Redefine Your Brand with Non-Traditional Marketing Techniques

Guest post by John Gower - Gone are the days when advertising meant a print, TV, or radio campaign, or even an internet banner ad. As a result, marketers are faced with a huge range of advertising opportunities. This is good news and bad news. The good news is that there are more ways than ever to get your brand’s name out there, but the bad news is that everyone else is figuring out the same things you are, and it can be difficult to stand out in an age of overwhelming constant influx of information.

If you haven’t already embraced non-traditional marketing techniques, now is the time. Not only will you save big on advertising and have more of your budget to use elsewhere, but also non-traditional marketing is fun and engaging for your consumer base. Like anything related to growing your brand, non-traditional marketing takes a game plan. Master these four techniques and you’ll be well on your way to building a relevant, lasting brand.

1.      Social media marketing. Everyone and their mom is claiming to be a social media expert recently, it seems. But marketing with social media takes more strategy than posting on your Facebook and Twitter accounts once in a while.

a.       Have a strategy for each platform. Know what demographics each social media platform reaches. Use insights and analytics to target your audiences. Schedule posts to go live at the times of day your audience is most active. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Spotify, YouTube and Google Plus all do different things, and you may not need all of those accounts, depending on what your business is about, so use the ones you need and skip the rest.

b.       Stick to the basics. Don’t jump on every social media bandwagon. You probably won’t miss anything if you wait a while to find out if the newest trend in social media is going to stick around. Chances are it won’t; people are reaching capacity of both time and interest. Remember Vine?

c.       Do use hashtags (#). In moderation. Decide on a couple of brand-specific hashtags (or see what your fans have already started) and use them on your posts. Facebook now supports them, so it’s no longer embarrassing to hashtag on Facebook. Don’t use more than three on any one post, though. The end game of hashtags is that they categorize the conversation about your brand in a centralized way.

d.       Engage, engage, engage. Social media is a conversation. It doesn’t directly make you any money, but it’s a place to form relationships with your customers, ask and answer questions, and generally get people talking about your brand. If it seems pointless to you, just remember that where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

2.     Tutorial marketing. People don’t want to be sold to, they want to be taught. Tutorials can be physical or virtual. For a physical tutorial, hold or co-sponsor a workshop in an area related to your brand. At the event, give away branded gifts to all your attendees—something small, but memorable. A great place to hold a virtual tutorial is by sponsoring a blog post. Many bloggers are open to partnering with brands because it’s good for both parties. They may charge a small fee, but it’s worth it for the exposure you’ll get with their readership. For example, if you own a floral design business, write a how-to post on arranging a bouquet. Include lots of photos and keep it simple. The blogger gets an awesome post, you get a bunch of potential new clients, the readers learn a new skill -- everybody wins.

3.  Experience Marketing. Experience marketing works in a similar way to tutorial marketing. If you can associate your brand with an enjoyable experience, you’re golden. Co-sponsor events and workshops. A great example of a combination of tutorial and experience marketing is a series of workshops taught by the blogger Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day, and sponsored by Bing. Oh Happy Day was the brand associated with the skill learned, and Bing was the brand associated with the experience.

4.      Guerilla Marketing. Guerilla marketing is for the scrappy brand, the rebel, the one who doesn’t play by the rules. Guerilla marketing tactics include flash mobs, sticker bombing, and street giveaways. It relies on time, energy, and imagination over budget. What it has in common with social media is that it starts people talking about your brand. Its unique strength is that you’re memorable in a way few other brands are memorable. But since much guerilla marketing may involve temporary defacement of public property and minor lawbreaking, only engage in it if you want that tone associated with your brand.

It seems like new start-ups are, well, starting up on a daily basis and makers and crafters are opening new online shops every six minutes. Creative businesses are good for each other, but they’re all competing for a similar customer base, so get a strategy in place, put these marketing tactics to work, and watch your brand flourish.

John Gower is a writer for NerdWallet, a site that helps you save money by “doing the homework for you.”