37 Creative Marketing Ideas to Boost Your Business

If truth be told, we live in a very complicated society. No matter what kind of endeavor you are talking about, there are a lot of regulations and intricacies that are related to it that make it a lot more complicated than it should seem. This is especially true when you are talking about creative marketing.

There is likely no area where this is truer than in marketing. If you are a business owner looking to try to improve your presence with customers, you have to take on an extremely creative approach to be able to reach them. The fact remains that the days of advertising on television or in a magazine are simply not going to do it, so you have to find ways to reach people in this more technologically advanced society.

If you are a business owner, you are probably already facing these challenges, maybe even looking for creative ideas to help boost your business. If this sounds like you, that here are 37 creative marketing strategies that should do wonders in helping to boost your business. The ideas have been broken up into four different categories to make it a little easier for you to be able to apply.

Social marketing

One of the most important areas of creative marketing you need to focus your marketing is on the social media networks and other social forums. Everyone is on the social networks and if you are not, you are most certainly dooming yourself to failure. So, the best place to start is by addressing the areas of social marketing where you need to focus your strategies.

HashTag for Success – Being on Twitter is a good first step, but you need to go beyond just simply having a twitter account and having followers. One of the best things that you can do is to create a weekly hashtag that is specifically related to your business. This should appear on the same day each week, and should have something to do with a promotion, coupon, or other kinds of event. This will keep people returning.

Vines and Tubes - at least once a week you should be creating videos that you post out on YouTube, Vines, and other video networks. Let people see something that is going on in your business. Make these videos entertaining and informative. That will keep them returning to watch and will encourage them to share your videos with their friends and family.

Join Groups - one of the common things you will find in Facebook is that there are groups where people with common interests will join. You are likely to find that there are groups related to the products and services that you offer. Join them and talk about what you have to offer.

Get Something Viral Going - one of the best ways to create buzz about your business is to create some kind of video or posting that winds up going viral. To accomplish this is a little less difficult than you may think. Simply focus on some kind of important event that is going on in your community or even nationally and make a bold statement about it. Be bold, but don’t be offensive.

Get Comments from Customers – Offer discounts to those who are willing to offer comments or post information on your social media accounts. Let them speak for you.

Write Reviews - get your friends and family members to write reviews about your business on websites. Encourage your customers to do this as well, as it is a great way to create a sense of authority about how good your business is.

Start a Blog – You may not have known this, the primary reason that people go to the web is to find information. By writing an article at least weekly, you give people a reason to come out and learn information from your site. That will keep them coming here business to see what you have to offer, which can help you to promote other things.

Have Others Post – you don’t need to do all the posting yourself. Look for others who will write blogs about your company website and have them link into your site. This draws all of those who are reading their articles onto your site and is a great creative marketing strategy.

Share Your Comments – while writing your own articles is a good idea, you can also have a lot of 

success by commenting on posts on other websites. This requires you to do a lot less work and gives you the ability to reach a lot more people by posting on several different forums.

Comment on Non-Related Topics – whether you are commenting on opposed on another site or writing opposed on your own site, consider simply providing information or thoughts on something nonrelated to your services. Travel is a great example. If you been to an exotic place, talk about that and find a clever way to include a product of your own in that article.

Get in on Some Apps - if you play any of these free games or use apps that are free, you have probably recognized that there are several advertisements that come with downloading that app. Look to get your business into one of those apps, or several of them, as it is a great way to ensure that you get yourself in front of literally millions of people who download that application.

Post, Post, Post – also, make sure that you provide a lot of content on your social media sites. This is not just about your website, but is about drawing people to your Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and other social forums. This is essential.

Be an Activist - social marketing isn’t just about social media. It’s also about being involved in your community, still taking a stand on a social issue. By doing this, you create a reputation which can be helpful toward creating a better creative marketing plan. Once again, be careful about what you choose is there are many who may take offense to your choices.

Make a Difference - besides becoming an activist, do something in your community to make relevant change. Get involved in cleanup, sponsor a park, or help with a local civic project. These kinds of things get you recognize for the better.

Build SEO Plan – This article is too small to get into all of the essentials of search engine optimization, but you are doomed to fail if you don’t come up with a solid plan to improve your rankings with the search engines. You may need to look to get some help from a company that provides this kind of service.

Content marketing

Now it is time to talk about content marketing, which is one of the most essential areas that you need to focus on. Most think of this as providing great radio advertisements or posting flyers throughout town, but there are some much better ways to draw in customers and attract people to your business, and here are some great creative marketing strategies for you in this area.

Include Your Business in Scenes - everybody loves the Photoshop these days, so take things related to your business, including your logo, and include it within those images. It’s a clever way to get people talking about your business.

Be Clever with Graphics - when making discount coupons or flyers, be clever in the way that you design them. Many pulls these kinds of things on their Facebook or Twitter accounts, so do something that is eye-catching.

