Small business marketing is getting easier thanks to technology. As marketing automation and SaaS services expand, marketers are saving loads of time and effort managing their mix.
It can be easy to fall into a comfort zone when your marketing is on auto-drive. For small businesses especially, marketing manpower is sometimes just too sparse for a major effort. Still, if your marketing has been static for a while, it is likely time to branch into new activities.
Should you give yourself an advertising boost to broaden your brand awareness? Do you want to try a new lead generation tactic? With a growing number of online marketing tools, accomplishing business goals with new marketing ideas is getting simpler.
Creative Marketing Activities and Ideas for Any Business
Of course, some marketing activities can be impractical and overwhelming for some businesses. The last thing business owners want is a low return on a substantial investment.
That is why we built this list of creative marketing activities and good ideas that any business can use. No matter your expertise or budget, these activities save time, money, and effort through intuitive tools and straightforward principles.
Read on to learn how to differentiate your brand and grow your customer base.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM refers to paid advertising through search engine results pages (SERPs). You probably recognize these on Google as top-of-page search results with an “Ad” label. As opposed to organic results, which appear based on relevance, authority, and value, SEM is a shortcut to exposure.
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are the most popular SEM formats. Marketers bid on keywords they wish to advertise for, telling Google what they will pay for each ad click. Google places ads depending on the bid amount and the content’s value.
Meet at Trade Shows
Trade shows take planning and financing to pull off correctly. They happen infrequently, however, so you will likely have months to prepare. These events are an excellent opportunity for small businesses to efficiently promote their brand to a valuable audience.
Purchasing booth space and creating an eye-catching display will attract both serious customers and potential business partners. You have a chance to promote business directly, giving you full control over the experience.
It takes effort to attend a trade show, so you can be confident that attendees have an immediate need. Interactions are more likely to lead to sales or channel partnerships that expand your brand’s availability.
Send Newsletters
An ongoing monthly or weekly newsletter inspires customer loyalty and helps your brand. These email blasts keep readers updated on industry news, consumer trends, and special promotions.
There is a huge selection of email automation tools to make recurring newsletters an easy marketing addition. Stripo, Benchmark, Mailjet, and a slew of other services provide templates, lists, and tracking for a low monthly price. For a small business marketer just getting started, MailChimp offers a basic, easy-to-use service for free.
Phone and Cold Call
Phone and Cold CallCold calling may not seem like one of the more creative ideas, but it is a technique that few consider. Phone calls to current and prospective clients are a great way to quickly boost your outreach efforts.
For B2B businesses, working CRMs and following up with customers is useful for upselling and customer retention. If you want to drum up some new business, dive into your LinkedIn network or search potential businesses in your area. Cursory research and a quick call may land you a new client or partnership opportunity.
Feature Your Content
Getting other websites to feature your website supports your brand reputation and increases your reach. By establishing a presence on other sites, you also provide more portals to visit your site via backlinks. These further help your own SEO efforts by showing search engines, along with customers, that your content is valuable. Reaching out to industry insiders, news networks, and bloggers for content syndication opportunities can be a mutually beneficial endeavor.
Automatic Remarketing Campaign
Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing tactics for maximizing conversion in an integrated marketing campaign. Using Facebook Ads or the GoogleAds network, you can put your advertising in front of previous website visitors.
With automated remarketing, cookie data allows you to identify website visitors and segment them for different ad experiences. Google, for example, allows you to create multiple lists with unique criteria like age, gender, or web pages viewed.
Welcome or Activation Programs
Welcome emails are a positive, responsive way to make a great first impression with a new customer or lead. When users subscribe to emails or create accounts, automated greetings are a thoughtful way to advance your marketing goals.
Emails can offer special new user promotions, helpful tips or welcome videos. If you deliver value in these initial interactions, consumers will see your brand as trustworthy and genuine.
Birthday Messages
It’s as simple as adding a single field to a form somewhere in the sales funnel. Getting a user’s birthday and putting them on an automated email list is an instantaneous way to increase conversion.
Buyers see personalized care in a birthday message as a positive attribute that sets you apart from the competition. This is beneficial for word-of-mouth marketing and retention. By adding personalized birthday promotions and coupons, you create both a sales opportunity and real value for your customer.
Event Tools
Automated reminders and sign-up opportunities can help you get the most out of special events and promotions. Use your email calendar to schedule invitation send-outs and regular follow-up reminders to confirm your guests. This is an easy way to make sure your event goes smoothly and that you maximize turnout.
Contest Promotion Ideas
There are a number of reasons that contests are one of the best social media marketing initiatives out there. If you need sales boosts, shares, or just some good brand marketing, contests can do it all.
Encourage Facebook or Twitter followers to like posts, share content, or enter drawings. There are several fun, brand-forward ways to target specific marketing goals with contests.
