Marketing Tips from a Marketing Agency: Be disruptive

It would only stand to reason that a marketing & branding agency would be pretty good at branding and marketing itself.

So I thought it might be fun to explore some branding & marketing concepts using our own agency, McLellan Marketing Group, as the guinea pig.

Be disruptive

Marketing isn’t always about the big campaign.  Sometimes it is taking something simple or expected and turning it on its ear.  Earlier in this series, we talked about how we approach business cards.  Being disruptive seems to be an MMG given. It’s certainly what we do with our voice mail.  If you call our office, while we’re transferring your call — you’re going to be asked a question.

So, let’s say you hit my extension (17 by the way) and you expect elevator music, silence or a sales pitch. Instead you’re going to hear me asking…"while we transfer your call, ponder this.  What tagline best describes your personal brand?  Be ready to tell us why…"

Not only do we  learn quite a bit about our callers, but the Q&A helps define our brand.  We ask a lot of questions, so we might as well set the expectation now.

But the biggest value in our voicemail tactic — it’s disruptive.  It surprises people and it’s something they talk about.  It says, "these people do things differently."

Now maybe you can’t mess with your company’s voice mail system but come on, you can be disruptive some place, some how. 

How can you cause a buzzworthy disruption?