In today’s world, marketing has become synonymous with digital marketing. This is because channels like social media, blogs, emails, etc. are more prevalent than traditional channels like newspapers and radio.
If you have been leveraging digital marketing for a while, then chances are, you already know about popular techniques like social media marketing, content marketing, etc. However, there are also some lesser-known techniques that you can use to promote your business. The following are the top 7 of them:
1. Giveaway Contests
Did you know that you can promote your brand and make the customers/leads happy at the same time? By launching giveaway contests on social media platforms, you can do that easily!
To host a successful social media contest, make sure that you create it around your target demographic. For instance, if you offer graphic design services, then you can host a contest in which the participants can stand a chance to win a free subscription for 3-6 months of your tools. In the same way, if you run an online store, then you can offer a gift card that can be used by the winner on your website.
The best way to host a giveaway content online is to use a dedicated tool for the same. These tools allow you to provide incentives to the participants for sharing your posts with others and record the contact details so that you can reach out to the participants later to try to convert them into paying customers as much as possible. The following are some of the best tools that you can consider:
- Woobox
- Heyo
- Rafflecopter
- Pagemodo
- Wishpond
2. Referral Program
You can launch a referral program to encourage your existing customers to promote your brand for you. This idea isn’t exactly new, but few businesses use it despite its effectiveness.
There are many reasons why a referral program could be a good idea for your business:
- It barely costs anything. Of course, you have to incentivize your customers through discounts or freebies so that they market your brand for you, and it costs money. However, that’s about it. Besides, the new customers that they will generate higher revenue against which the price cut you face is negligible.
- There are programs like Ambassador that can manage all the details of your referral programs on your behalf and allow you to focus on other important areas of your business.
- People are more likely to check out your products when they are referred by friends and family rather than unknown online users
3. eBooks
eBooks are becoming more popular than paper books, and they can also be used for digital marketing if used correctly. This is because you can yourself write an informative or educational book that your leads can benefit from.
Let’s say that you offer website development services. You can write an eBook about creating websites that use SEO techniques, or customizing WordPress themes for online stores, etc. so that those who want to create their own websites download your book and learn about your brand. If the information shared by you is important and presented professionally, then you will be able to establish yourself as an authority figure in the industry and see more and more people coming up to you with more business.
4. Guest Blogging
If you have an interesting and popular blog on the Internet, then you can receive a huge volume of organic traffic. For that, you need to implement techniques like SEO, backlinks, and guest blogging.
Guest blogging allows you to take your business to new markets in the fastest way possible. You don’t even have to invest a lot of money and time.
In guest blogging, you have to identify other popular blogs in your niche and approach the bloggers so that you can propose writing a guest post for them. The idea is that they can receive a free blog post written by you, and in return, you get access to their traffic. This can be made possible when you add a backlink in the posts that can take their visitors to your blog.
The following are a few tips that can help you make the most of your guest blogging efforts:
- It’s important that you bring your “A game” when you engage in guest blogging. This is because, in this, you have to make a good impression on a completely new audience. The people who will read your post will have a new experience compared to what they are used to (based on the content provided by the blogger).
- Measure the results of your guest blog posts. Some of the metrics that you need to monitor include the number of social shares you get, countries where you get new visitors, etc.
- Check out the comments section every now and then and answer the questions of the readers, if there are any
5. Infographics
Infographics have become quite popular lately as a large number of readers prefer a visual representation of important facts and data over detailed blog posts that can be quite tedious to read. You don’t even have to have advanced graphic design skills and experience to create attractive infographics- there are all kinds of online tools that you can use to create complex infographics in a matter of minutes. These include the following:
- Piktochart
- Visme
- MURAL
- Snappa
- Infogram
There are various platforms where you can publish your infographics to expand your reach and customer base. These include Facebook, blog, Pinterest, etc.
6. Podcasts
Podcasts are becoming popular not just for entertainment but also for marketing. The following are some of the reasons why you should try it to market your business:
- It’s not easy to read blogs or even watch videos for your target customers when they commute to work. However, they can easily plug in their headphones to tune in to your weekly podcast to learn what’s new in your industry
- Anyone who owns a smartphone can listen to podcasts anywhere
- Writing takes a lot of time, as you have to research and spend hours getting the content just right. Podcasts, on the other hand, are spontaneous and organic. There is barely any script and you get to discuss different kinds of topics in a comfortable and relaxed environment
- Listening to someone’s voice in their natural-self can be quite soothing and comforting. This is what podcasts provide, and this is why they can help in bringing you closer to your customers. As they will see the real you, the things that you make and your brand special, they will want to be a part of your community.
7. Hashtag Marketing Tactics
Hashtags on social media are frequently used to raise awareness and for the promotions of brands. The idea is so simple- adding # to the target keywords, but it’s equally powerful.
The following are some of the best tips on using hashtags for marketing:
- Research hashtags with tools like RiteTag, Hashtagify, and Photerloo Instagram Hashtag and identify the frequency and volume of your choice of hashtags. You can find stats for similar hashtags to find those that are used more often than others.
- One of the best ways to use hashtags for creating a buzz for your company online is creating branded hashtags. For this, you can create hashtags that are based on slogans and key phrases of your campaigns. The following are some examples of successful hashtag campaigns run by big companies: #PutACanOnIt by Red Bull, #MyCalvins by Calvin Klein, #LikeAGirl by Always.
- Use social listening tools to listen to what the users are saying about different topics and brands. The information obtained with these can help you identify the hashtags that can get you maximum visibility with limited efforts.
Digital marketing is a vast domain that comprises techniques like SEO, social media marketing, PPC, blogger outreach, influencer marketing, etc. So, it’s not hard to see why someone could easily become overwhelmed when they try to market a brand on their own. This is why it’s highly recommended that you take help from professional digital marketing services who knows what kind of techniques work best for a particular brand.