Post on Discount Sites – there are many websites out there that allow consumers to get coupons or discounts simply by signing up for that service. Include your own business in there, offering some kind of discount simply because you know this is going to draw traffic.

Offer Sharing Bonuses – You should also offer to your customers bonuses for sharing links with their friends or family related to your Facebook or Twitter feeds. This is the ultimate form of free advertising, as all you have to do is post some kind of discount and let your followers do the rest of the work for you.

Write Your Own Reviews - also, don’t be afraid to write reviews of products and services that you offer. Tell consumers what are the best options out there, and why they should trust one product over another. Truthfully, people love lists and reviews like this.

Use Email Like Crazy – this is not exactly a creative idea, but it is important for you to use your email list as extensively as possible. Consider that it costs you absolutely nothing to email people, and most are happy to give away their email address. You should offer specials and discounts in emails on a regular basis.

Billboards - most of us are familiar with the standard billboard advertisement, so do something unusual with it. In this electronic age, it is easy to make billboards that are much more entertaining and informative.

Guerilla marketing

You may be reading this term for the first time and wondering exactly what guerrilla marketing is. This is a creative marketing strategy to appeal to consumers using nontraditional or un-orthodox ways. Because consumers have become so accustomed to advertising they almost ignore it out right, so this is a way to make your business stand out by using unusual methods. Here are some great creative marketing examples.

Business Cards - most of us recognize the standard business card – rectangular, White, name, address, logo, and some other essential information on the card. However, when you choose unusual shapes and designs, you make yourself stand out right off. Get something that is simply hard to ignore.

Flyers - flyers are another great example. Everyone offers the same looking flyer, even if it is simply changing colors. There isn’t much imagination, but that doesn’t mean you have to lock yourself into that kind of thinking. Do something that shocking or incredibly funny think about flyers and posters that have gotten your attention and try to apply those yourself.

Look to Your Competitors – Go out and find out what your competitors are doing. See what kind of postings there making on social media, and see if any of their ideas work for you.

Sponsor an Event – we talked about being active in your community, but you can sponsor other kinds of events to get your name out there. You can be a sponsor of a local sports team, sponsor a racer event, or do some other kind of promotional sponsorship that gets your name out because so many are involved in it, like a concert event.

Stickers - a sticker is one of the most commonly used type of campaigns, whether it is for your car’s bumper or placed on your shirt or jacket. Don’t get caught up in the common ways to use a sticker. Make unusual design with statements that people will remember. Even go so far as to offer special discounts for the person who was wearing the most stickers and has posted that through their social media account.

Party Time - one way to really draw people your business is to throw some kind of party. Make it a block party event where people can come and get food, browse to your store, and get to know your staff. It’s the kind of thing that will draw a lot of people.

Remember the Important Dates – the No. 1 reason why a customer will return to a store is that they feel they are valued by that business. You can improve this feeling by sending them cards or emails on special dates, such as their birthdate, anniversary, or similar day.

News Story – see if you can get a local newspaper to write a story about your business or its owner. This can give you a lot of publicity and reach a number of people without you having to pay a dime.

Link, Link, Link – one of the best ways to help improve your SEO rankings and also garner yourself more attention is to build links between other websites and your own. By other websites having links to your website you are increasing your chances they are going to come to your website.

Be Controversial…Carefully - one way to create a viral presence is to get involved in the discussion about a controversial issue. This comes with a word of caution, however, as this can turn against you easily. Don’t be afraid to lose some customers to draw in a significantly number of others.

Contest marketing

Contests are a great way to not only get people to your business but to also build up email and mailing lists. People love to try to win something, and offering contests is the way to get them involved with your organization. Here are some great ideas to try.

Hold Customer and Employee Contests - you should offer contest or your social media outlets on a regular basis. This can include giving away discounts or free merchandise, providing a service, or giving them some kind of special acknowledgment, like the best customer of the year. You could even have a contest where the person who purchases the most from your business earns a prize. This will not only help you to promote your business on social media, but also give you an opportunity to earn more money.

Voting Contests – people may not like to vote during elections, but they love to do it online. Have people share their thoughts on what they think are top products, great things about your business, or have them vote on something that really has nothing to do you with your business but they would love to vote on.

Photo Contests - have customers submit photos of them using your product or service. Then have a contest that rewards the person with the best picture. This builds content to your site and draws consumers.

Snapchat Contests - combine a social media platform with people’s love of taking selfies and offer specific contest related to Snapchat use. Have people take images of them using or displaying your products and services.

Video Contests - you can do the same thing with videos. Once again, offer a big reward for somebody was using your product or service and has made a creative video with it.

Offer Prizes for Email Forwards - consider offering special discounts to those who come in with an email from a friend or family member who forwarded unoriginal email onto them. Even offer discounts to the one who has the most successful forwards in terms of gaining customers for you. Everybody wins in this situation.