When starting a business it can be so completely overwhelming that you find yourself simply keeping up. Between networking, sales meetings and keeping up with the clients you have you don’t have the energy to come up with creative ways to stand out from the crowd. We have all been there, but if you can add an ounce of creativity to a few pieces in your marketing library, it can be the difference between spending hours trying to get a meeting, then giving an hour long presentation and never hearing from the company again and emailing them one time and winning the business. Wouldn’t you rather take the easy way out? Here’s how we do it…

1. Never print a trifold brochure again.

Trifold brochures are cheap, I understand. But it would be a lot cheaper to draw a picture on a piece of paper, write your contact information and call it a day. In my opinion they are worth about the same. And if you are worried about the cost given that you are handing them out in bulk, I have to ask if the material is for sales or information because, in my experience, the only trifold that gets picked up and read AND doesn’t need to be updated before you run out of stock, is a brochure at the doctor’s office.

If you are printing a brochure for the purpose of sales and the hope of meeting new clients, make sure you make an impression. Give them something different, based almost entirely on images. It will be more expensive to go with an unusual shape and high quality images, but the return on investment per piece will make it a much better decision. And the environment will thank you later!

2. Bullet Points or Bullet Holes?

PowerPoint is dead. There, I said it. OK, I’m being dramatic, PowerPoint is not dead, but the standard PowerPoint, with basic templates and a page full of bullet points should be laid to rest. There are a thousand tools out there today that will help you create a sales presentation to wow customers. Try to engage rather than lecture, tell stories and start discussions rather than blasting people with informative propaganda because in the end, your customers are buying you. Let’s be honest, there is probably someone else offering the same thing as you and maybe even cheaper. Your customers are buying you and the relationship you bring.

Step up your presentations; try an animated presentation or simply upgrade your PowerPoint designs. And next time you think of using bullet points, just remember we refer to them as bullet holes.

(Recruiting animation for SkillStorm)

3. Your industry is not boring. Be the first to recognize that.

I hear the industries I work with are boring all the time; from clients and from partners, but I never hear it from their customers. It drives me bananas in a weird way – I almost feel as though they should whisper because the business might overhear and be upset, like the business is  their “not-so-smart” kid in the other room.

Your industry is not boring. Every industry, by mere fact of it being an industry, is playing a part in society, so how boring can it be? Is it employing people? Is it creating something? Saving something? Then it’s not boring at all, right?

Two days ago, while filming a construction site, a guy I was working with said the footage was boring. It is an interior build out for a school; more specifically a place for single mothers to provide a great education in a safe environment. The site is a blank canvas today. What could be more exciting than the promise of young voices, of walls going up that will be filled with pictures and sight words, empty rooms that will hear giggles and bells and stampeding youngsters?

Think about Apple. They based their marketing on simplicity and base needs. The original iPhone was never going to work, according to critics, because you couldn’t even remove the battery. Pardon the pun, but, “How do you like them apples?”

There is no such thing as boring. Boring is a lazy perception.

Our next blog was intended to be some hints for adding excitement to your company’s message. Do you like that topic or would you prefer one of these alternatives?