Genie Jar Digital — Williamsburg, VA and Hampton Roads | Marketing Agency | Digital Agency

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The World's Scariest Haunted House (and how it impacts your marketing)

Have you heard of McKamey Manor?

Located in Tennessee, it’s known as the world’s most extreme haunted house.

The owners offer $20,000 to anyone who can “survive,” but no one has made it all the way through. People beg to leave before finishing.

What makes it different from run-of-the-mill scare shops? Why is it so unnerving?

To participate, you land on a waiting list numbering over 20,000 people. You must sign a 45-page waiver, submit to a physical and mental screening, and be at least 21 years old.

Unlike most haunted houses, it’s also a four-to-eight hour tour. And the workers can touch you.

You agree to extreme physical and mental torture. This includes being “buried” in a coffin, dragged by chains behind a car, and having your eyebrows shaved. It’s not for the faint of heart.

What does this have to do with marketing? McKamey Manor generates a lot of free press because they’re… different. It’s not your typical house of horrors.

What makes your business different is what makes your business memorable. Being memorable is rare air.

In marketing speak, it’s called your Unique Selling Proposition. Throughout your collateral, avoid cliché talk and copycat images. Run from it like dodging a black cat on All Hallows' Eve.

Your competitors may line up like zombies and say the same boring things, but don’t fall for that mistake. Generic is lazy and forgettable.

Just like McKamey Manor differs from other haunted houses, you must differ from your competitors:

  • How does your product stick out?

  • What’s special about your customer service?

  • How do you uniquely speak to your target market?

  • What is the unusual way you gather leads?

  • How do you differ in converting leads to sales?

  • What one-of-a-kind world-class experience do you deliver?

  • What is an original way in which you stimulate referrals?

Discover those answers, then talk about them everywhere.

Make some noise. Rattle bones and fire up the chainsaw.

You’ll pierce the fog, punch through dusty cobwebs, and scare up some serious business.

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