What Back to the Future Can Teach Us About Internet Marketing
Whether you are starting out as an internet marketer or a seasoned pro, there are quite a few things to consider as you develop your brand and keep increasing your internet presence.
My obsession with the Back to the Future trilogy started at a young age, when I saw Back to the Future part II in theaters for the first time. I couldn’t wait for the movie to start – hover boards (like everyone who saw the movie back then, I totally wanted one), ideals of the future, and plenty of other good things made it a truly awesome experience. I ended up exploring the entire trilogy afterwards by watching part I, and probably saw part III more than 10 times in the theater when it came out.
Since the entire trilogy was released on video I’ve probably seen it more than 100,000 times and I never get tired of watching it. Needless to say, I was floored when I saw weregoingback.com, the 25th anniversary week long celebration of Back to the Future, held through November 5 – 12, 2010 to coincide with the dates of the movie when Marty arrives in 1955 – Nov. 5th being the “red-lettered date in the history of science” when Doc Brown invents the flux capacitor. So this post was born – to help me get some creative juices flowing again to get back to work (and back to reality)…although I’ll have to wish myself good luck on the whole getting back to reality thing.
So what, exactly can the Back to the Future trilogy teach us about Internet Marketing? Well, let’s take a look at some ideas and lessons that show up throughout the movie and were subsequently developed to deliver a movie experience that resounded with the ages.
Utilize original, groundbreaking content concepts. Don’t just settle for mediocrity/automation for your content writing.
According to multiple sources, the producers (Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale) were going to use a refrigerator in one iteration of the script rather than a DeLorean. Let’s face it – how boring would a refrigerator have been? Other time travel movies had utilized similar devices for depicting the attainment and execution of time travel, so in order to excel where others failed Back to the Future needed a more unique approach. Thus, the DeLorean time machine was born, a deliciously styled time machine that made Back to the Future, ‘Back to the Future’.
Develop your personal touch and integrate it as much as possible into your website copy.
Doc was originally supposed to be named Professor, and one of the original scripts called for a pet monkey instead of a dog. Monkeys are all well and good, and when you want to go to monkey island you definitely want to have a monkey on your side! But in Back to the Future, having dogs throughout the Doc’s life named after great scientists is a personal touch that delivers on character elements that express who Doc Brown himself really was – a man of science. It’s all in the details. Whether you’re working on a blog or a hit movie, you need to have a personal touch to deliver on special character elements that can make or break your production. When you include these, audiences can better identify and be more connected with your writing, and you can help convert more leads as a result. Nobody wants to read generic, bland robotic content that was obviously put together by an auto generator.
Use unique branding concepts to propel your marketing to a new level.
As we all should know by now, the device that allowed the DeLorean to travel through 
time was known as the flux capacitor. Branding. Just as the clever Doc Brown came up with a unique device for time travel, the flux capacitor is and always will be the de facto device associated with Back to the Future. To develop a successful brand, you need to come up with your own flux capacitor, or your USP (unique selling point). This is what will help differentiate you from the competition and develop an eventual clarified public awareness of purpose that everyone will associate with your brand, leading to increased conversions as a result. It can also help your business stay on track and go after that business that makes sense.
Introduce new, original, and fun concepts/posts to your blog regularly.
Just like the hover board made an incredible splash in the futuristic technology fantasies of every kid (and many adults) that saw Back to the Future part II, so will original fun posting concepts on your blog act in the same way towards your audience. You don’t want to stagnate by re-hashing the same stuff from previous posts in your blog, so you must dynamically introduce some amazing new concept that will entice your readers to your blog and help solve their problems.
Make usability a central focus of everything you do.
Nearly every one of Doc Brown’s inventions had a significant potential to solve problems for those who had difficulty with coming up with beyond practical solutions…when they finally work. It’s all about usability – your website, in addition to being functional, must also be usable and displayable on a number of screen resolutions and platforms, not just Safari on the Mac. The major search engines want to deliver on content and websites that are useful enough to people who are looking for a site to solve a specific problem. If your website’s product solves that problem, people are more likely to convert and purchase your product. Conversely, if your site is not user friendly, contains some information (and obviously nowhere near completion), and the architecture doesn’t flow well, then it’s more likely than ever to lead to an increased bounced rate (the rate at which people leave your page after visiting).
By keeping in mind the principles above, you’ll be able to keep your website project on track, and maybe it will one day rival the best website that even the Doc himself could put together!