Finding the right campaign ideas for your business is challenging work. It’s not because ideas are hard to come by; rather, there are too many out there to ever possibly be able to implement.
You have to find what works for your product, service, and personality. To help get you there, here are some of the more amazingly effective ones we’ve come across.
1. Create a Holiday Gift Guide
One of the more overlooked marketing ideas for small businesses is the holiday gift guide. And frankly, it’s understandable why you wouldn’t think of this option.
When you sell a product, it becomes easy to get wrapped up in sales and inventory. Focusing on those things means you’re not focusing on the story of the product.
Your customers sometimes need help figuring out where to fit your product or service into their lives. Holidays are powerful buying triggers. What better time to repackage the narrative surrounding your product?
A holiday gift guide only limits you by your imagination. You just have to tap into your product knowledge and passion for being in business.
2. Offer Mystery Deals
Amazon is one company using this to great effect with their “lightning deals” concept. Customers aren’t given much notice as to what will be the LD each day. This, and the fact it’s ongoing creates a sense of mystery in customers that keep them coming back for more.
You don’t have to take your mystery deal to quite this extent. But you should be thinking about products that will entice your customers. Then, choose the perfect moment to spring it on them.
Make it a regular thing. Your customers won’t forget it, and it will create a healthy buzz that draws even more attention.
3. Surprise Your Paying Customers
When we think of marketing ideas, we often do it from the perspective of what will get the customer into the store. We propose a different option.
Surprise the people who are already there buying what you have to sell. If you surprise your paying customers with a free gift at the point-of-purchase, they’ll not only keep coming back. They’ll take over your marketing campaign for you.
By the same note, don’t forget your long-time customers. Reach out to them with special offers you wouldn’t give to anyone else. Even if you lose money on the gesture, it will pay great dividends in loyalty and word-of-mouth.
If stumped for ideas on an effective “surprise,” there are companies like Dynamic Gift that specialize in promotional items. We’ve already covered why promotional items should be a part of any business.
4. Drive Online Reviews
There’s a reason many online advertising campaign ideas revolve around getting good reviews. Driving reviews to sites like Yelp and Facebook simply works.
Yelp has 75 million monthly desktop unique visitors, 70 million through mobile web browsers, and 30 million through the mobile app. It also draws about 150 million reviews annually.
Facebook has almost 2 billion users, and it has gone all-in with online reviews as well. To top it off, 90 percent of buyers say their decisions are affected by online reviews.
The lesson: you should be asking and offering incentives for online reviews. Just make sure you offer those incentives to everyone, whether they enjoyed their experience or not.
You don’t want to put yourself in the situation where it looks like you’re bribing people for positive reviews. That can affect the integrity of each review. You’ll go much further offering 10 percent off the next purchase for simple “proof” of the review, regardless of star rating.
5. Partner with Other Companies
Partnering with a competitor doesn’t make sense. But that shouldn’t stop you from finding companies that complement what you do.
Seek these companies out. Create a partnership profitable to you both. Then, drive business to one another.Β Β For example, you can also import product from china to sell on amazon to earn money. In order to improve efficiency, you can corp with leelinesourcing and let them to sourcing product from china for you, inspect , shipping from china to amazon warehouse and then you sell out them to get more money.
6. Ask for a Referral
Existing customers generate direct sales. But they can be even more useful when it comes to referrals.
The only problem: many business owners don’t think to ask. This is a big mistake. Most people hang out with packs of other people who share common values.
If you please one, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll please all. So stop being nervous about it, and ask!
7. Take Advantage of Special Days
Does your city host a Small Business Saturday? What about sales tax relief holidays?
When executing your marketing campaign ideas, these are the best times to target. The day itself already triggers the buying urge and guarantees more foot traffic. Seize the day with a storewide sale that capitalizes on the volume.
8. Create DIY Videos
Why would you want a do-it-yourself video demonstrating how a customer can do something on their own they should be paying you for? Two reasons:
- Most people don’t actually want to DIY the project. They simply want to have confidence their problem can be fixed.
- The ones who do won’t automatically be experts. When they run into a more complex problem, they’re likely to be knocking on your door because you helped them understand a lower-level problem.
These also can be useful as content for any email campaign ideas you have.
9. Commission an Infographic
Infographics are colorful, informative, and fun. Your (future) customers will appreciate you keeping it short and sweet while still telling them what they need to know.
Hire a professional designer, though. Infographics shoddily produced don’t lend themselves to being shared on social media.
Quality infographics are estimated to cost as much as $5,000. But if you’re the primary data source or the one with access to the data, that can go lower.
10. Rediscover Your Chamber of Commerce
Online marketing seems to be the only thing people are talking about these days. But if you open any kind of local-facing business, you know the power that still exists in a healthy, viable chamber of commerce.
Data shows people are 12 percent more likely to trust a product from someone who’s a member of a local chamber, and the organizations themselves are 29 percent more effective sales-wise than not being a member.
Campaign Ideas Must Not Stay That Way
Campaign ideas are great as long as you act on them. Don’t get sucked into the ideation process to the point that you don’t go out there and test.Β If you live in South Carolina and are in need of straight forward SEO in Charleston SC there consider using Mr. Marketing.
Remember: what works for one business may not work for another. So don’t be discouraged if you try something that doesn’t produce the results that another business enjoyed. Just keep trying.
And check out more helpful marketing ideas here.
