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101 Marketing Ideas JUST Creative
101 Marketing Ideas JUST Creative
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101+ Marketing Ideas
Entrepreneurship comes with its own set of challenges and with so many options out
there, it might be difficult for you to master all aspects of the business.
Marketing is evolving each day and even more with the technological evolution
changing the way consumers live. When done right, marketing can help your
business grow rapidly.
Are you a business owner who wants to grow your business but doesn’t know much
about marketing? Do you want to attract more customers to your business? Do you
want a quick checklist of things you can do to grow your business?
In this eBook we offer you a complete marketing checklist you can use to grow your
business:
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Naming, Logos & Branding
§ Have a simple name
Naming your business can be stressful. Once you choose a name, you may never be
able to change it again, hence, it is very important to select a name for your business
which can stand the test of time. Think of your target audience and decide what kind
of name you should be looking for. Ask yourself, if the name should be something
professional or fun? Should it include the details of what my business offers? How
do I want people to feel when they listen to this name? Should it be a long name or a
short catchy one? Once you know the answers to these questions, look for business
name ideas and finalize the one which best fits your criteria.
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§ Stand for something
Branding is all about figuring out what your brand stands for and what kind of values
and beliefs your brand portrays. Your values are the core of what you do and how
you do it. People like brands that they can relate to and the brands which have
similar core beliefs as they do. See here for more branding benefits.
Decide what values and beliefs you want people to think of when they think about
your brand, and stand for those values. All your business actions should be a
reflection of what you want your brand to stand for.
§ Be consistent
The consistency of your communication across channels helps in building a strong
brand. When you know what your brand stands for, you should be consistent in
communicating those values in your communication materials. Your logo should
be printed on all materials, your designs should be in sync with your brand colors
and your business name should be included across all materials. Maintaining the
consistency of your brand elements will help in making them more prominent and
will leave a long-lasting impact on your customer’s mind.
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Your Product / Service
§ Competitor Research
Identify your main competitors in your market, and shortlist a few of them which
appear to be your direct competitors. Spend at least an hour every week to find out
what marketing activities they’re doing and how their business is performing. This
will help you in keeping your product/service relevant to customers and to identify
the gaps in the market.
§ Maintain quality
At the beginning of your business, you’re focused on delivering high-quality
products and great customer service to your customers because you want to acquire
more and more customers. It’s easy to lose the quality as the business grows. If
you sell products, maintain the quality standards of the industry and get industry
certifications for your product. If you’re selling a service, then focus on recruiting and
training staff to deliver high-quality services.
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§ Define your product mix
Once you know what kind of customers you’re targeting, try to identify the
complementary products which can be sold along with your product/service. For
example, many small salon businesses sell beauty products like shampoo, hair gel,
conditioners, etc. along with their services. This will help you in increasing your
revenue without additional efforts.
Online Marketing
§ Build your website
People spend 1 out of 7 days online browsing and consuming new content (Source).
Creating a business website will build your credibility and provide you with a platform
to talk to your potential customers about your business. Setting up a website is quite
easy these days. You don’t need to have a technical background to create your
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website. You can simply use pre-designed themes and add information about your
business. If you’re new to website creation, here are 25 important features you
should include in your business website.
If you’re not sure where to start, you can use this free keyword research tool to get
keyword suggestions for your website. Viewing the keyword along with their search
volume can also help you understand what type of content your customers may be
looking for.
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you understand how to set up the test it’s easy to reiterate it.
With A/B testing the system will automatically display two variations of your page
to your visitors. After certain days, you can see which of the variation attracts more
attention and gives you better conversion.
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Advertisements
§ Search frequent words on Google
A great way to find out what your customers are searching for online is to use the
google search bar. When you type the starting few words of your query, Google
suggests ways to complete the query and those are the most frequently searched
terms on Google. You can use these keywords in your website and advertisements
to reach the right audience. In addition, you can use the free tool Google Trends to
find out the search volume for your most important keywords.
Magazines are a great way to engage readers, and publishing interesting content
with a mention about your business can help you increase brand awareness. Print
medium also has a longer shelf life, so effectively your ROI may sometimes prove
amazing as compared to online advertisements.
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Promotions
§ Add an effective call to action button
What good are your products and services if nobody knows where to find them on
your website? You can urge customers to take an action when visiting your website
with attractive call to action buttons. Some examples of call to action include “Buy
Now”, “Hurry! Limited time offer”, “Try it now” and “Read More”. See here for tips
on CTA microcopy.
With an effective call to action text, you generate a sense of urgency in the mind of
the customer which then results in better conversions. A successful call to action
has three main features which are the placement on the website, the design of
the button and the text used on the button. You can play around with each of the
features to see what works best for your business.
Nowadays, many affordable options available in the market who can make the video
for your business. A promotional video can help you reach a broader audience. It’s a
one time investment which is also long lasting.
You can customize your booking schedule with your colors and logo, customize
booking forms and share the system with your staff members. Another great feature
of the system is that you can coordinate multiple schedules automatically with
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the system which saves you a lot of manual efforts, hence, resulting in improved
revenue.
