Your marketing strategy might be too boring to get noticed. Don't create dull, predictable content that's likely to be ignored by your target audience.

Far too many tech startup companies miss their opportunity to shine because they rely on boring, recycled marketing tactics instead of coming up with a targeted plan that is bold and elegant. The reality is that your customers will lose interest if you don't focus on fostering customer engagement. How can you make sure your marketing approach isn't boring? It's important to evaluate your tactics and make a push for personal and relevant marketing initiatives.

It's Never Boring When You Go Personal

One way to really spark the interest of your target leads is to make your content all about them. This can be achieved by consistently pushing out content that addresses the issues the group you're marketing your product to may be dealing with. The rules to keep in mind when creating a personal marketing approach are:

• Make your brand appear human
• Create conversational content
• Reach out to your target audience where they are instead of making them look for you

Don't Just Copy Other's Plans

One of the biggest temptations startup companies face is to simply copy the marketing strategies of other successful companies. This can be a big mistake because a tactic that works for another brand may not work for you. This is where having a rock-solid buyer persona in place will pay off handsomely. The reality is that there are probably subtle nuances between your buyer persona and the audiences the companies you're following are marketing to. You need to put the time and effort into crafting a very specific marketing plan that addresses the needs, values, interests and habits of your buyer persona. Having the ability to fill in those small gaps that other companies have left open could be your ticket to gaining a share of the market that is untapped.

Don't Always Talk About Your Product

Conventional B2B marketing advice has been heavily centered on the idea that you should always talk about your product. However, the reality is that constantly pushing your product can lead to consumer fatigue. Followers and subscribers may actually start ignoring your content and posts or simply unsubscribe completely if it feels like all you do is try to sell your product. Some smart ways to add variety to your content include:

• Share graphics and photos that show real people using your product
• Show videos of your product in real-life applications
• Share tips for solving issues that don't directly reference your product
• Share videos or blogs of real reviewers talking about the features of your product

Don't Forget About Data

It is so important to be able to measure how effective every post, email and piece of content you put out into the world performs. This is why you should have platforms in place that can provide data regarding engagement rates and lead conversions. Your marketing strategies should constantly be readjusted to account for data-based results. While it may seem overwhelming to delegate some of the funds in your marketing budget toward data and research, such an investment is likely to save you money in the long run because you won't be throwing money at tactics that don't yield results.

What Do You Want To Achieve?

You can't begin designing an elegant marketing plan until you've decided what you want to achieve. You can use written content, video and photos to influence how people feel about your brand. This will affect whether you push out content that is based on emotion, concrete facts, innovation or humor. You should pick one of the following objectives before you begin crafting your content:

• Inform
• Inspire
• Motivate
• Persuade
• Entertain
• Shift buyer perception

A Smart Example of Informing Without Being Boring

Xerox pulled off a spectacular marketing success in 2016 as it tried to demonstrate to customers that it is no longer just in the hardware business. Most people associate Xerox with the clunky printers and equipment that you find in offices. However, the reality is that business services now make up a significant portion of the company's revenue. Xerox needed a strategy to highlight its business services in a way that moved away from the current perception most people have about it being a hardware company. The company began running a humorous 30-second television ad depicting a business executive being bombarded with trite and cringe-worthy business jargon throughout his day.

Xerox uses the unimpressed executive to demonstrate that it is a brand that can be relied on for simple solutions that cut through the noise. This commercial is effective for the following reasons:

• Executives can relate to its message
• It creates an inside joke about the industry
• It demonstrates the unique value of Xerox against newer, trendier companies
• It introduces new services from an established company
• It's not boring

How To Tell Your Story?

What did Xerox do through this video? It told the story by taking a fun route. You don't need the marketing budget of a company like Xerox to be able to tell your story. However, you can follow the model of identifying a problem, highlighting the problem using a humorous approach and showing your company's unique value as it pertains to solving that problem.

The one thing that is critically important when creating your marketing strategy is that just getting your name out there should never be your goal. You can't let your name get out into the wild without making sure you have a tag attached to it that clearly defines who you are, what you offer and what your value is. You need to make your brand the first thing your target audience thinks of when they think of a specific industry or function.

So, how do you plan to WOW your audience?