There’s a lot involved in marketing, regardless of your industry. Whether you’ve been in the game for a while or you’re just getting started, navigating the world of SEO and social media can feel daunting. It seems like everyone’s doing the same thing and you don’t always get the results you want. There’s often a question about how to maximize the ROI of marketing endeavors. The best thing to do is to create a marketing strategy that’s dynamic and data-driven. Since the bottom line is to drive traffic to your website, the unconventional marketing tactics below are worthy of consideration.

Give Something Away

The idea of giving stuff away to make money can seem counterintuitive. However, giving away information that’s truly beneficial instead of charging for it can drive traffic to your website and position you as an expert. For instance, if you need to brand yourself as a business consultant, giving away a free e-book or 30-minute consultation is a viable marketing tactic that has worked time and time again.

Use Paid Market Research Surveys

There’s no way around the fact that informed decisions are the best decisions. It’s the reason why market research is so helpful. You can develop strategic roadmaps for your marketing endeavors that yield optimal results by gathering information through compensated surveys. In some cases, there’s the added bonus of driving survey-takers to your website. Providing an incentive to complete a survey is more likely to yield a higher response rate because many consumers like taking surveys to earn gift cards and money.

Build Your Personal Brand

Let’s face it, when someone is interested in learning more about who you are, there’s a much greater chance that they’ll visit your website. This is the reason why focusing on the development of your personal brand is such a great tactic. Building your brand isn’t an attempt to become famous, but a way to let people learn more about you, which translates to more website traffic. This, of course, requires you to have links to your website on all of your social media accounts. In addition to developing robust socials, a great way to build your personal brand is through blogging, speaking engagements, networking events and conferences.

Author Guest Posts

Writing guest posts is more effective than you probably realize, especially if you provide information that’s truly valuable. When you write content that’s helpful on sites that are authoritative, you’re marketing your brand in a way that pays dividends now and in the future. Keep in mind that you should have your bio at the end of the post, which is the norm. If possible, try to write articles for sites like Huffington Post and Forbes.

Throw an Unforgettable Event

There are some experiences in life that are simply unforgettable. When you go to an amazing party, you probably talk and post about it on social media, especially if it’s unique or extravagant. When you think about the amount of money spent on other marketing endeavors, the cost of an event is a drop in the bucket. Although unconventional, it’s an incredible marketing tactic and it doesn’t have to be a long drawn out occasion. It can even be happy hour at a prime location during the summer months when people are looking for something to do. The key is to make sure it’s memorable.

Driving traffic to your website requires you to generate buzz and these ideas fit the bill.