Marketing doesn’t have to be textbook. The beauty of it is that it is never limited and can go as far as your creativity allows. You can go as wild and wacky as your brand allows you to.
So with that in mind, I thought I might invite you to expand your mind and consider 10 unusual strategies you could try out to supercharge your marketing and boost your brand appeal.
1. Reverse engineer your competitors.
If your competitors are seeing success, identify what differentiates them and reverse engineer their strategies to create a roadmap for your success.
2. Host some quirky events.
Make your brand memorable and get key people in your target industry talking about you by hosting an unusual event. It could be a themed event, involve an unusual activity, or hold it in an unique location. Invite key influencers in your industry and wow them. You’ll get some great social media content for your future news feed, and you could even generate some inbound leads too.
3. Engage with micro-influencers
Everyone talks about the value of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is defined as a brand that collaborates with an influencer to market one of its products or services.
The influencer could be online or offline. If they’re online, they’ll likely have a big following on social media. If they’re offline, they are known as a key player in their industry and are hyper connected.
To get your brand noticed and talked about, you don’t have to go for the big-name influencers; team up with micro-influencers with a smaller but highly engaged audience. Their authenticity will work wonders for your brand.
4. Tell captivating stories.
Storytelling is a potent marketing tool. Craft compelling stories around your brand, products, or customers to evoke emotions and create a lasting connection.
If your stories are good enough, they’ll even generate engagement and conversation, further enabling you to convey your brand’s personality and values.
5. Hijack trending topics.
Stay on top of trending topics and cleverly incorporate them into your marketing campaigns. This timely approach can help you ride the waves of social media virality.
6. Partner-up.
Look beyond your industry for potential partnerships. Collaborating with businesses in different niches can open new avenues and expand your reach.
Red Bull and GoPro have entered into a partnership and are achieving some amazing results. Their partnership involves co-branding, part content marketing and part comarketing all rolled into one.
Their biggest activity (both together and individually) was Stratos in 2012. This event was hosted by Red Bull and involved Felix Baumgartner jumping from a helium balloon 24 miles above the earth, capturing the whole thing on a GoPro camera. He shattered three world records, broke the sound barrier and was watched live by 8 million viewers, setting a new record for YouTube in the process.
7. Get interactive with chatbots.
Have you ever considered installing a chatbot on your website? There are some great chatbot tools out there that encourage website visitors to engage with you.
One tool that I’ve used in the past is called tawk.to. With this tool, you can monitor and chat with the visitors on your website, respond to support tickets, organise contacts and create a help centre to empower customers to help themselves. And best of all? It’s FREE!
8. Host Webinars with a Punch
Spice up your webinars by inviting industry experts, conducting live polls, and
integrating interactive elements. Make them entertaining and informative to keep participants hooked.
9. Go, guerrilla!
Guerrilla marketing uses novel or unconventional methods to boost sales or attract interest in a brand or business.
Mcdonald’s did some guerrilla marketing during Zuricfest, a famous Swiss festival.
Entitled the MacFries Pedestrian Crossing, they decorated zebra crossings outside their restaurants into giant finger chip displays. This drew festivalgoers’ attention and was a creative way to promote the brand outside traditional food stalls.
