Marketing can be one of the most fun, exciting and interactive elements of your entire business. It doesn’t have to be poring over stats and graphs, it can allow you to get really creative and connect with your potential customers on a human level. If you’re looking for a way to inject a little interest and excitement into your promotion, here are a few ways you can go about it.
Run a huge giveaway
When it comes to business, making money is the name of the game. And so the idea of giving things away for free can sound a little counter productive- but done right, it could mean wonderful things for your business. Giveaways generate a lot of hype and interest, particularly if the prize is a good one. If you ask people to follow you on social media, subscribe to your email newsletter and share and comment on your social posts to gain entries, this can spread the word about your business far and wide. Generating a large social following is highly beneficial for your company, not only does it make you look more trustworthy but it also increases the amount of people that will see your marketing materials in future. Customers and potential customers won’t necessarily follow you to support you or out of the goodness of their hearts, but they will when there’s something in it for them. Some will inevitably unfollow you after the giveaway ends, but many will keep you on their accounts so it’s a surefire way to increase your following. If you can make the prize something really impressive- a holiday, a car, a large amount of cash or a coveted piece of technology then you increase the amount of people that are likely to enter. It’s a fun way to create buzz around your business and promoting your name.
Host a family fun day
A family fun day is a great way to bring people together. You can invite some food vendors to sell their fare, hire some entertainers and things like a bouncy castle and face painting for kids. Play some music, run some games and competitions and make the event a fun place to be. With lots of people in one place, you can promote your business in a fun, casual way. Hand out flyers and business cards, set up marketing inflatables so that people are exposed to your brand name while they’re enjoying their day. Have your workers chat to people about your business, taking down email addresses of anyone interested to add to your newsletter. It’s a way for everyone to enjoy themselves and create a good feeling about your business. You don’t have to be pushy and force your sales pitch down anyone’s throat, let them explore and look themselves. If you sell tech items, you could set them up and let people have a go. If you sell food or drinks, have your workers go around offering free samples and talking people through the products. If you were a florist you could show sample bouquets or even hold a mini masterclass and let people get involved. There are lots of ways you could go about it once you’ve attracted potential customers down to your event.
Work with a charity
Partnering with a charity can be beneficial for both you and them. You could pledge a certain percentage of your profits to them, and in return they will help you to promote your company across their own channels. Working with a charity also makes you look favourable by customers, and when business is so competitive, these small details really can make such a difference. It’s another way you can help to generate interest around your brand, especially since there are lots of wild and wacky ways your business can raise money for charity. When it comes to business promotion, partnering with a charity probably isn’t the first thing that springs to mind, however it can be really effective method. As well as being beneficial to you, you get the satisfaction of knowing you’re genuinely helping a good cause in the process.
Write a blog
Blogging is a fantastic way to promote your business, and works on a number of levels. First things first, a well written blog can make you look reliable and trustworthy. If you’re a newer business, this can be really helpful. Customers can be cautious of scam sites (and rightly so), and if they’ve never shopped with you before might be dubious that you are who you say you are. But linking to an established blog shows that time and effort has been put into the business. That you’re not just a scam shop that’s been put up, and will run off with their money as soon as the transaction has been completed. The second reason is that blog posts are very share- friendly. Posting links to products on social media as a way to promote your business will do more harm than good, it looks spammy and doesn’t attract people’s interest. A captivating article title however is far more click-friendly, you can promote your products in a less direct and forceful way. Content marketing generally focuses on generating interest around your brand, instead of directly saying ‘buy this product!’ which people can find off putting. So for example if you sell clothing, one blog posts could talk about celebrity trends. Perhaps you have a similar item in your store that could could recommend as a more budget option. You could write a post about how to style a dress a number of different ways as a way to save money, linking to a product on your own site that would work for this. Blogging is also beneficial as it can help improve the ranking of your website on search engines. Regular websites are fairly static in their pages and content, whereas with a blog you’re always posting new content. Search engine’s spiders can crawl these and will be of interest, bumping up your site. The higher you rank, the more organic traffic you will earn.