§ Start contests
Contests are a great way to generate buzz about your business and increasing your
fan base online. You can engage with your customers with interesting contests. Here
are the steps to design a contest for your business:
1. Decide what’s the aim of your contest. The aim could be something like
increasing Facebook followers or reaching more people.
2. Finalize your budget for the prizes and decide how many prizes you can give
away in that budget.
3. Next, build your contest. Think of an interesting idea which people would like
to talk about or something which may also help your business. For example,
if you’re a yoga studio you may ask people to tweet about “Yoga is important
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because…”.
4. Once you’ve finalized your contest details, create your promotion plan. Do you
want to limit the contest to Twitter or is it a contest in print media or do you want
to use multiple platforms to promote the same.
5. Once everything falls into place, decide the basic ground rules and the timelines
for the contest and create creatives around the contest.
6. You’re ready to conduct the contest. Once your contest is over, measure the
results to see your ROI (return on investment).
§ Respond to reviews
Irrespective of whether the review is positive or negative, reviews are an important
part of your business. The majority of customers search for business information
online, and a few negative reviews may hinder your progress. Hence, it is important
for you not only monitor reviews but also build a 2-way communication via reviews
by responding to them. This will tell your potential customers that you care about
your business and their complaints are being heard.
§ Use occasions
Festivals and occasions are an outstanding opportunity to promote your business
and reach a wider audience. You can select a few target festivals in the year, and
conduct marketing activities around those areas. You can set up booths in festivals,
setup product demonstrations, connect with people to answer their queries and try
to engage them in conversations. You can also conduct fun and interactive activities
or sponsor some smaller activities during the festival. Don’t forget to collect customer
information and reach out to them later to tell them more about your business.
Pricing
§ Price your products
Irrespective of what product/service you’re selling, the pricing will have a direct
impact on the success of your business. Hence, it is important to choose your pricing
strategy carefully. Though pricing strategies may appear complex, some basic rules
to finalize your pricing are pretty simple. Your price should at least cover your basic
production and distribution cost. You can research the market to find out the profit
percentage charged by your competitors, and decide to charge similar, lower or
higher according to your product quality. You should review your prices regularly and
keep a close watch on the market to see the impact of your pricing strategy on your
sales.
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§ Positioning impacts pricing
In the earlier steps, we found our target market and created a buyer persona. You
will finalize your product positioning according to both these factors, and it will then
have a direct impact on pricing. For example, if you want to position your product
as a premium product for females of age 35-55 years of age, you cannot price your
product cheaper than the existing products in the market.
§ Create coupons
A study by the CMO council reveals that 71% of the internet users in the U.S. were
influenced by coupons and discounts when making their purchase decisions. In
order to encourage trial for new customers you can offer limited seasonal coupons
and sign-up discounts offers. You can use free graphic design tools like Canva if you
want to print out your coupons. If your business requires online booking system like
yoga classes, fitness studio, venue or resource rentals, photography studio, etc. then
you can use a system like SuperSaaS and create your own digital coupons to offer
discounts to customers while booking with you.
§ Incentivize referrals
Whether it’s about watching a new TV series or buying a new watch, we trust
people closest to us. That’s the reason referrals work great for any business. If you
have happy customers, request them to refer you to at least 3 new customers and
incentivize these referrals with some complementary products or services. You can
also choose to offer referral bonus or a part of sales from the referral to your existing
customers. This will help you grow at a much faster pace and acquire long-term
customers.
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online, then you can research payment methods like PayPal, Strip, Mollie to accept
payments from your customers. Most of these payment providers also offer multi-
currency support which works great when you expand your business to other areas.
If you offer a product in the market which goes through a distribution channel, then
it’s better to offer transparent pricing with no hidden-costs. Customers appreciate
honest and transparent communication and it helps them build trust in your brand.
Email Marketing
§ Consider email marketing
Email marketing is still a cost-effective solution which helps you reach your
customers at the right time. People like to do business with people and brands they
know, recognize and trust. You can use emails to share helpful and informative
content with your users which will add to your credibility as a trustworthy resource.
There are many free tools available in the market which allow you to automate your
emails like MailChimp, Zoho, Mailjet, etc. Automating your emails will save you time
and cost, yet delivering results for your business.
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§ Show, just don’t tell
You love your business, because you spent a lot of time in building it and bringing it
to where it is today. Customers don’t necessarily share the same enthusiasm about
your business. You have limited attention time from your customer. Make sure,
you make the most out of it by adding fun content and images to your email rather
than creating a long information overloaded email. If you want to share a lot of
information, a great way is to create a blog post around the topic, and add the link to
the post in your email. This will also generate more traffic for your blog and website
and give interested customers a chance to know more about your business.
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errors. A broken link or a grammatical error can leave a negative impact about your
business.
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§ Explore Quora
Quora is an amazing platform to engage in relevant conversations and display your
business expertise. A lot of people ask questions and queries on Quora, and by
answering some of these queries you build your reputation as a thought leader. Find
new ideas to talk about, ask good questions, build your presence and engage with
your audience. Make sure you research your answers and prove your worthiness in
your answers.
