Marketing Strategy Examples: Choose Your Own Adventure

Let’s not waste too much time ticking off the numberless specific considerations for this or that type of marketing strategy- you’re the one who knows your budget of time and money, you know what it is you’re trying to promote and who you need to promote it to, and given a list of various marketing strategy examples you can pick out the areas that are most appealing to you. So, enough said. Here’s a quick list of some current marketing ideas; you decide what fits with your needs. Need even more ideas? Check out this marketing strategy course for businesses.

Social Media Strategies

Social media marketing is about connecting and sharing, so if you have great content it will make its way through networks and bring people to you. Great content comes from outside of the box, it is not so much about promoting something directly as it is about getting attention and then keeping it: be helpful, be funny, be mindblowing, be audacious, just don’t be forgettable.  If you need a more in depth education on the essentials of social media, check out this class on social media marketing.

• Incentivize Fandom: What do people get by becoming fans? There are lots of events, contests and prizes that will encourage people to become fans, making them part of the network. The tradeoff from their perspective: You gain access to them and they gain access to something you are offering, be it insider content, coupons, events, whatever as long as it is worth signing up for.
• Finding Future Fans: There are already networks in place for everything under the sun, so if you can’t make fans come to you, go to them.  Find ways to connect your business with existing networks like forums, trade journals, community events, etc.
• Keep ‘Em Coming Back: So you’ve got fans, but now you need to maintain interest. The whole point of having fans is to have them excitedly promoting your stuff.  Keep those contests, events and coupons coming, and remember: some of the best contests are the same every year, the reason being: they are worth winning.
• Promote Them, for a Change:  Everyone knows the power of customer appreciation. There are plenty of ways to show some love that will benefit you both. Try organizing a fan of the month award, letting fans share their content, photos and videos on your social sites; basically find out which fans are the most connected, surprise them with something awesome and watch the your waves spread out though the various mediums.
• Shape Your Fans: You determine the criteria of the rewards, and if you make the criteria known then your fans know what to do to get what they want.  However, it’s important not to turn them off, they are not employees.
• Oh Yeah, Advertising: This is nothing new, but the important considerations are who you are marketing to and what they’ll do with the information.  Give your demographic what they want and they’ll want to share it.
• Encourage Feedback: Make it clear to them you want to hear from them. Then you’ll get valuable information about your product and what your audience wants from it.
• Respond to Feedback: If customers know they are being listened to, they are more willing to give useful feedback.  Keep the conversation going, respond to comments, open it up and make it an event or contest. It keeps people involved with you.
• Fix it: Not only can feedback help you make your product better, which has obvious benefits for you and your brand, you also have the chance to address any tangential problems, improving your customer support and potentially winning yourself some customer-kudos for caring so much.

Direct Marketing Strategies

Good old direct marketing.  Every piece of direct marketing you send out is an opportunity.  Make it about something more than just reminding people you exist.  Make it useful to your consumer, make it informative, make it important.  Don’t clog the channels with junk material and risk dulling peoples reactions to the point that they see who its from and get rid of it.  Mark out a steady pace for delivering high quality, and recognize if it’s time to take a class on direct marketing to get things going right.

• Meaningful Materials: Whether it’s a blog, newsletter, printed materials, or whatever, if you are sending something to your customers, let’s make sure it is going to get in front of their eyes before it hits the trashcan.  Give them a reason to read it and keep it.
• Table of Contents:  The more diverse your materials and the more you pack in, the more likely you are to have what someone wants, but is only works if they can quickly see that what they want is in there.  A first glance is all you can expect, so make sure that the first glance shows them that you’ve got what they want somewhere in there.
• Getting It Together: The advantages of getting people together is in forming a sense of community. It promotes density in the existing networks and is a great way to keep enthusiasm up.  And remember: better a bustling small event than an empty big one.
• Link to Reality: Having your marketing strategies culminate in real world events is a great way to help contests and events carry more weight than the merely virtual.  Shoot for symbiosis.
• Content Op: Getting people together will provide tons of material for content: videos, photos, blog posts and both product and fan promotion.

Catching Attention

How do you catch someone’s attention in the first place, to stand out from the noise of your competitors? Here are a few tips:

• “Greater-Good” appeal: Stand for Something:  being part of a cause is a great way to appeal to more than just consumption impulse, whether it’s a societal agenda, green business practices or integrated charity function, people respond to worthy causes because supporting you feels good.
• Rank and File: You need a website, and you need your website to show up in the searches it is supposed to. This is essential- get on it.  If you are not a master already then it is worth your time to take a SEO marketing course and become one.
• Alliances: Getting involved with other companies means increased exposure and access to new customers, but the trick is in the quid-pro-quo. It’s natural to look for companies you’d like to be a part of but what about companies that would like to work with you?  Contemplate what you’ve got to offer and who wants it.
• Pay to Play: There are companies out there that specialize in marketing, and you can take advantage of their expertise.  Every size is its own niche for a marketing company to fit with, so there is someone out there who has the right plan at the right price for you.

We’re just spit-balling here, just getting the juices flowing.  If these ideas hit a nerve then take the time to research them further, consider how they might be best applied to your situation, and make them work for you.  Any of these ideas can be adjusted to suit your time and budget, but all of them require that you execute them expertly.  That’s the real difference, not what strategy you choose, but what material flows through the channel to the consumer and what effect it has on them.  If your whole game needs to be stepped up then check out a comprehensive marketing strategy course like Marketing Training, or for more specific needs check out the other great marketing courses on Udemy.