When it comes to running a business of any description, there’s no doubt that marketing is one of the most important, and most complicated aspects of it. A lot of the time, the success of a product can depend entirely on the quality of its marketing. It’s hardly difficult to see why it’s such an important part of any business of course. If customers don’t know that your business exists in the first place, then it’s going to pretty much impossible for them to engage with it. But it actually goes beyond that. A lot of the time marketing isn’t just about making the customer aware of the business, but rather about interesting them and making them actually want to engage with the business. This is the point where a lot of businesses, especially new ones, tend to stumble. We live in an age where customers have never had so much choice when it comes to businesses and products. The internet has made it far easier to reach customers, sure, but it’s also creating a far greater degree of market saturation that often leaves customers feeling overwhelmed and unable to choose between so many businesses. So what can you do? In such a saturated market things have reached the point where exclusively using the more common marketing methods simply isn’t going to get the job done anymore. This means that many businesses are going to need to start getting creative with their marketing strategies. Fortunately, there are plenty of options available for businesses that want to do something just a little bit different, and more interesting with their marketing techniques. To help your business stand out, here are just a few things that you might want to try.
Influencers
Over the last few years, there has been a serious shift in the way that customers engage with advertising on a pretty remarkable scale. Previous generations could pretty much be guaranteed to respond to traditional methods of advertising with fairly consistent results. But as the internet radically shifted the way in which people interact with the world around them, things started to move away from that. Now it’s reached the point where the millennial generation simply isn’t that interested in the more traditional methods of advertising. They’re more cynical and savvy about things like commercials that their parents and grandparents which means that businesses have had to adopt new techniques in order to engage with this younger generation. One of the most effective things that businesses have discovered is that this new social media generation has a fantastic resource that can be tapped into. That resource is the rise of the influencer. Obviously, people have always been influenced by celebrities and people that they look up to but thanks to social media these people can now interact directly with, and communication to their follows in a way that no one has been able to before. If you can find influencers who like your product and reflects the values of your brand, then they are a fantastic resource to share your product with a potentially massive audience. The great thing about influencers is that their audience has a built in bias which creates a level of trust between them that traditional advertising simply can’t manage.
Giveaways
This is by far one of the best marketing methods if you find yourself at a conference or any other networking event. It’s one thing to have a conversation with someone that feels productive, but there’s always a risk that when they walk away, they’re going to forget all about you and your business. That’s why giveaways are also fantastic; they allow you to stick in your customer’s mind well after your conversation has ended. There are a couple of directions you can go in when it comes to marketing your business this way. Some businesses prefer to choose something practical like pens or other stationery. This can be a fantastic option, especially if you’re working within an office setting. That’s because you can pretty much guarantee that whoever you gave it to is going to need to use it at some point and then every time that they do they’ll be reminded of your business. The other direction that you can go with it is to give out something to customers that’s a little bit more unusual, and they’re definitely going to remember. Things like stress balls are a fantastic option for this. They come in a whole bunch of different shapes that you can Browse at DynamicGift.ca, and they just have a little bit more personality than many of the free gifts that a lot of businesses offer. It’s also a great choice for business events since they can be a pretty stressful experience for a lot of people so you can be sure that they’re going to need them.
Social Media
Now, of course, social media by itself is hardly the most unique and remarkable marketing method in the world anymore. It wasn’t even that long ago when the idea of a business using something as new and unusual as social media was something of an effective novelty. But as it became more and more ubiquitous, the idea of a business promoting itself through social media became less of a novelty and more of an expectation. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t still creative things that you can do with it. One of the best ways to engage with customers is to make an emotional connection, and there are few better ways to do that than through humor. Some of the most successful corporate Twitter accounts are as successful as they are because they deliberately subvert the expectations of how they should behave. They make jokes to customers, reference memes and communicate in a way that would previously have been considered “unprofessional.” This can be a pretty tricky tightrope to walk, but if it’s done right, few marketing methods are better at getting straight to a customer’s emotions and creating an instant bond and sense of loyalty.