Jumpstart Your Creative Marketing Strategies

It isn’t easy to always be at the top of your game. For most of us, even if we eat our Wheaties every day, the likelihood that we bring creative and competitively-charged ideas to work with us each morning is far-fetched.

Here are a few ideas to get those creative juices flowing:

· Promotional creativity. For small businesses, keeping costs low is often a primary objective in marketing. Luckily, promotions don’t always have to be big and flashy to capture the attention of your audience. Sometimes less truly is more in marketing. Think of how to pursue your target audience in a catchy and memorable way. For instance, if you own a used bookstore that offers a buyback program, go to your local library and hide your business cards in the books.

· Turn those frowns upside down. Excuse the silly expression, but making people smile should be a goal of every finance or billing department. Fact: No one likes to get billed for something. Also a fact: Everyone likes a surprise. Recently, a billing company made paying invoices fun for customers when they attached a lottery ticket to each of their statements. Now, instead of dreading incoming invoices, their customer’s look forward to them.

· Where social media and reality intersect. Make your social media come alive by running promotions that start online, but instruct your fans to do something outside of their computer to support your company. Post instructions for a contest online in which your customers have to take pictures with your merchandise at their favorite landmarks and then return to your social media pages to post them online.

· Break out of your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to let a little personal leak into your business. A “My wife just gave birth to our first son, so you get 20% off this week” sale, is creative and eye-catching. It also makes your customers feel more connected to both you and your brand.