Summer always brings big blockbuster hits to the movie theaters, and this year is no different. Steven Spielberg’s fourth action-packed dino movie, Jurassic World, is released today and is sure to attract the masses.
In this movie, John Hammond’s dream becomes reality as a dinosaur theme park opens to the public. The main attraction at this park isn’t a giant T-Rex. Nope. This park takes dinosaurs to a whole new level. Scientists “spared no expense” and created a hybrid dinosaur, Indominus Rex. And (prepare your shocked face) this genetically altered creature breaks free from his cage and causes all kinds of chaos.
The scientists overdid it. Sometimes trying to reinvent the wheel, or, in this case, a dinosaur, just isn’t worth it. It’s a valuable lesson you can apply to your marketing efforts as well. How, you ask? Take a look at the three ways you can over-engineer you marketing:
1. A busy website
One of your best marketing tools is your website. Your digital presence says a lot to visitors, so it’s vital that your website offer a clean, user-friendly experience. If your website looks like the picture below, your customers might feel you tossed them into the raptor cage. There’s just too much going on here.
Solution: Your website should have a fresh look, a solid color scheme, easy navigation, marketing content that inspires your customers or clients to act and a way to purchase goods online.
If your website needs some sprucing up, but you don’t want to shell out thousands of dollars to a designer to build it, turn to a DIY tool. We offer website hosting with hundreds of templates to choose from on our Marketing Solutions Hub. If your website is in good shape, but you’d like to add a shopping cart feature, try Shopify. (Shopify is integrated with VerticalResponse, so you can easily contact your customers.)
2. Too many calls to action in an email
You don’t want to over-engineer your marketing emails either. Keep it simple. Each email should have one call to action.
You can overwhelm a customer if, for example, there are two call-to-action buttons, two hyperlinks, and clickable contact information all in one email. It’s like seeing a T-Rex for the first time. Your email recipient won’t run for cover in a bathroom like the lawyer did in the first Jurassic Park, but he or she will definitely close the email because it’s just too much to handle.
Solution: Don’t over do it. As a rule of thumb, each marketing email should have one call to action. Of course, it’s not a hard and fast rule. You can add a hyperlink to your email or your contact information, but the point is don’t go crazy.
The main call to action should be a can’t-miss button that has urgent text like, ‘Shop Now.’ If you need help creating a button, use our button creator. For additional help, check out a previous article, “5 Elements of an Effective Call to Action.”
3. Becoming an ‘oversharer’ on social media
You know those Facebook friends who constantly share updates about their kid’s potty training efforts, or the old college roommate who loves to share super-specific details about his love life? Yeah, these people are over-engineering their social posts.
Don’t turn your business social media sites into an oversharing message board or your customers will run from your site as if being chased by a herd of Gallimimus. (For those keeping up with our Jurassic Park references, that’s the dinosaur pack that chased Alan Grant and the two kids through the open plain in the second movie.)
Solution: Keep it professional and post useful marketing information. Your business social media sites should be for marketing your business. Now, that’s not to say you can’t share a personal achievement on your business page here and there, but save most of that information for your personal social sites.
You should also post information that your customers can use. Share news from your industry, tips to improve a customer’s life, how-to guides that help clients understand your product and links to purchase items from your website.
Hopefully, with a little inspiration from Jurassic World, your marketing efforts will successfully evolve – without the help of dino DNA.
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