Too many times, marketers focus on the medium being used to transmit their message, instead of concentrating on the message itself. An effective marketing message will be effective no matter what medium is used to transmit it.

The trick is to know how to construct an effective marketing message. Luckily, this doesn’t involve deals with the devil, mystic VooDoo rituals or ancient Chinese secrets. (Unless you want to base your chances of business success on Satan, a dead chicken and a fortune cookie, in which case have at it.) There’s one simple method that is present in all effective marketing:

An emotional connection.

Let’s play a game. Look at the following group of letters and tell me what they mean:

Now, let’s look at those same letters, in the same order, but presented in a different way:

I’m going to bet the second group is easier to comprehend, easier to remember, and has more of an impression than the first group. Why? The same “message” is contained in both, but in the second case the message was constructed to play upon your preconceived mental images and emotional connections.

I don’t mean that proper marketing uses acronyms (although they don’t hurt at all)…in the second case, you don’t have to explain what “FBI” stands for, or “CIA”, “NASA”, etc. Your readers will automatically have a mental image pop into mind when they see them.

No one has to be told what the IRS is, but AIRS could be anything.

Let’s look at this from a completely different angle; Hollywood movie pitches. Pretend for a moment that you’re a movie studio executive, accepting one-sentence pitches for new movies. You’ve got $50 million dollars to invest in a movie…all you’re looking for is a sure-fire idea. (After all, you had to mow a lot of lawns to build that $50 million up!) Here’s the first pitch:

“A balding guy runs around in American cellars and caves, find treasure and solving mysteries.”

Okay…not too bad. It might even have potential. Now, let’s hear the next one:

“It’s ‘The DaVinci Code’ meets ‘Indiana Jones’!”

Which movie do you have a clearer picture of in your mind? They both describe the “National Treasure” movie franchise, but which one makes it easier to envision how great it could be?

Now, are you trying to sell balding guys in cellars and caves, or two blockbusters added together?

To bring it closer to home, I want to point out David over at Marketing Integrity, who explains what his company offers with the acronym “Mi4″. Read this from his site:

So what on earth does Mi4 stand for? Well, it certainly does not have anything to do with “Mission Impossible“…because with Marketing Integrity, your marketing will not be Mission Impossible!

Seriously, though…there are 4 M’s and 4 i’s that serve as the foundation principles of this business:

The 4 M’s represent the areas in which we serve you:

Marketing – Management – Media – Ministry

The 4 i’s represent our guarantee to you:

Integrity – Innovation – Inspiration – Illumination

Finally, the Mi also stands for the obvious: Marketing Integrity.

Notice how he made sure that potential customers make the emotional connection between his business and the “Mission Impossible” movie franchise by pointing out that it has nothing to do with the movies. (Sorry if I gave the farm away, David!)

Don’t focus on standing out…focus on being memorable. And the best way to do that is to form an emotional connection with your customers, and one of the most effective ways to do that is to help your customers make an association between your business and something they already have an emotional connection with.

Obviously, there was no such thing as “online marketing” in the 17th century (probably due to incredibly low bandwidth), but you can still learn something from marketing methods in that time period…specifically the town crier.

When someone takes their business online, and especially if they have an online-only business, the impulse is to promote it online. That’s an effective idea, but there’s something you may be forgetting about your customers.

They’re not “traffic”, “hits” or “vistors”…they’re people. Your goal isn’t to get more “traffic” to your website, it’s to get more people to your website. And that’s who you need to market to…people, wherever they are.

Here’s a question…how many ways have you tried to drive traffic to your website that don’t involve the internet in the last six months? If you answered “Ummmmm….none?”, then you’re literally selling yourself short.

There’s a reason eBay spends millions of dollars on print and broadcast ads…they want to reach everyone. I’m not saying you should go ahead and place you bid for a slot in next year’s Superbowl broadcast, but there are some simple methods you can use to promote your online business offline, which brings us back to the town crier.

Town criers were, for a long time, the best way to get a message out to everyone in a community…they were one of the first “broadcast advertising” methods. And today, word-of-mouth is still an incredibly effective way to advertise.

Use it!

Tell your friends, your relatives, your acquaintances…heck, tell the guy you’re standing in line with at the theater. Have business cards on hand to help direct people to your website, and scatter them around like confetti. Hang fliers in high-traffic areas. Heck, hire a skywriter. It doesn’t matter what method you use, it only matters that you do it.

Don’t get caught up in thinking only in terms of online marketing for your online business. There are potential customers around you every day…who knows how many of them might never find you unless you tell them in person?

I’d love to hear what offline methods you use to market your online business…share them below!