement over Project FED's failure to make any financial progress. Today, I was given some inspiration in how to start turning things around by being reminded of what great marketing does. It captures people's attention and their imagination. It makes them think, it makes them laugh, it makes them feel something. It's creative, it's innovative, and it delivers the unexpected.

Marketing Is a Creative Business

While many people think of marketing as boring and dull, nothing could be further from the truth. The best marketing is creative, innovative, and delivers the unexpected. That spark of creativity makes it memorable while the innovative and unexpected aspects of it grab people's attention.

The best marketers are great storytellers. Stories stick with the brain because we're wired to remember them. If you grabbed your copy of Fairytale Marketing during our Freebie Friday a couple of weeks ago, you've discovered exactly why that is. For those who haven't gotten their copy yet, I won't spoil the whole thing but I will say it comes down to how memory is stored in the brain.

Memories aren't filed in alphabetical or chronological order. They are stored by relationship. Stories help us connect the things we're being told to things we already know, and that makes them a powerful tool for marketing because they help us remember what we're being told about a product or service.

Give People What Nobody Else Is Giving Them

When you're fighting for attention in a crowded marketplace, you can't do what everybody else is doing and expect to get noticed. You have to do something just a little bit different. Take what they are doing that's working and put your own spin on it using your unique set of gifts and talents. In that way, you'll end up standing out from the crowd by sharing a little bit of the magic of your own personality. Best of all, because it's part of who you are it's not going to be able to be duplicated by anybody else or delivered in the exact same way.

Research the Popular Blogs and YouTube Channels First

Make a list of the most popular blogs and YouTube channels in the area where you want to become visible. See what they are doing because it's clear that what they are doing is working for them. The idea, though, isn't to copy what they are doing. It's to find a way that you can add your own special touch to the kinds of things that are doing and so make it your own.

Think About Where You Shine

Can you sing? Can you act? Can you dance? What can you do that other people aren't doing? Do that thing and open up so that other people can see what you're capable of doing. You'll never go wrong injecting your own personality like this. It's the kind of authenticity that will attract people.

Creativity isn't about making things up. It's about connecting things together in new ways. Making songs isn't new. Making songs for marketing is called writing jingles. Jingles, though, are usually just about 5 seconds long so that they can easily fit inside a 30-second commercial while still giving a voiceover artist time to promote the store or the product the jingle was written to promote and these are usually done only for big brands.

Coming Up with My Creative Solution

I can write and I can sing, so I decided to write a song that would make it easier for people to remember the story of Project FED and might get them sharing the song with friends and family so that the word about what we were doing might spread farther.

Your Creative Challenge

Once I was done and had it up on YouTube, I realized this was the perfect opportunity to invite my blog readers to join in the fun. Here are 3 ideas you can use the work I did to create the song to make your own YouTube video and promote your Zazzle affiliate link:

1. Create a reacts video

These are popular on YouTube, and since the song is new you'll likely be among the first to do it. 

2. Take the Lyrics and Record Your Own Version of the Song

If you're a musician or a singer, take the lyrics and record a version that's better than mine. I'm pretty positive that there is a whole lot of room for improvement.

3. Mix It Up

If you like to mix music, take my recording and have fun mixing it up and then post your version on YouTube. You have my permission in writing. Just keep it clean, please. I don't want it used in anything my granddaugther couldn't listen to (i.e. someone who is between the ages of 2 years to 5 years of age).

4. Write a Story and Read It Aloud

Write a short story based on the lyrics and read it aloud on YouTube. 

5. Make a Video for the Song

Take the song I recorded and make a video for it, then post your video with the music in it. 

The Lyrics

This is the story of Project FED

Where we help people earn their bread

Sharing our products that make great gifts

Giving orphans in Nigeria a monetary lift

 

It was a few years ago when I met a priest

Who was asking for help providing a feast

For 60 orphans with nowhere else to go

How to help them all I didn’t know

 

I was struggling myself just to pay rent

I didn’t think I could spare an extra cent

But I sat down with my Bible and began to pray

Asking God to show me a way

 

It didn’t take long before I heard Him say

Let me teach you a better way

You can help those orphans and others, too

If you’re willing to do what I ask that you do

 

I said I’m willing if you’ll show me how

I can get started with what I have now

He said you don’t have money but you have skills

That’s all you need to start paying their bills

 

Father got the orphans to make some art

I made designs we could sell for a start

On t-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, and more

Offering our merchandise on our Zazzle store


30 days later and I was ready to cry

We hadn’t sold a thing and I didn’t know why

I asked God to help me and here’s what he said:

Use that creative brain I put in your head

 

So I sat down to think and I wrote this song

Hoping that people will start singing along

And as they share it they’ll be spreading the news

You can make money helping orphans if you choose

 

It’s easy to get started and we’ll show you how

Just visit our blog and you can sign up now

We offer great advice it’s really the bomb

Visit project fed Nigeria dot blogspot dot com

Post those links!

If you decided to join the Creative Challenge and posted something on YouTube, share the link in the comments section below. If you do the work, I'll be happy to post a reacts video to your creative content. 

Join Project FED

Sign up for our email list or shop our store for merchandise. 

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