If everyone used to be a critic, then today everyone is a publisher. From corporations to personal blogs, the Internet is filling up faster than Louie Anderson at Fuddruckers.
Louie, like most of us, enjoys a tasty hamburger now and then.
There’s no shortage of prose out there, but there is a shortage of fresh takes on stale subjects. How do you make a website about car insurance fun? Why would anyone bookmark a site about light bulbs? What does this mean for my plans to create a combination car insurance/light bulb food truck? Making the mundane memorable is vital to capturing the attention of the fickle Web surfer, and yet it can be done.
Start with Different
Let’s take that example of car insurance. Intrinsically there’s nothing exciting, funny, or particularly compelling about the topic. For decades the industry was content to advertise itself in a matter of fact way: You need insurance for your car, we can provide it.
No cavemen or talking ducks, just insurance.
But times have changed. From Geico’s gecko to Progressive’s feisty Flo to Allstate’s intimidating mayhem guy, the major players all attempt to inject personality into their advertising. While a game of word association that started with “insurance” would probably never lead anyone to utter “Dikembe Mutombo,” that didn’t stop Geico from using the former NBA star and his 7’7 frame in an ad that went viral.
The same philosophy holds true for your website. Do something different. If your company sells plastic cutlery, you might think your site has to stay confined to content with keywords like forks, spoons, or dining—it doesn’t. Perhaps you can place one of those plastic forks in the road and write about what happens. Maybe you can weigh the pros and cons of “spooning” your significant other vs. spooning an actual spoon. Or just have a random guy get excited about your product and hope it gets turned into an auto-tuned blockbuster like the Five Guys Burgers fan video below. Point is, going off the beaten path is a great way to get noticed.
Piggyback on the Hotness
Even if you’re too busy to do any of those things, or cautious about the level of creativity you want to branch out with, there’s always room on the online bandwagon. Seeing what’s trending on Reddit and Buzzfeed can be a great catalyst for unusual and sticky content. Maybe you can get your staff together for a quick Harlem Shake video, or create a few of those meme pictures with your company as the star.
Probably not created by Geico.
A Very Special Summary
With every owner of every website now in demand of fresh content to lure fresh traffic, the playing field has widened. You can use all your bandwidth to explain the finer points of no-fault deductibles, or you can expand the expectations of what viewers will find on your site by dedicating a page to learning how to dress like your spokesperson. You’ve seen the path that car insurance companies have taken. Which path will you choose? Let us know. We’ll be waiting in the food truck.