Imagine walking down a major New York City street and coming across a lifeguard. This lifeguard is perched atop a lifeguard stand overlooking passersby with no water in sight. This is a strange sight, but thanks to the genius minds behind the guerilla marketing campaigns, many of those who walked by will never forget the brand that put those lifeguards on the street. Do you have enough unique marketing ideas helping grow your business?
Guerilla marketing and online marketing offer unique and creative opportunities to build deeper relationships with existing customers and capture the attention of prospective customers. Here are nine such fun marketing ideas that your business may be able to take advantage of.
Plan a flash mob
I have to admit I have a soft spot in my heart for flash mobs. As the owner and founder of Denver Flash Mob, I have helped put on dozens of events across the Denver metro area. A few flash mobs were specifically designed to raise awareness for business brands. For example, this flash mob sponsored by SashCo, maker of Slab and other construction materials.
We also held a fun event at the Aurora Chamber of Commerce’s annual awards banquet. In that event, a combination of volunteers and chamber staff took to the stage and the aisles to raise brand awareness in a fun and unique way.
Hold an online contest
Thanks to apps and plugins like KingSumo and Rafflecopter, holding an online contest is more effective than ever. A well-positioned and promoted giveaway can spread quickly online and help you boost your email list, Facebook likes, Twitter followers, and more. The key is offering the right prize to the right audience at the right time. Getting that mix right in the physical world is a challenge, but taking advantage of web technologies makes it much easier.
The cost of running an online giveaway is very low. You just need a prize, a couple of hours, and a method to administer the giveaway. I bought lifetime access to KingSumo a few years ago, so every contest I run costs nothing beyond the prize.
Optimize your Yelp listing
According to website traffic ranking company Alexa, Yelp is the 33rd most visited website in the United States and number 188 in the world. In other words, Yelp is a huge website that matters for businesses.
Ignoring Yelp could lead to lost business, while investing just a little time can turn Yelp into a lead generation spigot sending a trickle, or even a torrent, of customers to your business. Start by claiming your page, ensuring information is correct, adding some high-quality photos, and encouraging happy customers to leave reviews.
Create a content series
A blog post series or video series can drum up both excitement and online traffic for your business. Unlike a guide article or detailed video, a series gives visitors a reason to come back again and again, turning your site into a habit rather than a one-time stop.
Identify a major problem your target customers face and use your series to explore and solve that problem. Be creative, fun, and engaging and your target customers may just become actual customers. Keep the discussion alive and engaged and build suspense for the next feature in the series to get the maximum impact.
Use remarketing to target existing customers
Thanks to big data, you may have tools at your disposal that you didn’t even realize existed! Remarketing is an advanced online marketing technique where you target specific individuals based on past viewing behavior.
For example, when you look at a product on Amazon and then see an ad for that product on another site, that ad was a product of remarketing. You can use the same tools as Amazon on your Google, Facebook, and other ads. By focusing on the most relevant prospective customers, you will get the best ROI on your online ad dollars.
Local sponsorships
Getting involved with local events can help get the word out for your business at a relatively low cost. Sponsoring an event helps build affinity and awareness among attendees who appreciate being able to go to a discounted or free event thanks to sponsor underwriting.
Of course, not everyone will become a customer and measuring ROI on a sponsorship can be quite difficult. However, sponsorships are popular for a reason and work well when effectively implemented.
Make an amazing infographic
I wrote an epic post on side hustles that took at least 40 hours to put together, which includes a detailed infographic sharing the 137 side hustle ideas. As of the last time I looked, this post had over 12,000 shares on social media, about 11,000 more shares than my next most popular post on social media.
You can hire a graphic designer to create an infographic on sites like Fiverr, Upwork, and other freelance marketplaces. The cost can vary, but if you get the same results as me, those costs are well worth it.
Start a podcast
If you can talk, you can podcast. If you are unfamiliar with the platform, think of podcasts as radio meets Netflix. Shows are downloaded in advance or streamed on demand by listeners on their phone or computer. Some listen to shows chronologically while others jump around to their favorite episodes.
To start a podcast, you need a website, a microphone, and a phone or computer. This tutorial to starting a podcast by guru Pat Flynn tells you everything you need to get started.
Gamify
Turning your business into a game is the best way to get customers to come back again and again. Thanks to modern Android and iOS apps, gamifying your business is easier than ever.
While creating a game around your business can be costly, the payoff can be huge. Behavioral design blogger and speaker Yu-kai Chou put together an amazing case study showing the ROI of more than 90 gamification projects. A high-level look shows conversion and engagement improvements of anywhere from 10% to 3,000%. This can be huge for any business!
Pro Unique Marketing Ideas Tip: Be creative to connect to customers
At the end of the day, customers want to be treated like individuals. If you can follow Amazon’s goal of obsessing about the customer, you are in a great position to get a lot more of them.
The internet is not like the Field of Dreams. If you build it, they may not come. But if you build it and market well, they will be coming in droves.
