If you’re starting up a new business, and are reading up on the best tips, tricks, and strategies for making a success of your business venture, and establishing a good name for yourself professionally, you’re likely pretty well aware of the incredible importance of marketing.

When all is said and done, you might have an absolutely outstanding business plan, and you may be offering a product or service that can genuinely transform the lives of other people, for the better. But, if you don’t know how to get people’s attention, and present your offering to them in an appealing way, you’re just not going to be successful.

The thing about marketing, though, is that everyone is a bit “numb” to it these days, since they are surrounded by marketing campaigns and slogans are various types, at all times.

Here are a few tips for marketing in a way that people actually care about.

Do Something Original and Uncommon

Part of the problem with marketing campaigns, is that they tend to be pretty formulaic, and to follow certain well-worn patterns that the general public, at large, are already very familiar with – if not completely conditioned to filter out of their awareness altogether.

How many people, these days, really pay a lot of attention to the average marketing email that ends up in their spam folder?

The first step to marketing in a way that people actually care about, is doing something original and uncommon. This could mean mobile marketing via interactive picture SMS, or it could mean sending certain novel materials through the letterbox.

You’ll have to apply a bit of individual creativity here, but try to be unique, in any case.

Try to Offer Some Genuine Benefit Upfront, Rather Than Just Making Your Pitch

It’s a well-known concept in the world of marketing, that people buy “benefits” and not “features.”

What this means, essentially, is that people are motivated to make purchases when there is a clearly conveyed sense of how those purchases can benefit their lives. The point, then, is to market on the base of those benefits, not just by coldly listing out the “features” of your product.

If you’re selling some piece of fitness equipment, for example, emphasise things like “can help to save you time, and allow you to get a much faster workout on those busy days” rather than “has a tensile strength of…”

Aim for “Genuine” Rather Than “Salesman”

Everyone has a mental image of what an unscrupulous, stereotypical “salesman” looks like, and it’s not a flattering image, by any means.

Increasingly, today, people are looking for authenticity in the companies they interact with. They want to feel as though they are dealing with other human beings, rather than polished and robotic marketing platforms.

In terms of your marketing, you should try to convey as much of your genuine personality as you can, as opposed to just getting your pitch out there.

Try to talk to people in a way that you would like them to talk to you, and try to make the kind of pitch that you feel would work on you.