“Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with your marketing.” – Mike Volpe
Marketing is a broad term with so many ways to experiment, create and attract your consumers. Let’s think back to an Introduction to Business class for a moment. The general definition of marketing is the action of selling or promoting a product or service to someone else. The brilliant thing about this definition is that there is no specific way of marketing to your consumer, and like Mike Volpe says you can “get creative and experiment.”
Our digital advertising experts are here with a list of 6 underrated marketing tactics that your business can use to creatively attract the consumers you want:
1) Employee Marketing – Your employees are people who know your business better than anyone else and are a great tool to help promote what is going on. Encourage them to share your company posts on their social media pages and feature your employees in promotional paper and digital marketing materials. Not only does it show people how much you value your employees, but it also encourages employees to help with the growth of the business.
2) Cause Marketing – Everyone loves to see a business helping out to make the world a better place. Think of how Adidas partners with Parley to produce shoes from ocean pollution plastic. Not only are they making a durable product that people love, but they are also helping out the environment one shoe at a time. People are encouraged to buy the shoes because they are doing something to help, which is a win for the consumer and for your company.
3) Affinity Marketing – People do say “two minds are better than one.” With affinity marketing, your business creates a partnership with another business who is not a direct competitor to create a campaign that appeals to more consumers than you already have. For example, Nike and Apple came together to create Nike+. Nike doesn’t create technology and Apple doesn’t create shoes so coming together to form a running tracking device built inside a shoe was the perfect affinity marketing marriage.
4) Word of Mouth Marketing – According to IMPACT, 75% of people do not believe in advertisements, but 92% of them would take a recommendation from a friend. Getting people talking about your product is the whole point behind marketing. Get people to talk about your products and services by making them memorable through your customer relations process, powerful or funny commercials or unique branding ideas.
5) Affiliate Marketing – According to Acceleration Partners, Affiliates are paid a revenue share of the sale they helped generate from their site. This differs from Influencer Marketing because influencers get paid a flat rate for promoting company products and services while affiliates get a paid commission for any products they sell. One example of affiliate marketing is Trip Advisor because they partner with travel companies.
6) Article Marketing – Well look at this! Article Marketing is exactly what we are doing right now. It is the creation and sharing of content relevant to your business while also advertising your business. Creating a company blog or submitting articles to blogs and magazines is the easiest way to get your company name out there and be a voice for your industry.
Photo credit: Campaign Creators
