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Three seconds. That’s what you have to convey your message. Creativity is the strategic weapon that allows us to capture those few precious moments of attention from busy consumers in our increasingly competitive, time-crunched environment.

Focus groups tell us that time is a precious, yet dwindling resource. Attention spans are dwindling, as well.

Many forces condition people: competing messages, special effects, quick cuts, pop-up videos, too much media. We should not totally surrender to these trends but instead look at the yearnings they reveal: a desire for simplicity, efficiency, truth, and quality of presentation.

When we design and write marketing communication material we must recognize a very fundamental fact: we are interrupting someone’s day.

The fact that they chose to read, hear or view our message places a great responsibility on us to present this work as best we can. All the elements should contribute to a single point. A single reason for being there. Add something and it is excess baggage. Take something away and it’s thin soup. The balance is critical.

And, we can’t underestimate today’s consumers. They are smart and we must not fall prey to communicating to the lowest common denominator. Consumers demand creativity, and ultimately they are who we work for.

Do The Math

It adds up to this: the increasing need for creativity. Thinking beyond the rote. Asking why and why again. Researching. Feeding the mind. Looking at the situation from a different angle. Parking your biases at the door.

Once you’ve done the research and asked all the questions, it’s time to let ideas flow, not just on concepts, but also on content, medium, style.

Quick example. A small New York lingerie store with virtually no budget wanted to boost business. Its ad agency had an idea: paint messages on the sidewalk within eight blocks of the store. The messages read, “From down here, it looks like you could use some new underwear.” Business exploded.

Creativity isn’t just a flash of lightning. It is a deliberate, disciplined process that anyone can follow. Now, go be creative.

Harry Hoover is managing principal of Hoover ink PR. He has 26 years of experience in crafting and delivering bottom line messages that ensure success for serious businesses like Brent Dees Financial Planning, Levolor, New World Mortgage, North Carolina Tourism, Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems VELUX and Verbatim.

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Hundreds of “consultants” make millions of dollars each year teaching seminars and boot camps, and selling newsletters about marketing’s magic bullet - that one simple thing you can do to fill up your register with virtually no effort on your part.

People buy this tripe because they want “simple” and “no effort” ways to move their business forward.

All those magic bullet consultants are wrong. I have the secret and I am going to share it, but you won’t be happy about it. My marketing magic bullet: focus, discipline and consistency. Yes, my magic bullet involves some work on your part.

Focus requires you to define your audiences, learn about their behavior, and then provide relevant and believable information, communicated in an original, impactful fashion.

Discipline necessitates developing a marketing plan and implementing it aggressively. Your plan must also include a sales element. I know businesses that market and then just expect clients to flock to them with wallets in hand. Unfortunately for these businesses, it requires some effort on their part. Sorry, no passive income.

Finally, we come to consistency. This means implementing your program even after you are tired of it. And don’t change your message and marketing tactics on a whim. The race goes to the marathon man, not the sprinter.

Some other smart people agree with me. Business Coach Brent Dees says, “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything. If you focus, you can accomplish your goals.” Friend Bill Loeffler used to tell clients, “We can’t do everything. Let’s pick three marketing tactics and do them right.”

Remember: focus, discipline and consistency. Unlike those other consultants, I won’t bill you for that magic bullet. Lock and load.

Harry Hoover is managing principal of Hoover ink PR. He has 26 years of experience in crafting and delivering bottom line messages that ensure success for serious businesses like Brent Dees Financial Planning, Focus Four, Levolor, New World Mortgage, North Carolina Tourism, TeamHeidi, Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems, VELUX, Verbatim and Wicked Choppers.

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In today’s business world conventional and online business markets are so competitive that many business persons are turning their attention toward developing niche products where the competition from very large firms is not nearly as large. You can find ideas for niche products by going online and conducting a search on www.Google.com. You can conduct a search by finding the root word of the business that you want to search for (in this example we will use “1970’s eclectic fashions”). Type the word followed by the word “articles” in the search box (”eclectic fashions articles”). By combing through the directories that you will see listed you can find articles and information on eclectic fashions. They are websites that you can use to gain information on the business that you are trying to start, like, www.MyGoals.com and www.ehow.com.

After you find your niche you should conduct market research to find out who is in the market to purchase these products. After you gain this information you can expand your product line horizontally. You should not rely on that one product to carry your business. For example let’s use the 1970’s eclectic fashions niche. If you were to start and online store selling these eclectic fashion clothing you could add accessories to your product line like jewelry, hats, shoes, or other related products that would compliment the clothes that you are selling.

Now that you have expanded your product horizontally you should now look to expand vertically. This is done by taking one of the related products and making it a niche product itself. An example of this would be taking your jewelry line and selling it as the niche product with the other products that you are selling complimenting your jewelry line. The jewelry line would now have related products to expand its market base. This will give you the ability to sell your entire line with a great amount of diversity.

Now that you have created these products and determined who is your target market it is time to market them. You should create a website with an online store showing all the products that you have to offer. The related products and accessories that you have gives you the option of packaging products together for special promotional sales which will allow you to offer more options to your prospects. These special promotions should be developed with the needs and wants of your target market.

Your website should offer your prospects information on the products that you are selling. You should provide links to related websites of the same era, for example, books, music, antiques, and other related products of the era. You should provide articles on the period, and point your prospects to where they can find more articles, information, and where they can find a discussion group related to their interest. Your articles should provide links back to your website, and your online store. If you have a store at a location you should provide its address and what offers are available at the location store.

You should provide an opportunity for your prospects to communicate with you about special concerns that they may have. You can also use an auto responder to answer questions that prospects may have. An auto responder will give you the ability to get information to your clients immediately. Email can also be used to communicate between you and your prospects. You can use the email to develop a mailing list to promote new products that you will carry in the future.

You should look for joint ventures with other niche businesses. You can trade mailing list and advertise on each other sites. This will also give you the ability to offer more related products and package promotional sales and options. It will also allow you to expand your product line horizontally and vertically if you create new products in response to the increase that the joint venture gives your business.

William Dupree is the owner of I.M.P.S. (Interactive Marketing & Promotional Solutions Inc.) (http://www.intmktprosol.com) a sole proprietorship marketing firm located in New York City that specializes in developing interactive marketing strategies for small businesses. Prior to founding I.M.P.S. in 2005, Mr. Dupree was a senior partner at E.D.L. Marketing for twelve years. Before joining E.D.L. he worked for Diamond Marketing Group where he performed personal sales strategies, product planning, event planning, and created interactive marketing strategies for an assortment of small businesses.

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