3 New Marketing Ideas to Tune-up Your Small Business

Technology continues to drive change in marketing‚ social media has become the dominant form of communication online. These platforms are changing constantly. Therefore, we constantly need new marketing ideas so we can keep up. If you’re like us, you’ve probably trying to find new ways to get your business the attention it deserves. Below, you will find three perspectives that we thought we worth sharing.

Videos Are Key for Authenticity

First, adding video content to your portfolio may not be a new marketing idea, but it is a great way to reach your customers in a more personal way. It not only enables you to access Instagram and YouTube, but it also provides a medium that conveys emotion - emotion makes you more human. As Stephen Key‚ from‚ Entrepreneur Magazine‚ points this out in his article "6Ways to Use Video to Sell New-Product Concepts", video content can be tough to build. However, he lays out three steps that can help your small business:

1. First, videos should be short. As a guide, it is helpful to think about how to communicate your idea quickly, in 6 or 15 seconds, for instance.‚
2. If you're new at video marketing, you might not know how to shoot video, but that doesn't need to be a liability. In fact, you can be perceived as more authentic if you use the tools you have.
3. Finally, if you want to keep your video short, it is very important to have a clear idea of what you are going to say and show.

You will likely want to use a technique called storyboarding because it is the best way to ensure that you achieve the 3 points above. It is a relatively straightforward process. First, you sketch your opening frame with a script of what you are going to say beneath it. Next, you draw the following frame. This process is repeated until you reach the end.

New Marketing Ideas Have Completely Altered the Marketing Funnel

Marketing funnels aren’t new, but how they work is fundamentally different today. As a result, you need new marketing ideas to cope with these changes. Once, it was a linear process where you controlled the message. Now, it has become a complicated web of interconnected media. As a result, it has become increasing difficult to manage and very confusing.

Eric Siu at Single Grain‚ wrote a guide called "How to Create a Powerful Marketing Funnel Step-by-Step"‚ to help. A strong‚ marketing funnel starts by raising awareness for your business. Then, you need to cultivate this relationship until it becomes a lead. Finally, after several steps, you can convert that lead into a customer.

Siu's guide is very useful and provides detailed instructions about effective new marketing ideas. For example, he explains how to track customer behavior, going from attention to action. By understanding this process, you learn when and how best to speak with your customers. Bad reviews can be a blessing in disguise. Siu writes

"Complaints and criticism give you important signals that you need to make changes."

The Acceleration of Micro-targeting

At Sprout Social, Jenn Chen‚ posted a list of marketing concepts called "12 Social Media Promotion Ideas You're Not Using" to help new businesses. She highlights the many new ideas to market to someone with ads on Facebook. ‘For example, one of the most powerful aspects of Facebook is it's audience data. It enables you to target interest groups pretty narrowly.

“If you’ve recently shopped online for shoes, you may notice that you’re receiving more shoe ads than before. That’s because Facebook noted your shopping habits and added you to that interest category."

The ability to target your customer so directly is powerful tool. A marketing message has the best chance of being effective when it is delivered to the buyer when it is most relevant, which is right before they act. At this point, your new marketing idea has the best chance to persuade them because they are ready to make a decision.

4 New Marketing Ideas

1. Change is a constant. Be ready to explore new technologies for new ideas to market to your customers better
2. Video is the key for authenticity. Even if you hate it as I do, there’s nothing quite like a video to showcase who you are.
3. It’s time to blow-up the old, classical marketing funnel. It's no longer useful. It’s time to embrace a more networked approach.
4. Microtargeting can feel a bit, “big brother”, but if you have a niche, you can beat it for its efficiency.