Marketing can be one of the most interesting and creative elements of your business, so if you’re stuck on the same old boring methods it’s time to make a change. The best companies know how to think outside the box when it comes to promotion, and how important it is to interest and captivate their potential customers. Here are some ideas for how to go about it.

 

Host an event

Hosting an event can be a fun and interactive way to communicate with your customers, and generate interest around your brand. Take a family fun day for example; you could invite down some food vendors and entertainers to attract people down. Think face painting and bouncy castles for the kids, games, and stalls. Once people are down, you can use it as an opportunity to chat about your business; perhaps you could have staff members handing out flyers, or entering people into a competition based around your business. If you sell products, you could show off samples and talk through items in your range. Keep it fun, casual and relaxed. Put out your products and information around the event so that people can take it in at their own pace. If your business is a physical store such as a bakery or cafe, you could host the event at the premises, offering free or discounted food and samples as a way to promote. Have a think about the best ideas based on your business and the kinds of things you sell. Then use your event as a way to promote, educate and get through to potential customers.

 

Attend a Business Expo

If you don’t have the budget or inclination to set up your own event, why not attend one that you know lots of potential customers will be going to? Business expos link hundreds of businesses with decision makers and potential clients so can be a fantastic way to market your business. Since people tend to be limited with their time at these events, make it fun and grab their attention. Set up creative games that encourage interaction, and make your stall vibrant and exciting. Be sure to take down contact details of interested people so you can follow up after the event and look into potentially doing business with them. Some of the most important things when attending an expo include getting your stall right, and finding the right location. Have a professional company create something custom for you, and be sure to book your place early on to get the best location. Ends of aisles tend to be good, as well as anywhere near food stalls. You will want to get as much foot traffic as possible.

 

Give stuff away

Hosting giveaways and competitions is an excellent way to get people excited about your brand because everyone likes free stuff. Free is the most powerful word in marketing, and the message can really generate pace when people know there’s something in it for them.  Giving things away can be really beneficial for creating buzz and positive feelings towards your business. It might not seem that much of an obvious choice when you’re trying to make a profit, but done well it will bring you far more business and more than cover the cost of what you’re giving away. It could be a social media competition to win a car or holiday, and for entries have people follow your social media and enter their email address. This allows you to build up your marketing list, increasing the chances of people seeing future materials, leading to more sales. Another option would be to give away a mystery prize to those spending a certain amount on your website, or giving away marketing merch. Things like mugs, keyrings, pens and umbrellas will be used by people on a daily basis and help to promote your brand. You can even find coins here which can be turned into things like bottle openers. These kinds of products aren’t too expensive but drive your message home and get it into people’s heads. So when they’re next looking for a business like yours or recommending one to a friend, it’s yours that they’ll instantly think of.

 

Work with influencers

One of the biggest things to have come out of social media in recent years are influencers. Often models or beautiful people that others love to follow, and as their title suggests they can be highly influential. A product recommendation from someone like this can send an incredible amount of traffic your ways, and so it’s well worth thinking about using this as one of your marketing methods. Blogging is another thing to consider, and it has taken off massively in recent years. Blogs aren’t just personal online diaries any more, they’ve come a long way from how they started out. Blogs are now businesses in their own right, and are displayed as beautiful online magazines. As businesses, we’re able to collaborate with bloggers, backlink from their high domain authority sites  can help to improve ours. And as with other influencers, their recommendations hold a lot of weight. It’s often worth outsourcing your work with bloggers to a professional company who specialises in this. They will have a network of high quality bloggers who they have good relationships with and can quickly get up long lasting and permanent backlinks onto their sites. They will know how much to pay them, and in some cases will be able provide the content needed that bloggers require to include the backlink. If you have an established marketing team in place, and want to branch into blogger outreach then you could do that instead.

 

Business owners, what ways have you thought outside the box when it comes to your marketing? Have you had any success with any of the above methods?