It’s a new year. Your lead list is sick of the same old marketing messages. Any new prospects are likely to be as well. Your current marketing strategies, fruitful or not, are probably due for an upgrade. How can you shake things up while maximising your recently refreshed marketing budget to really make an impact? If your goal is to grow in 2018, these fresh marketing strategies may just be your key to success.
Here are a few unique ideas your business can use.
Use Your Coffee Breaks
This concept is not just limited to coffee. You can offer to take a handful of targeted leads out to lunch. You can buy one or two of your top prospects dinner while at an industry conference. You can even send a physical gift in exchange for twenty minutes of someone’s time – whatever you think will give you the biggest bang for your buck! It is a small price to pay for great brand exposure and the potential to close more deals.
Ask!
It’s amazing how resourceful your employees can be when given the proper incentive. Don’t pay for more marketing instead, try rewarding your employees or key contacts for their creativity or hard work. Salespeople should not be the only ones rewarded for their efforts!
A £50 gift card or 5% commission can greatly improve employee morale and bring about even more sales opportunities.
Publish Your Own Research
Reporting on trends affecting your industry is a fresh marketing strategy that can generate a lot of new leads for your business. Conducting a simple survey of 10 questions is an extremely worthwhile investment. You can publish the results in an industry report or as an infographic. You can use them in a whitepaper. You can even share them as one-off statistics in social media.
Of course, the survey needs proper execution to be deemed credible. Push for high-level influencers and the perspectives of company owners or directors-level executives and above. Gather a few hundred results – a gift card promo or contest is a great way to ensure you get enough responses – so you can break them down more granularly. Once you publish the results, be sure to restrict access in exchange for a name and email address. This is the best way to gather leads quickly and effectively.
Develop a Better Referral Program
One of the easiest ways to grow your business in the New Year is through a great referral program. While used for decades, referrals are often overlooked by businesses. A fresh marketing approach to referrals, however, can really help step up your game to see growth fast.
To build a great referral program, start by asking current customers what they would like to see for rewards. Is a percentage off their annual contract better than a one-time referral bonus? Also, consider what is involved in the program itself. Asking referrers to provide a testimonial for your site or review your small business on Google, for instance, is a great idea. The more positive attention you create, the more traction you will see.
Share
Paid content platforms like Outbrain are an effective, fresh marketing strategy small businesses can use in 2018 and beyond. You can see a huge traffic increase on your site by using the display links they provide as recommended content on major news sites like CNN. All you have to do is set a budget and pay for each click of your articles.
Just like with Facebook Ads and other paid advertising, you can even integrate behavioural targeting. This allows you to target your content to different websites and their users. If you know your ideal audience uses certain platforms over others, for example, you can specify those in your ad preferences. This results in better user engagement and higher conversion rates.
Do you have fresh marketing strategies to share? Please add them in the comments below!