Some brands can be more appealing to market for than others. This isn’t always the business’ fault, as it is the industry they’re in. With the right attitude and knowledge, any industry can quickly be marketed as “sexy” and have the appeal needed to attract the right demographic.

Apple is a great example of a company who came from a “not so exciting” industry and made their brand soar through successful marketing and quality products. Apple made their brand appealing by making their products appealing. Each Apple product can speak for itself and gives consumers a feeling of want by the way it’s marketed.

If you own an Apple product you’re officially categorized as an Apple user, not PC, and quickly fall down the rabbit hole of converting all of your technology to Apple. By making it convenient for consumers to sync multiple technologies, they’ve made their products attractive through simplicity and membership.

Add pizzazz to your business like Apple did with these marketing tips:

Give the Brand Sex Appeal

​​Spicing up ​a business begins and ends with it’s branding. If a business’ brand is plain, simple, and unexciting the business will unfortunately be categorized as such. Avoid the pitfall of failed branding by following these tips and create an exciting brand for your company:

• Brand Taglines. Every business should have it’s own tagline. The tagline is a short and sweet description of the business and is usually catchy. It can include the primary service a business provides, the type of products sold, or a clear message to go along with the brand. Here’s a few examples of businesses who took an ordinary product and built a memorable tagline:
  • Allstate Insurance: You’re in good hands with Allstate
  • Bounty: The quicker picker-upper
  • FTD: Say it Your Way
    

One of my favorite taglines is from Disneyland, “The happiest place on earth”. The tagline accomplishes everything it should: it entices me to want to know more, gives me a clear understanding that it is an actual place, and an expectation that I will be happy if I go there.

• Brand a Voice. Establishing a voice makes a business seem more personal and reduces the “boring” aspect of blending in with the industry. Decide what kind of voice the business should have based on the demographic. How does your demographic talk? What kind of sayings or interactions do they do in a day? Mimic that type of tone, and perhaps slang, to relate to customers through content and give the brand more appeal.
• Brand Images. It’s easy to Google images when searching for the right photo to use on Facebook, but it’s not effective. The photo you’re searching for has most likely been searched for before. Even worse, it’s most likely been used by a competitor or a business in the same industry before. The best way to choose an image for posting is by taking your own photos or purchasing an image and adding a personal touch to brand it with. Use online photo sources like Dollar Photo Club, Pixabay, and Canva to search for unique images to use. Once you’ve decided on the perfect image, add a filter, logo, or adjust the contrast. If the company’s colors are specific, such as orange or blue, increase the saturation to highlight more of an orange or blue filter. Be consistent when editing, whether you’re editing the design or adding a logo so that each image posted has a recognizable trait.

Make the Business Simple to Understand

Some of the most “boring” classified companies aren’t actually boring, they’re just more difficult to understand than a cupcake shop. Define exactly what it is the company does, or sells, and different ways the company description can be explained for different marketing purposes. 

Do a little bit of brainstorming and jot down three different types of descriptions for the business:

1. The Description For Dummies. Think back to that big yellow book with the word “Dummies” scribbled with chalk on the front cover for this type of description. You’re creating this company description so anyone and everyone can understand in the most simplest of terms what the business does and why.
2. The Demographic Description. The happy middle point for a company description is right here. Write for the demographic using minimal technical terms, yet enough technical terms to give customers confidence that you know what you’re talking about. This will be the most used description across websites, bio’s, and social media networks.
3. The I Already Know Everything Description. This is for you know-it-alls. It’s also for the industry experts who are shopping around for the right company to give its business to. Use a longer description than the above and include the most complex terms that really explain the technical aspects of the business.

Have a Strong Social Media Presence, On the Right Channels

​Not posting regularly on social media is about as boring as it gets. A big part of social media is to build connections, whether it be between friends, family members, strangers, or customers. As a company trying to freshen up their brand and make their business exciting, regularly posting on social media is mandatory.

Follow these tips to make each channel more engaging for fans and customers:

• Post on channels your customers are on. It’s great to have a presence on all social media channels, but some aren’t as relevant as others for every industry. Dentist offices don’t need to utilize Snapchat like Taco Bell or Coachella does. Stick to the social media networks your customers are already on.

• Design multiple visual elements to share. Not every social media post needs to be text based. Get creative with new social media posts and share different kinds of topics, poll questions, social media contests, infographics, and videos. Depending upon the quality, sharing different types of media can help increase sharing and engagement.
• Create interesting blog posts. Each blog post should be shared on social networks, so create catchy headlines that attract your demographic. How-to’s and informative pieces make for great blog posts that are more likely to get shared and give the brand appeal.

Design the Website For Customers

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, any business can have a functioning website that is designed to impress and convert. A website is going to be one of the first places a prospective customer’s goes to learn more about a company. Make a great first impression and have a beautifully designed website.

The first step to creating a showstopping website is to make it mobile responsive. Google conducted a survey asking how users felt about mobile responsive websites and found that 48% of users felt like a company didn’t care about their business if a website didn’t work well on their smartphone. When crafting the mobile layout of a website, ensure that each feature functions properly on mobile and the overall design is simple for users to navigate.

The next step to enhancing a business website is the color coordination and layout. What are the primary colors of the website? Choose colors that match the brand while still providing a modern feel. Your demographic should be the primary factor when deciding on additional colors. For example, an older audience will appreciate softer colors with larger fonts. Whereas a younger audience would be more attracted to higher contrasts and unique fonts.

A great example of color coordination based on demographic is Nationwide’s website. Their main website is meant to provide insurance for people of all ages and they play it safe with minimal color changes and standard insurance images. Nationwide has a separate website to provide Pet Insurance policies for pet owners. That website is a bit more fun than the original Nationwide website using more color, higher contrast and images of tattooed people to better attract a specific kind of demographic.

Do you do marketing for a not-so-exciting industry? Comment below with some of your biggest struggles for making the brand sexy.

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