When you work in marketing, it can be easy (and tempting) to let yourself rely on your tried and true tactics. But if you’re not seeing the same kind of returns anymore, it makes sense to realign your marketing strategy. And when you feel like your creativity is running dry, that’s actually the best time to brainstorm out-of-the-box marketing initiatives you can leverage to get back in the game. Keep reading below to learn about some of our best marketing ideas to liven up your business. From social media to reorganizing your company from within — there are plenty of ways to get your customer base engaged and excited about your business.
Social Media Marketing Initiatives
Social media is an incredibly powerful tool to lift your brand out of obscurity and into public consciousness. Your company’s social platforms keep you connected to your customer base and can help boost your brand’s awareness. The five most valuable social media platforms include Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. At the very least, make sure you set up handles on each of those sites and regularly post content — you might find that you need a social media manager or social media content specialist to do the work for you.
The most important metrics for companies to track and evaluate the effectiveness of their social media include engagement and conversation rates. Below are a few ways you can maximize your social media presence and grow your following.
Publicize Your Handles
People are only going to follow your brand and business if they actually know where to go. Consider adding your business social media handles to any presentations you give in the corner of each slide. Printing new business cards? Don’t forget to add your handles so people know how to reach you and see what your company is up to. Keep your handle simple — just your business name works great!
Additionally, you can create content in various forms to help your customers consume your content in whichever form they like best. Some like reading articles, some like reading short tweets, and some prefer video. The screenshot above shows how Truliant, a federal credit union not only uses social media handles, but also explainer videos and customer highlights to better connect with their customers.
Join Hashtag Themes
Besides posting consistently on your social media pages, it’s also important to be engaged and topical. Keep up with weekly hashtag challenges like #ThrowbackThursday and #TacoTuesday to create weekly posts that have a lighter theme on your social media pages.
Use Your Own Photos and Graphics
While stock photos certainly have their place, they don’t really create the authentic vibe that you want to advertise to your audience. Consider using photos that your company takes or hire a professional photographer to routinely capture office events and other major product or service releases. Or, you can hire a social media manager who can put together graphics for your social media pages designed to improve engagement on your pages.
Check Out What Competitors are Doing
While plagiarism is never okay, it’s always a good idea to keep tabs on what your competitors are doing and saying on social media. You can use your competitors as a source of inspiration and make sure that you’re staying on trend for your industry.
Voting Contests
Voting contests are a great way to encourage active participation from your audience. Remember to ensure that your voting contest user-friendly (for example, one-click for voting, etc.). You can mine the data from these voting contests to create a small data study — which can be helpful for understanding things like your target demographic’s preferences.
Organizational Initiatives
If you’re a one-man or one-woman marketing team, you might be feeling burned out by the constant need to perform and succeed. Consider recruiting a new team member who can aid your marketing efforts and support your business growth.
Why does a new person help your business? Because a fresh set of eyes can help you view your marketing from a new perspective. Plus, if you focus on bringing in a candidate who has a ton of valuable experience, you’ll benefit from their background and can level up your marketing.
Content Marketing Initiatives
Content marketing is a long-term marketing strategy to build a rapport with audiences, improve engagement, establish authority, and increase brand recall. Content marketing also happens to be incredibly affordable, so it’s always a very worthwhile investment. Great copy and content can also help build trust among your customers, which is incredibly important when you’re trying to establish your brand reputation. Below are some ideas to level up your content marketing.
Create a Company Blog
A company blog is one of the best ways to boost your brand’s visibility. Blog content can serve multiple purposes like keeping your audience updated about company news, driving traffic to your products and services, and strengthening your overall SEO strategy so your company improves in Google’s rankings.
Invest in Infographics
Creating an infographic usually involves dedicating a good chunk of your budget for it if you pay for an outside designer. You can also try your hand at making an infographic through websites like Canva or software like Powerpoint. All you need is a strong wireframe outlining the infographic copy and then fill in the rest with interesting, attractive visuals. Infographics are wildly successful because they’re sharable and visual, so they are a great piece of content to try out.
Statistics Lists
If you don’t want to try your hand at creating an infographic, but you still want to present interesting statistics, a data listicle is a great way to keep readers engaged. Plus, you can illustrate your data using simple graphics that you create yourself with graphs, tables, and illustrations.
Interview Leaders in the Industry
Are there thought leaders that stand out in your industry? One of the best kinds of content you can publish is an interview with an industry leader. It can be a great way to create sharable and engaging content that pushes brand awareness and brand authority.
Conclusion: Revamping Your Marketing, Step by Step
Even the most creative marketing teams sometimes get stuck in a rut. But that doesn’t mean that you’re destined to create boring marketing campaigns. Instead, you should focus on brainstorming with your team to explore marketing initiatives you haven’t tried before. Whether that means you’ll start a blog or create social media pages for your company is up to you. Consider implementing these changes and watch your business profits soar!
