If you want to attract the attention of your marketplace as an expert, you should use your expertise to set yourself apart from the crowd.
Many small business owners do the opposite. They simply copy or rip-off what they see a leader in their field doing. This is a very bad move, as it guarantees they remain invisible.
I see this a lot online, even within my own niche. Some marketing providers really struggle to get noticed, because they are not letting us see their creativity or originality. Instead, they emulate the writing style, ideas and even the vocabulary of other marketing bloggers and authors.
Of course, what the marketplace needs to see, is their authentic message.
The irony of a purple cow
An ironic example of this came to my attention today, which prompted me to write this post. A business owner emailed me, to say she had been looking for a marketing firm to handle a new project. She found one, which used Seth Godin’s phrase purple cow, to describe their creative services. For those who don’t know, the reason this is REALLY ironic, is that the phrase “purple cow”, means to be remarkable / original.
So, the marketing firm used a borrowed phrase from another marketer, to explain how creative they are! As the emailer said; “Do these people not realize this makes them look like fools, to be offering creative services, without the creativity to market themselves, in their own words?”
Was the emailer a little harsh? Yes, maybe. But why put prospective clients in that position, needlessly? They should have shown some confidence and used their own words to encourage her to get in touch. These guys are professional copywriters, after all.
Thankfully, with so many people happy to blend into the background, anyone with the creativity and courage to stand out for all the right reasons, has the potential to achieve life-changing results!
Learn from the best, don’t copy them
Find your own style and develop your own unique message. Be a student of the best, not a diluted version of them. As a student, we learn and improve. We increase our value and make progress.
We need to let our unique self stand out and shine for the marketplace to see.