There’s gold at the end of the rainbow

Imagine living in a world of black and white. If you were born before 1970, or you have a penchant for old movies (I’m talking 1930s through to the 60s), you’ll have little trouble bringing the concept to mind.

A life without colour sounds dull and uninspiring, but if that was all you’d ever known you’d be content with shadow and shade. (And some of those old classics are still the best pictures ever made.)

But what if, one day, on your daily black and white walk you turn a corner and there is a tulip: a beautiful, bright yellow tulip floating in a sea of deathly grey bloom. The sight would surely stop you in your tracks.

With that in mind, imagine my delight when I client recently said to me, “before we hired Chimp Answers to help with our marketing, all we could see was black and white… now, we see in colour.”

To say it brightened up my day is an understatement.

As well as enjoying the compliment, it got me thinking about what causes the best marketing to stand out from bland or ordinary marketing.

The brightest colours rise to the top

If you accept that average is not a derogatory term but merely another word for the majority, you’ll start to see where I’m going with this.

You can apply this idea across every single industry, sector or market: most companies populate the middle ground and, by default, fall into the standard known as average.

At the bottom of each of these groupings sits those businesses considered poor performers and at the top will be those we identify as outstanding, pioneering or elite.

What I want you to do now is simply apply a colour grade to that range of business. The lowest performers are the darkest; the majority take on various shades of grey and those who lead the way do so in glorious technicolour.

And not only are their bright colours eye-catching, attractive and inspiring; they stand out most when compared to black and white.

How could you turn up the brightness?

I was, of course, delighted with the comment from my client: but the analogy benefits your business too.

You see, the thing about marketing, perhaps more than any other type of business, is that our colour rubs off.

When we influence our client’s communications, interactions and decorations, our expertise reflects their attraction.

So here are my three top tips for shining brighter than your competition:

1. Be different: Just because other people in your marketplace follow one marketing strategy or approach it doesn’t mean it is the best one. It just means that is the path the majority follow.
   So, if you want to be at the top of the colour chart for what you do, be bold enough to do things differently.
2. Contrast and compare: Most companies only ever send out one piece of marketing per campaign. If you do this, how will you ever know which is the brightest?
   Try sending two or three variations to a small number of clients and seeing which gets the best response. Then use that one.
   And if you want to really turn on the rainbow, you could even try two or three tweaks to the best one again and turn the colour right up to 11.
3. Identify your market: Here is an intriguing twist on my whole colour-themed idea. I alluded to it right at the beginning, and I wonder if you noticed?
   Some people prefer black and white movies. Before embarking on any type of marketing campaign, you need to work out the identity of your target market: their likes, dislikes, hearts desires, and pressing concerns.
   Only then, can you present a range of colours, shades and hues (ideal solutions) that will appeal to their eyes and hearts.