One of the most integral components for new businesses is marketing. Although that’s been a longstanding rule since forever, nowadays with the surplus of emerging businesses it’s easy to find yourself lost in the volume of new companies. Particularly to those similar to your own.
With an assortment of useful, intuitive tools now available to even the grass roots business starters, creatively marketing your company has taken on a new dynamic. From using social media as an asset, to integrated advertising platforms, all the way to manually reaching out to those in your immediate community, the key is to remain persistent, innovative, and ahead of the curve.
We’ve compiled a few tips on how to better your marketing creative and gain a leg up on your competition.
- Stay current. As with most things, do the proper research. With the onslaught of emerging companies/startups using professional firms or taking their campaign into their own hands, learn what works. Read up on companies that have experienced success with their innovative marketing campaigns. We’re not saying plagiarize, we’re only encouraging you to familiarize with tactics/firms that have had notably successful marketing strategies. Familiarizing yourself with what works will help you identify certain tactics, and contribute to the creativity of your own.
- Know your demographic. You’d be surprised at just how many companies fail to understand exactly who they’re selling their product to. Which is crazy, being as that should be the primary focus when first launching. Without understanding your customer, you’re not going to have a focal point for your product/service, which won’t grow your business. Often, surveying and collecting customer-based data is tedious, meticulous work, but that doesn’t make it any less vital. A good tip here is to study your competitors: Did they succeed in identifying their target audience? How did said audience respond to their marketing materials?
- Social media. You’ll see this everywhere. Social media has spurred and grown individual fame and business customers across the globe. Being that nearly everyone you know is connected to social media in some facet or another, it’s a valuable tool to utilize (especially in the initial phase of marketing). They key here is a continuous stream of content. If you want to know how to be more creative, well then go and look at the vast amount of successful content that companies have used to create a social media presence. We’re talking short videos, pictures, personalized campaigns, promotional deals, and so forth. Make an account on every platform. Ask you friends to share. Then continue to produce engaging, memorable content related to your business. If you do it right and that share button is clicked enough times, word of your company will spread like wildfire.
- Be dynamic about your content. We just stated that you need to keep a steady stream of content on social media (or anywhere, for that matter), but obviously if that content is crap people aren’t going to give you the time of day. So be dynamic. One way that we’re seeing innovation in the creative medium (especially in real estate and sports marketing) is the use of drones for aerial footage. Out with the standard, dull footage. In with the gorgeous aerial capabilities of affordable, consumer drones. In with the first person perspective that drones offer when demonstrating a product or filming branded content for your company. You’ll see a lot of companies using alternate methods of filming.
- Don’t put it all on yourself. Brainstorming is often best served in groups. Too often a business creator thinks they need to be the chief commander when it comes to creating material for their marketing campaign. Don’t fall victim to thinking that just because this is your idea, you’ll be the one to generate the most efficient and effective marketing strategy. Create a peer group. Crowdsource. Bring in outsiders to see how they respond to the content and grow from there. Explore different ways to market your content.
- Personalize your narrative. Create an all-inclusive engaging narrative about yourself and what you’re selling. Intertwine who you are and what you do with your brand. Rather than explaining yourself outside of your company, when people ask what it is that you do, always speak on the business you’re creating. Become that business. Work to create a narrative that combines who you are as a person and the thesis of what you’re trying to achieve. That way, you’re constantly marketing.
When it comes to marketing, the vastness of the internet can be a huge asset (or a detrimental factor, dependent on your strategy). Learn what your competitors are doing, understand your audience, and collaborate with creative, informed thinkers to develop a marketing strategy. Now more than ever, there are tools at your disposal. Learn to use them.