The 5 Fundamentals of Memorable Marketing

In case you hadn't noticed, there's an awful lot of advertising out there.

Billboards, television, web banners, social networks and mobile app ads, to name but a few sources, greet us wherever we go, whatever device we choose to use.

Common wisdom suggests that of the thousands of ads that the average person sees and hears in a normal day, only a handful - single digits, usually - are committed to memory. While some of this comes down to luck and personal buying circumstances, much more relies on marketers understanding the core of what makes a marketing message memorable.

Learn the Fundamentals of Memorable Marketing

Any business course worth its price of entry teaches the 4 Ps of marketing, but we need to elaborate further to get to the heart of what makes potential customers sit up and pay attention to your business.

When it comes to any aspect of your business marketing, be it individual elements or a full blown campaign, run your creations through these five filters:

1. The message is uniquely yours - There must be something distinct about your business to stand out from the crowd, and that distinguishing factor must be incorporated into all of your marketing materials. It could be a business philosophy, a tag line, a mascot, or anything that immediately makes a customer think of you. In the short term this creates the instant association required for memorable marketing; in the long term it builds your brand.

2. The message speaks the customer's language - Ditch any marketing lingo that speaks only to those with an intimate knowledge of your industry. Get to know the different types of customer that you attract and learn what they like, dislike, how they speak and how they prefer to be spoken to. Creating customer profiles can help with this and get everyone onto the same page when it comes to crafting a marketing message that will stick in the mind of potential customers.

3. The message communicates a customer problem - The old benefits over features angle, but updated to really spell things out for the quickly-distracted consumer. What is the main pain point and how does what you do solve it? Communicate this as quickly and clearly as possible and your advertising will wrench attention away from whatever the person is doing, as we're all eager to find a fix for persistent problems.

4. The message compels action - The only thing worse than an ad attracting no attention is one that does half a job. If something about your marketing materials makes people sit up and take notice, only to offer them no easy way to act on their interest, your business may become memorable for all the wrong reasons (frustration, confusion etc.) Always tell potential customers how they can take advantage of your services in the most direct way possible, be it a memorable vanity phone number to call or a clear direction to find you.

5. The message learns from (or develops) previous campaigns - The marketing your business has done in the past, good or bad, should inform its future. When messages have failed to connect or yield to the desired conversions, review them and ask what should be omitted from the next campaign. Also look at good ideas that perhaps just needed a little more fine-tuning. From the successful campaigns, try to identify the elements that made them memorable for consumers and squeeze even more performance from those positives.

Over time, your business will learn exactly what it takes to stick in the mind of potential customers. It's also worth noting that a good marketing tool kit is an important base to build on with the ideas above, so make sure that your website, print materials, and your contact number(s) are all attractive, easy to remember and to use.

Let us know what you've found to be the most successful steps to making your marketing memorable (or if we can lend a hand to make them so). Contact the Ring Boost team or drop a line on Twitter to get in touch.