I’m looking to put some new life into my marketing efforts this year. Where’s a good place to start looking for ideas?

-Keegan, Los Alamos, New Mexico

Keegan,

To find the answers you seek, you must look to only one place for your inspiration. The Girl Scouts of America.

According to Girl Scouts of America, last year they sold more than 200 million boxes of cookies, producing $800 million in fundraising to channel back into the organization’s programming. Don’t worry, there is no supreme Girl Scout sitting in a multi-million dollar mansion pulling a Scrooge McDuck with the cookie sales cash.

Let’s dive in to the lessons we can glean from the pint-sized peddlers of cookie goodness.

Set S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Girl Scouts are given literature in kid-friendly language that teaches them how to set goals and reach them. Goals need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. So before you head out on an effort to revise any marketing efforts, you need to make sure you have a clearly defined set of goals, so that you can focus your energy.

Pay attention to Conversion Paths.

In the Girl Scout universe, this means the path from the moment you salivate over an image of a Thin Mint, until you take it home to put in your freezer. By breaking down the steps that lead to conversion (i.e. what makes someone wash their car, and at your location?) what happens afterward (what happens when they drive off the lot?) you can better gear your messages to your key prospects. Hint: People wash their cars because they are dirty and because it makes them feel good to have a clean car.

Write great copy.

Whether you send direct email to prospects or create online ads, great copy is one of the key factors for driving prospects to convert. The Girl Scout cookies use great copy to entice you to buy them, and share the information with friends. You’ll need to be sure your marketing efforts include great copy to help people along their conversion path to your wash.

Create compelling visual content.

Write great copy, but keep it short and to the point. Highly visual content (images, video) sends a powerful message. Using Thin Mints as an example, doesn’t the picture of a Thin Mint with a bite out of it just make you want to get in your car to find the nearest Girl Scout cookie table? Or, tap into the stash from the deep freeze in the garage…

Build email lists

Your marketing efforts should include a mechanism for building lists to help you stay connected. Well-performing Girl Scouts maintain email lists to help remind you when it’s time to buy cookies, keeping you aware of new flavors, and sharing the successes of the local troop. Make sure you take a page out of their book and build a strong email list of both existing and potential customers.