When someone visits your company’s website, they know why it’s there. There’s no illusion here – whether they’re looking at product offerings, checking out your team, or reading your blog, people understand that they’re looking at something that’s intended to sell to them.
That’s why it has to be good. That knowledge doesn’t mean you get to phone it in – just because the reader knows you’re selling doesn’t mean you have to wave it around in their face.
Think for example about The Lego Movie. It’s pretty obvious that a movie that’s immersed in the world of a toy brand is intended at least in part to build that brand. It’s not exactly like Lego, one of the world’s biggest toy brands, needs a lot of help, but Apple and Coca-Cola still run commercials don’t they? The thing is, the people at Lego knew exactly the problem with simply doing a feature-length commercial, according to one of the film’s writers and directors, Chris Miller:
“They didn’t need a movie to boost sales. If anything, making a movie had much more downside. So they had the same philosophy as us, which was to use Lego as a medium rather than a product to sell.”
In a way, The Lego Movie is like inbound marketing. The whole idea is to market through things that people actually want to experience, rather than commercials and advertisements that interrupt things you’d rather be experiencing. A blog post that teaches you something, rather than a noisy TV commercial. A website with the information you want, rather than crowing about how great a product is.
And while a movie about Lego is obviously about a product you can buy, if the movie is good, then it isn’t the interruption – it becomes the thing you want to see. Not a commercial, but marketing that people actually like. Judging by reactions to it – Rotten Tomatoes has it at 98% fresh, and Metacritic has it at an 81/100 – people really do like it.
So the next time you’re thinking about creating a piece of marketing for your business, think about the quality first. Think about making it something people will love. Then think about selling. Trust me, the people you’re targeting will know what you’re doing when they see it. Make it worth their time.
