“Outside-of-the-Box” Marketing

When it comes to marketing, you can’t always look at what others are doing and copy what they do.

There’s a reason for this… The person you’re copying may have copied it off of someone else and they may not have a clue what they’re doing (Actually, I can tell you… they don’t have a clue what they’re doing).  Yikes!

This is where you need to start thinking “Outside-of-the-Box” with all of your marketing.

A few weeks ago I was approached by Dekel Merin, with RealtorMarketingDirect.com, about a product he created for real estate agents that goes on lock boxes to turn it into a marketing tool (even if you’re not a real estate agent, keep reading because we’re talking about “Outside-of-the-Box” marketing.  I want you to use that noggin of yours and come up with “Outside-of-the-Box” marketing ideas for your business).

What Dekel created is a business card holder that attaches to lock boxes, so when an agent has a listing at a condo complex or somewhere in the city where you can’t have real estate signs, you can still market your services via branding with your business card.

That’s “Outside-of-the-Box” thinking!

Here are a couple of pictures:

Now, when I first saw the picture of all the lock boxes on the fence I couldn’t help but laugh (it’s funny because it’s true!).  Yes, that’s how it actually looks when you have listings in condo complexes in the city.  So, as people pass by all they see are the lock boxes.

But, if you use a business card holder that’s specifically designed for these lock boxes, then you go from being like everyone else to standing out from the crowd, and you’re getting your name out there!

Now, these are business card holders.  Most business cards only have the company name, your name, phone number and email address.  So, mostly it’s branding.

I’d go a step further and turn it into a Lead Generation Machine. 

Instead of just having a normal business card in the holder, I’d have a business card with an offer for a free Home Seller’s Guide and a free Home Buyer’s Guide.

Since you don’t know if someone walking by the lock box is thinking about buying or selling, you can market to both of them.

Now that’s “Outside-of-the-Box” marketing!

So, you may be thinking, “David, I’m not in real estate.  My business is different.”

Ok, first off, when it comes to marketing your business is NOT different.  Marketing is Marketing is Marketing.  Secondly, you’re right, you may not have any use for lock boxes, but… how can you take an industry norm and turn it into a marketing machine?

Let me know your industry, and your industry norms, in the comment sections below and we can throw ideas around to see what kind of “Outside-of-the-Box” marketing we can come up with!

Now go take action!

*If you’re a real estate agent, you can learn more about Dekel’s business card holders at RealtorMarketingDirect.com*