§ Reuse content
It’s impossible to generate a lot of content for your business daily. A great way is to
reshare and reuse the quality content created by other people. In this way, you can
share relevant content which is genuinely useful to your audience without worrying
about creating those content. In addition, sometimes other may choose to reshare
that content, in turn cross-promoting your business too.
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§ Share your social links
Once you have created your social media pages, share them on your communication
material. Request your customers to follow you on social channels and tell them what
they can expect by following you on each channel. Unless you have followers who
are genuinely interested in your business, there is no use in sharing quality content
on your channels.
Content Marketing
§ Start a business blog
Blogging combined with social media promotions is a powerful way to promote
your business. With your business blog, you can easily target potential clients and
boost traffic by writing about the content relevant to them. Blog allows you and
your business to develop a community and facilitate one on one conversations with
potential customers.
§ Share infographics
Infographics are a mix of design and writing which displays data in pictorial, fun and
easy to understand format. If you make your infographic compelling and attractive,
it can prove useful to your audience and help you generate brand awareness. Since
infographics are pictorial, it’s easy to read them to find the correct information.
Creating helpful infographics in your industry can help you reach a very wide
audience and establish you as an industry expert.
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working on and can aid you in completing your tasks in time.
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§ Submit your press releases
Getting featured on famous newspapers, magazines, TV shows or radio can work
wonders for your business. You can build awareness of your brand and generate
more influence by submitting press releases to multiple channels. Gather contact
details of relevant editors and journalists and reach out to them to find out how you
can get published in their newspaper or magazine.
§ Create templates
When creating a new piece of content, you may struggle in finding the right structure.
You can use some predefined templates which can help you communicate your ideas
in a more organized way. After researching and developing your ideas you can use
one of these templates and just plug in your ideas in the right place.
Placement
§ Make your products/service easily accessible
When selling products, try to reach multiple outlets to make your products easily
accessible to your customers. Customers trust and use the product more when it’s
easy to find in their nearest outlets. If you offer services, then make it easier for your
customers to book your service by including a booking system on your website. This
will allow customers to book your time at their own convenience.
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§ Promote free consultation
Letting people know that they can get a free business consultation can help you
generate more business. You can create a personal schedule online and integrate
it into your website to allow users to book a personal session with you. You can
promote your free consultation with call to actions buttons on various places on
your website.
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involved with the community, connect to people and share information about your
business. It’s a great way to build a positive vibe for your business without appearing
too promotional. You can also plan and host some events to build community
engagement and to attract new customers toward your business.
Good reviews can help you attract more audience, and what’s more credible than a
video recording of a person sharing his good experience with your company. Video
reviews have more emotions and convey the message in a better way as compared
to text reviews.
Reach out to your happy customers and record quick video testimonials. You can
use these on your YouTube channel and your website to allow new visitors to view
them while making their decision to buying your product.
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channel which will attract brand awareness for your business. However, please be
sure to check the influencer guidelines to ensure you do not attract any legal trouble
for your business.
Customer-Focused
§ Be customer-focused
Your business should always be focused on customer needs and not on profit
generation. Successful organizations are the ones who have evolved themselves
with their customer-needs and have focused on understanding consumer-behavior.
Understand who are your most valuable and happy customers, and what makes
your business unique for them. Focus on delivering the same experience to all your
customers.
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your CRM system or your Excel file.
Organize and use this data to stay in touch with your customers. Your customers
understand and feel when you truly care about them and their needs. You are
rewarded in the long-term with loyal happy customers who promote your business
for you.
Ensure that you’re easily reachable on multiple channels and allow them to opt out of
your promotions when they want. This will show them that you value them and their
opinions.
§ Customer Support
One of the main reasons why many customers choose small businesses over larger
businesses is their personalized customer service. Offer great customer support and
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use technology like live chat software to connect with your customers. Clearly list
down your service level agreement on your website, and tell your customers what
level of service they can expect from your business. Respond quickly to customer
queries, and maintain their complaints and comments in your database. This will
allow you to handle their queries better the next time you connect with them.
Physical Evidence
§ Product Packaging
A great way to differentiate yourself from the competitor is by offering different
types of product packaging. Make your package visually appealing or creative.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different types of packaging to see which is
preferred more by your audience. Add your brand colors and package the product
to portray your company beliefs. For example, if you want one of your brand
characteristics to be ‘environment friendly’, then use environmentally-friendly
packaging for your products.
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Teaching
§ Become a mentor
You have made mistakes and learnt lessons in your entrepreneurial adventure. Now,
share your experience and help other businesses grow by becoming their mentor.
When you teach someone, you are not only enhancing your leadership skills but also
testing your knowledge.
§ Find a mentor
If you’re still new to entrepreneurship, identify someone who you admire and respect.
You can choose someone from your own industry or someone from your professional
network. Having a mentor can help you assess your strengths and weaknesses and
aid you in developing the missing skills. When you’re not sure about a business
decision, you can request guidance from your mentor and you’re sure to receive
some sound advice.
Find a mentor or become a mentor. Share your expertise and learn from others. That’s
a great way to grow your business.
Finished!
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