🧠 Embrace the Weird: How Small Businesses Can Supercharge Their Marketing 🧟‍♂️

Listen up, you marketing maniacs! I've written over 100,000 ads and sat in rooms pitching nine Super Bowl spots, and here's what I can tell you for free: the brands making the most money right now aren't the ones chasing the next viral TikTok dance. They're the ones who figured out how to keep it stupidly simple and lean all the way into their own weird.

So let's dive headfirst into this pool of marketing genius and emerge as the beautiful, weird creatures we were meant to be.

When Weird Works: Headstones Meet Song Lyrics

Let's start with a fresh example. This past week, one of the members of my BAM Mastermind got comfortable getting weird in an industry not exactly famous for "out of the box" advertising. See what I did there?

Stoltz Memorials is running a series of ads that use song lyrics -- think classic rock and country hooks people already have memorized -- to sell headstones. In an industry that's spent decades leaning on soft piano music and stock photos of sunsets, that's a genuinely unheard-of move, and it's the kind of pattern break that gets a brand talked about at the dinner table, not just scrolled past.

The strategy is smart: use a little familiar humor to soften a conversation most people actively avoid having. That's not just "being weird for weird's sake" -- it's weird in service of a real communication problem, which is the difference between a stunt and a strategy. A good headline or hook does the same job in any industry: it earns permission to keep reading before it asks for anything else. If you want the mechanics of that, I've broken down how to build a headline that actually earns the read elsewhere.

This campaign will absolutely generate positive buzz and PR opportunities. It will also generate hate mail. Good. Howard Stern built a 40-year career off his haters. Negative feedback from the wrong audience is often proof you're being heard loud and clear by the right one.

Stop Hiding Your Strategy Like a Coward

1. Rip Off the Band-Aid: Let Your Strategy Streak Naked Through Town 🏃‍♂️

Remember when we all thought being subtle was cool? Brands like Old Spice and Dollar Shave Club pantsed that idea in front of the whole school -- and turned it into real revenue, not just laughs.

Old Spice went full-frontal with "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like." They didn't hint at being manly -- they said, flat out, "Hey ladies, your dude stinks. Our stuff will make him smell like a chiseled god riding backwards on a horse." The campaign didn't just win awards; it reportedly moved Old Spice body wash sales over 100% in the months after launch, because the strategy -- talk to the woman doing the buying, not the guy using the product -- was stated so plainly the media buy didn't have to work overtime explaining it.

Dollar Shave Club dropkicked subtlety out the window with their launch video. "Our blades are f***ing great" wasn't a whisper -- it was a primal scream in a category full of polite razor ads. They put the entire strategy on blast in ninety seconds: cheap razors, no BS, delivered to your door. That video reportedly generated tens of thousands of orders within 48 hours because the offer and the tone were the same message.

How to weird-ify your biz: Stop hiding your strategy like it's your grandma's secret cookie recipe. If you're the quirkiest accounting firm in town, say so out loud. "We make numbers fun, or at least less soul-crushing." Strategy exposed, minds blown.

2. Plant Your Flag: Claim That Hill Before Someone Else Does 🚩

The most memorable brands don't sit around waiting to see if their unique angle catches on. They grab that uniqueness, plant it firmly in the public's brain first, and by the time a competitor tries to copy it, it's too late -- the audience already thinks of the original.

How to stake your claim: got something unique about your business? A secret sauce that makes your customers' wallets do the cha-cha? Don't wait for competitors to notice. Say it loud. "Our software is so intuitive, a blind person can use it -- blindfolded." Own it.

Kill the Fluff: Say It Fast or Say Nothing

3. Cut the Crap: Get to the Point Faster Than a Cheetah on Red Bull ⚡

In a world where attention spans are shorter than a goldfish's memory, successful brands go for the jugular with concise, punchy messaging. No long-winded explanations, no beating around the bush. Just... pow.

How to keep it snappy: ditch the corporate mumbo-jumbo and get to the meat of your message. Your Instagram caption should hit harder than a double espresso shot. Your billboard should make people's heads spin faster than a cat chasing a laser pointer. "Our burgers are so good, we convert vegans." Mic drop. If you need a gut check on whether your own headline is doing its job or just sitting there looking pretty, this is the actual job a headline has to do.

Your Marching Orders

The Grand Finale 🎭

Look, small business owners, here's the deal: the most successful brands out there just gave us all permission to get weird, get loud, and get noticed. It's time to stop playing it safe and start playing it smart. Be obvious, be first, and for the love of all that is holy, be brief.

Remember, in the jungle of marketing, it's not about being the biggest animal. It's about being the one that makes the most noise -- or the weirdest noise.

So go ahead, let your freak flag fly. Show your strategy, claim your territory, and keep it snappier than a crocodile's jaws.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it (and you better), is to inject a dose of weird into your marketing strategy. Be so obvious it hurts, be so first it makes your competitors cry, and be so brief it leaves your audience wanting more.

Now go forth and conquer, you beautiful marketing monsters! 🧟‍♂️💥🚀