The digital world can be a blessing and a curse to anyone who is trying to develop a marketing strategy, especially those who might fall victim to the temptation of being gimmicky — so let’s start by addressing the fact that gimmicky is not a marketing strategy, period. 

Are gimmicks always bad? 

Not at all! Will being gimmicky sometimes help you? If you’re being smart about it.

But when it comes to strategy, you shouldn’t be relying simply on being gimmicky. It can make you look amateurish, waste your time, and even hurt your brand image.

Digital advertising means competing with a lot of other content out there online. Think about how much content a person is bombarded with every time they open their email inbox, log onto social media, or just do a quick search on Google. If you’re going to stand out, you need to work hard — and sometimes you need to do something a little outrageous to get attention.

Hence the idea of the gimmick. Depending on who you ask, the definition of “gimmicky” is going to vary. But in general, you can consider anything that grabs people’s attention to be a gimmick. That attention grab might even contain some element of surprise, or make people feel really curious and excited.

This is where the confusion comes from. Getting people’s attention is a good thing! Surprising them and making them curious are good things! Isn’t this exactly what marketing or advertising is supposed to do? In a way, yes — and that’s why some people see marketing in general as something that’s gimmicky.

But those tactics of grabbing attention and piquing curiosity only work if there’s actual follow-through. If you’re teasing people with an outrageous gimmick, then your efforts aren’t going to pay off.

Gimmicks That Don’t Work

Here are a few examples of gimmicks that amateur advertisers sometimes try:

• Running a contest that doesn’t match their brand. If you’re asking people to play along with a game, there should be some understanding of how all of this is relevant. Otherwise, anyone who participates is just going to remember the game and not what your brand has to offer.

• Using hashtags that aren’t relevant. Some hashtags are hugely popular and get a lot of traffic. You think that if you use them, it will bring a lot of attention to your page. But the people following those hashtags are doing so because they’re interested in that topic — not necessarily in your brand.

• Jumping onboard with hot topics in the news. This is similar to using irrelevant hashtags. If there’s a hot topic in the news that everyone is talking about, you might be tempted to post about it and make some far-reaching association between the news story and your product. (More on this later.)

• Using copy that is especially aggressive. Blogs, newsletters, and landing page copy can all convey some sense of urgency and importance, but when it overpromises or makes demands of your readers, then it can quickly turn them off just as quickly as it caught their attention.

Crying Wolf

We could go on and list plenty of other examples, but you get the idea: Anything that catches people’s attention but then doesn’t follow through is a waste of time.

Think of gimmicks as crying wolf. You remember the story about the little shepherd boy who kept shouting, “Help! A wolf! A wolf!” as a way of pulling a joke on the nearby villagers? Then when an actual wolf came prowling by and the boy called for help, nobody believed him or came to his aid. That’s how gimmicks are. They create a sense of distrust — the next time you do something to grab attention, people will just keep on scrolling because they know you overpromise and underdeliver.

That’s not to say gimmicks will always fail. We talked about how you shouldn’t jump onboard with hot topics in the news if they’re irrelevant. If you’re an ice cream shop, you could use all the buzz about heat waves as a way of encouraging people to come get a frozen treat to cool off. But if you sell running apparel, don’t try to make some joke about wildfires and how people need to have proper gear if they’re going to run away from them at top speed. That’s just tacky and tasteless.

Instead of building an marketing strategy around your gimmick, build your gimmick around your marketing strategy. Remember to ask yourself:

• Who needs your product?

• How are you grabbing their attention?

• How do you sympathize with their problems (aka their pain points)?

• How are you establishing their trust to solve their problems?

If you’ve figured each of those questions out, then you might be able to come up with a gimmick that will segue nicely into the message of your campaign. By doing this, you’ll establish trust and not only convert leads into customers but more importantly gain loyal customers who will return to you again and again.

At ASMM Digital, we’re all about catching your target audience’s attention and then following through on fulfilling their expectations!Reach out to us today by calling 443-679-4916 or emailing ann@asmmdigital.com.