Slow and steady wins the race. But sometimes, isn't it kind of nice toburstthrough that finish line? That's where shameless marketing tactics come into play.

您知道那些 - 他们引起您的注意,激发您的兴趣,使之成为现实you can't look away!它可能让你感觉有点脏,但事实is these things have worked for lots of brands, and when something works, it's hard to knock it too hard.

So here is a list of tried and true, totally shameless marketing tactics brands have applied to their marketing and advertising efforts toget visitors engaging with their content. I'm not saying you should implement all of these, but hey, next time your CMO gives you a tough traffic or leads goal ... at least you'll have some creative tricks in your back pocket!

1) Cute Animals

One day, the option appeared in my Foursquare account to include a picture of a puppy in my weekly emails.

Screen Shot 2012 06 05 at 4.49.13 PM

I then started to receive emails from Foursquare with pictures of this nature at the end:

Screen Shot 2012 06 05 at 4.50.23 PM

And for the first time, I actually started reading through these emails from Foursquare, even though those puppies have absolutely nothing to do with the brand.

Thing is, Foursquare started doing this because they picked up on a phenomenon that has worked well for many brands for some time -- make em say, "aww!" Take a look at Geico, for example. Even though car insurance relates in no way to cute animals, Geico has a track record of finding success in using animals to promote their car insurance. The Geico Gecko has become renowned for his role in the marketing and advertising industry, and following in his tracks were other talking animals including woodchucks and pigs.These commercials have beenwatched over 25 million times, more than any other car insurance company.

它也超越了可爱的品牌吉祥物。洗衣洗涤剂品牌依uggs不仅决定将其产品命名为“依ugg”(那是多么可爱?),而且要创建一个模糊的婴儿泰迪熊(也称为Snugg)来代表其品牌。吉祥物成立于1983年,从那以后一直用来向客户传达信息,即通过使用洗涤剂,您的衣服会更舒适。依ugg在他们的所有营销和广告活动中都有特色,并已证明在公司工作了将近30年。raybet电子竞技

So to test our theory,here are some pictures of really cute puppies. ...Did it work? ;-)

2) Using Numbers to Shock People

Using numbers in the headlines of your content is a tried and true way to get more clicks than the average snuggly bear. However, the numbers that really work are the ones that make your readers do a double take. Think about it -- 75 ways to get leads from Twitter is much more appealing than 3 measly methods; I mean, who couldn't come up with 3 ways toget leads on Twitter? Big whoop! Including adjectives like "shocking," "unpredictable," or "crazy" only help amplify this effect.

We use this tactic in our blog posts all the time. Just take a look at one of our blog postsLinkedIn 277% More Effective for Lead Generation Than Facebook & Twitter [New Data]. Whoa, 277% more effective? That's ... a lot more effective. And you know what? That blog post has received over 33,000 views and triple digit inbound links. We use it in our ebooks, too, to show that we're being comprehensive. Or look at our latest ebook,55 Brands Rocking Social Media With Visual Content. In just one day it received over 2300 views ... just one day! Think about if we'd just given you 5 or 10 brands that use visual content on social media; how inspirational would that really be?

3) Babies

Similar to cute animals, many brands have seen success using cute babies as a way to market themselves. Remember the水宝宝水宝宝? They put that baby on all of their products to appeal to mothers who loved their cuddly little buggers. And for the rest of us, it gives us a feeling a comfort that many marketers want their audience to feel.

But the Coppertone association with babies makes sense; what about the brands that leverage cute little babies when it doesn't directly relate to their product? Enter Evian! Take a llook at this video, which wasviewed over 56 million timesand became known as one of the most successful brand campaigns ever. Even though cute babies don't correlate with water, they made sure that their brand was prominent throughout the commercial to retain brand awareness.

In fact, a study was conducted by theMarketing Bulletinto see whether or not using a cute baby or cute animal would get more people to respond to a survey.The cute baby increased responses rates by 88%, and the cute animal increased response rates by 42%.They also noted that the cute pictures increased response rates while not drastically affecting other parts of the survey. Not a bad tradeoff!

4) Berating Your Audience

It's kind of messed up, but when your headlines are a bit inflammatory, including words like "hate," "fix," and "mistakes," people gravitate towards it. It's a trick, of course -- the premise is that when you publish a blog post like "15 Things People Absolutely Hate About Your Website,“该帖子并没有直接攻击任何特定的读者网站;这只是公众网站PET PEEVES的镜头。但是,该标题肯定确实在家里遇到了,不是吗?这是博客文章的原因之一如此成功 - 有over 1,500 Facebook likes, almost 2,000 tweets, close to 1,000 shares on LinkedIn, and 26,515 views(and counting).

To help hammer home the point, take a look at some other headlines that take the same inflammatory approach that performed very well:

All of these examples poke fun not at your reader specifically, but at all marketers (ourselves included) and toy with them in a way that makes them just want to click the link to find out what they might be doing wrong!

5) Hyperbolic Headlines

Similar to berating your audience, a headline that exaggerates a situation will also get more clicks. Let's take the story of Fleishman-Hillard, a PR agency, as an example. They tried their hand atnewsjackingfor a client (more on newsjacking later in this post!) to promote their client and received a lot of backlash for its inappropriate content. So PRNewser took this opportunity to write a story titled, "Fleishman-Hillard Canada Apologizes For ‘Tackiest Press Release in Human History。”“通过将此新闻稿称为“人类历史上最紧张的新闻稿”,他们引起了一些严重的媒体关注。

Another article titled, "The Worst Thing Ever: Retina Display" gave a strong opinion of the new Mac laptop that is coming out in the next few months. By taking the title to extremes -- the worst thingever-- journalists assert a strong opinion that challenges readers to vehemently agree or disagree with their assertion.

6) Sex Appeal

您认为我们不会忘记广告行业的首选战术,是吗?裸体和性吸引力是引起观众注意的常见堕落方法。几十年来,品牌一直试图说服客户,如果他们使用其产品或服务,他们将看起来像杂志中的模型,或者具有名人的信心和态度。

Most recently, H&M produced a Super Bowl commercial with David Beckham almost completely nude to sell, ironically, their clothing. Ladies, you may recall this one.Within 45 minutes, the brand had109,000 mentions on social media, more than any other commercial that was aired.

7)新raybetapp闻劫持

如果您保持最新消息,可能会有机会用已经存在的故事来推销您的公raybetapp司。raybet电子竞技raybetapp事实证明,新闻劫持非常成功,因为您正在使用一个已经很受欢迎的故事,以使读者有理由关注您的公司。raybet电子竞技

Our favorite example comes fromDavid Meerman Scott's bookall about newsjacking in which he tells the story of the London Fire Brigade's own attempt at newsjacking. They read the story about Kate Winslet saving Sir Richard Branson's mother from a burning building, and immediately sent her an invitation to go through firefighter training. With minimal effort, time, and cost, the invitation garnered them tons of press and praise for their efforts.

What shameless marketing tactic do you think works best?By the way, how many people clicked on the cute puppy link in the beginning?

Image credit:jelene

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Originally published Jun 7, 2012 4:45:00 PM, updated July 28 2017

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