Let’s talk milk for a minute. There is such a variety such as skim, 2%, whole, almond, soy and even more options I cannot remember. Such a variety of channels with each vying for your attention and brand preference. Let’s connect my milk discussion to marketing channels today. The variety of channels continues to grow with each option offering specific opportunities that most often were not available previously. How does a brand stand out in this cluttered marketplace?

In a climate of instant access, it’s getting harder to determine where and what should get our attention. With more responsibilities in our lives, we all feel an ever-increasing pressure to do more. We feel the stress of garnering new clients and full-scale customers as quickly as possible.

With the constant influx of yet another phone call to be returned, meetings to attend, emails to respond to, everybody feels overworked. And in a world where everyone is vying for our time, we tend to allow others to dictate what is critically important. A marketer’s work is not about getting more things done. It’s about getting the right things done. It is about making the wisest possible investment of our time in order to operate at the highest point of contribution for our brand.

The choice where we invest effort is ours. And the right place for marketers to use their time is always in building trust. Our prospective customers know that we are biased and that we have a vested interest in influencing them to purchase. That creates skepticism around what we say about our products or our services. Marketers, need to embrace this skepticism. If we are going to succeed in a cynical and skeptical world, we must never forget that where trust goes, money flows.

We must be intentional about building trust into our marketing system. So it makes sense that the channel choices we make include spending more time going deeper with clients and creating ambassadors for our brands. We all know that it costs much less to maintain clients than it does to acquire clients. More importantly, though, in order to deliver true value, we need to go overboard with our current clients.

The choices you make with your time and channel selection may seem overwhelming. Going deeper with our current communities is the right choice because good marketing is rooted in those around us becoming better as a result of their interaction with us, our team, and our company. The choice is yours. Choose wisely and step out to stand out.

Any discussions surrounding the intricacies of marketing eventually fall around the theory that to truly be a leader, you must have the courage and creativity to step outside of the box. Staying in the box implies playing within the boundaries. Stepping or thinking or removing a brand from the box it was placed in is all about the collective assumptions, models, and boundaries of its leadership. If an organization wants to go beyond incremental growth and end up with transformational outcomes that result in disruptive growth, leadership must be willing to break down walls.

While the reasons a brand succumbs to the “in-the-box” thinking vary from brand to brand, too many, especially large, multinational ones, do it out of fear. The fear of being different from what is considered the norm in their industries. The fear of being exposed by others—customers, the press, employees, and other stakeholders. The fear of being too radical.

The truth of the matter, in the simplest of terms, is that seeing things and acting differently are the tenets of creating something distinctive—a blueprint that you never considered.

“We have a lot of competition, and for us to stand out we have to offer something that is different but effective, something that brings value to our customers,” states David McNerney, vice president, sales & marketing/partner of Think Patented.

While being bold may be the most effective way to differentiate yourself from the others, it is a strategy many brands are leery of making. Still, Dave McNerney believes it is worth the effort. He did just that when he introduced the Mail60 advanced marketing tool in 2018 that seamlessly integrates digital services with traditional direct mail. By adding services like mail tracking, call tracking and Google follow-up, Mail360 stepped out of the box to offer a strategy that showed results.

McNerney says, “Consumers have more choices and more ways to discover those choices, so it’s vital that you never stop innovating, whether you’re a brand, service or product.” And sure, while it may be easier to follow the leader, McNerney says today’s consumers always move on to the next shiny object.

So, why not be that shiny object? If you are being innovative and daring, you will be noticed. Does it come with a cost? There is a risk, and with risk comes the possibility of failure. Be innovative. Work with people who think differently from you. If everyone is in lockstep with your mindset, it might be easier as a company, but you will most likely miss an opportunity to think outside the box. By embracing discomfort, you give yourself more options. The key is to understand what space in consumers’ minds you have permission to occupy and what things are happening in their lives that can be opportunities.

If you surround yourself with your customers and the way they interact in and around your market, your branding will follow the path it needs to take—with you leading. That is why Mail360 is so successful. By combining direct mail with digital opportunities, Mail360 extends the channel vehicles that have proven to be effective, the ones consumers/clients prefer in extending campaign reach and response.

Mail360 is an advanced marketing-based solution that is designed to seamlessly track the effectiveness of your direct mail campaigns. It enhances the results through the integration of digital platforms like Google, Facebook, and Instagram. Now, you can combine your direct mail promotion with digital marketing reinforcement to increase your results by double digits or more. Bundle all the following services for one low price and attract more prospects with buying on their minds. This is one successful example of stepping out to stand out.

Increase your leads with Mail360. Elevate the results of your next direct mail campaign by 24-46%. Step out to stand out with Think Patented, a Marketing Execution company!

For additional information on Mail360 marketing, you can talk to your Think Patented account executive, contact Dan Cornelius at 937.353.2570, or call 937.353.2299.