Recently, I took my kids to a county fair close to where I live. It was a large fair with a ton of things to do. My kids had a blast. As we walked through the fairgrounds, I began to hear an advertisement repeatedly playing over the loud speakers. The advertisement offered the opportunity to see Myrna the Mermaid. Myrna is part human, part mermaid and lives in a little fish bowl.

The price to see Myrna was only $1. So I slapped $4 down for my family to see here. I did it because I thought it might make a good blog post. My wife thought I was the dumbest guy at the fair.

She might be right. There definitely wasn’t a line to see Myrna. In fact, I might have been the only sucker for the entire day.

After paying to see Myrna, we were ushered up some steps and told to look into a little window. To my surprise, we saw little Myrna sitting in a fish bowl waving to us. She waved every time we peaked in at her. I couldn’t figure out how they did it. It must have been some kind of reflection projected on to the fish bowl. I guess it really doesn’t matter.

Why not?

Because the marketing was fantastic.

After we left Myrna, we started hearing another message on the loudspeakers, this time for The Amazing Gorilla Girl.

To see he Amazing Gorilla Girl, we had to pay $2.00 each. My wife flat out refused when asked. She was embarrassed enough from Myrna. Too bad!I really wanted to see the Amazing Gorilla Girl.

The marketing was great for her, too. “See her change right before your eyes!” “Beautiful Girl” “Terrifying Gorilla!” It reminded me of the legendary P.T. Barnum!I read about book about P.T. Barnum years ago. It was very instructive.

The speakers at the Amazing Gorilla attraction blasted comments like: “Don’t enter if you have a history of fainting.” Don’t enter if you are pregnant.” This was tremendous stuff! Everything they said made me want to see her more.

I didn’t know when the day started that I would end up getting such an outstanding marketing lesson at the fair. Maybe I can write the day’s expenses off now.

The lesson is that your marketing has to get the attention of your prospects. I don’t know how many people went to see the Amazing Gorilla Girl, but I’m sure everybody heard about her.

Does every prospect in your market know you? Why not/

Look, unless you have no competition, you have to find a way for your marketing to stand out. You can have the best service around, even a compelling message in your marketing, but if you don’t first get people’s attention, it’s wasted.

You’ve got to get yourself a mermaid.

Today’s business person is faced with many decisions when it comes to marketing and advertising. How to get started and what media to use in your marketing campaigns are just a couple of the immediate challenges. The reality is that all of the options available will work to one degree or another. The key to your success, regardless of the medium you select, is to differentiate yourself in a manner that appeals to your prospect. When you understand this, you can be successful regardless of your selection.

More often than not, people follow the generally accepted trends and styles. This happens with the clothes we wear (anyone remember Beatle Mania?), the beer we drink (what age are you?) and the way we advertise in say, the Yellow Pages. Try scanning the Yellow Pages and you will see numerous pages of similar looking business card layouts and wording. What happens is we start to subconsciously purge the look-a-likes and carry on until we see something that is out of the ordinary.

The most interesting, and different, ads that I have seen appear as a public service announcement. They have headlines like: Warning! Don’t Even Think of Using a Travel Agent Before Calling FREE Traveler Awareness Hotline! Copy below this ad would offer free advice on how to book the best rate for your next trip. I was scanning the travel section because I was looking to book a trip. This advertisement, because it was different, caught my eye. To make it really successful it also had an 800 number at the bottom to call for a Free Report. There was no sponsor so the whole presentation was non-threatening. I was given a safe way to get information I wanted without having to speak directly to a Travel Agent whose job it is to push, and sell me.

This same method can be used regardless of the medium you select for your advertising. It can be Yellow Pages, Business Cards and Val-Pak Coupons. The key is to use the criteria that make it different, interesting and non-threatening. Even though the principles are basic there is an art to this type of marketing.

I have learned of a company, that over the last 12 years, has developed automated systems that allow business people to incorporate any type of marketing and/or advertising into an overall Marketing Strategy. That company is Automated Marketing Solutions or AMS. They differentiate themselves by not only providing solutions, but by educating their clients on the proper techniques to use including how to create the right message by the form of media being used. It doesn’t stop there. AMS provides the capability for a company to place their ENTIRE Marketing Program on Auto-pilot. Once a business marketing program (including voice messages, e-mails, faxes and other broadcast and mail out collateral) is compiled and sequenced, their Lead Management System or LMS provides the unique ability to control and manage the program without any further human interaction.

The benefits to this system are significant time savings on what would otherwise be labor intensive tasks and consistency in marketing messages. It also means that businesses never need worry about losing customers who misinterpreted your lack of contact for apathy. If you would like to hear more about Direct Response Marketing and how it can benefit your business, visit Automated Marketing Solutions today. You will be surprised at how quickly and economically you can implement and start benefiting from AMS tested and proven technology and experience.