Useful Templates
Custom content is great, but putting time into brand new layouts at every turn is time-consuming and stressful. Marketers have been investigating the science of success for decades, so it is time you took advantage. In digital marketing, experts have developed powerful templates for nearly every communication strategy.
Creating a resource hub of templates for various sales and marketing channels is a smart marketing practice. By referencing these guides, you can be confident that your emails, newsletters, and content are consistently effective.
Host Free Webinars
Video is becoming more and more popular as an impactful marketing medium. Visual platforms give viewers a face and voice to connect to a brand — effectively humanizing businesses and accelerating connections. A webinar lets you address your audience directly and provide unique value that will keep them coming back.
Webinars should primarily be used as a lead magnet. Promote your webinar across social media channels and your website, giving users a chance to opt-in with contact information. You can also use webinars to elaborate on the technical sides of products and improve the customer’s experience.
Pop-up Opt-in on Landing Pages
Pop-up boxes offering content hovering over our desired web page is a common encounter for most internet users. They can be irritating to the user, but landing pages are a crucial lead generation tool for marketers. There is a direct relationship between the number of landing pages you use and your conversion rate.
Using landing page creation tools available online, you can create a variety of strategic placement and targeting options. These also help with SEO — as engines can index landing pages like normal, it provides users with more doorways to your site.
Write E-books
Write E-booksE-books are inexpensive paths to establishing expertise and value. Unlike short-form content like blogs, e-books are exclusive, unique, and highly informational. Readers pursue e-books as solutions to immediate and consequential business problems.
As such a valued resource, e-books are perfect for putting behind lead magnets. As evergreen content, you can update and reappropriate e-books through future campaigns. They are always present to both bolster SEO and earn leads, which establishes your credibility and utility in solving problems.
Guest Posts
Creating content for your website is essential for SEO, but search engines look to users when determining your authority. If credible websites link to yours, Google sees that you are an authority and will subsequently help your rankings.
Linking is not a profound concept, but few marketers appreciate the power of the guest post. By writing articles for industry-relevant sites, you can insert a backlink to your website and grow your SEO net. Look for bloggers, businesses, and clients on LinkedIn and other networks to find room for your guest posts.
White Papers
As opposed to the common “how-to” angle of e-books, white papers are shorter deep dives into specific marketing topics. Many marketers view white papers as being overtaken by the e-book, but the two have slightly different uses.
A white paper is useful for catching mid-funnel leads in B2B markets. This collateral is text-heavy and authoritative in tone. When leads are further into the buying process, these technical, information-rich pieces can separate you from the competition.
Online Magazine
A digital magazine gives you a place to aggregate content and ads in an interactive experience.
Monthly or quarterly publications, like well-designed newsletters, can inspire increased readership. They also give you a chance to advertise in a more agreeable setting.
Host a Podcast
Podcasts give you entirely new contexts to engage with customers. Leverage their popularity and grow your following with recurring podcasts where you talk industry news and converse with guests. If they are entertaining or informative, consumers will pursue them for drives, exercising, or while just hanging around the house. These are entirely new places to promote your solutions and build a trusting relationship with your listeners.
Cover Events
Content creation can be difficult, but there is always something new going on. If you run out of ideas, check industry news for upcoming events. You benefit from attending to yourself by growing your network. Covering the event gives you fresh content. If interested users want information on it, they will be more likely to see your coverage. This means you get content in front of a potentially valuable audience.
Create Viral Memes
Memes are quick and easy to create, and they can do great things if you run out of marketing campaign ideas. Popping some words into the “prove me wrong” meme generator, for example, fulfills a day’s worth of social posts. Taking time for fun marketing activities is a great selling idea because users can see your lighthearted personality. From a buzz marketing standpoint, this may open a whole new word-of-mouth sector if you make it intrinsic to your brand.
Collaboration
Looking to vertical partners, distributors, suppliers, and industry insiders can open a whole list of activities. If you need new brand ideas, collaboration can create opportunities. From guest posts to working on a strategic marketing plan, involving others is a mutually beneficial way to grow.
Create Hilarious Web Comics
Like memes, webcomics can become a valuable component of your brand. For B2C customers, webcomics delight customers and give you creative ways to present a project. Tying in your solutions makes comics a form of advertising that users will gladly follow. Fortunately, you do not need to be an artist either, as online resources again provide plenty of templates.
Give Your Marketing an Edge with The Selling Revolution
This list of marketing activities can get you started on a new campaign in just a few hours. If you want to improve marketing returns for the long term, The Selling Revolution can help you build sustainable success. We consult with clients to instill work management solutions and effective selling strategies, saving them money and growing revenue. To learn how we can help you evolve your marketing and sales processes, book a call with our team of experts today.