As consumers are inundated with advertisements each and every day, it’s becoming harder to develop an effective campaign. If your message doesn’t stand out from the competition, you’re going to have a hard time reaching anybody.
For small businesses, going with the flow isn’t very effective. You need to demand attention in new, bold ways. Here are four great ways you can effectively market with some unconventional methods:
Content Curation
Content curation is a great way to provide your audience a great deal of value every week without having to produce as much of it. Every week or two, you can come up with a list of useful articles and resources from the industry that your audience should find relative to their interests. Make sure to tag the authors and websites whenever possible, and you might even get a bump with a couple retweets or shares.
Leverage Text Messaging
Just like email took over snail mail in the past couple decades, text messaging is quickly overtaking emails. Consider these statistics about consumer preferences:
- Over 75% of people are more likely to read a text message than an email.
- 70% of people believe using text messages is a good way to grab their attention.
- 64% of people admitted to making a purchase based solely on a text message promotion.
- Over 50% of all e-commerce traffic occurs through mobile devices.
The odds are pretty good that you haven’t considered using text messaging, and neither has your competition. Focus on building a strong SMS mailing list, and sending out promotions once in a while. Make sure to send out fewer text messages than emails, however, as text messages are a bit more intrusive.
Text messaging can grab your audience no matter where they are.
Teach or Speak For Free
Your local chamber of commerce or small business association runs a ton of events every year. If you can help them out by providing some free content, they’ll be incredibly grateful. You’ll get the opportunity to solidify yourself as a local expert, and get some free publicity at the event. You’ll even get a free bump in the weeks leading up to the event, as you’ll be advertised as a special guest presenter or speaker.
Advertise Creatively
There’s a ton of advertisements out there, so you really need to work hard to stand out. If you can off a memorable, unique campaign, people are going to remember you. If you create something similar to everything else out there, you’re probably better off spending your marketing budget elsewhere.
The key to creative advertising is putting yourself in your audience’s shoes. What do they care about? What types of advertisements are they constantly watching? If you’re able to deliver something useful in a way that stands out from your competition, you’ll hit the mark. Creative advertising doesn’t have to be over-the-top, just effective.
Going zany for the heck of it might not work for every business.
If you’re having trouble differentiating from your competition, reach out to us here at Blue Wave Marketing. We have 20 years of experience with a wide variety of marketing campaigns with clients of all sizes. You can contact us by visiting us at our website or calling us at 617-576-3100.
