When it comes to your marketing, there is always a risk you’ll get stuck in a rut.
After some time, it’s not uncommon to run out of fresh ideas and end up recycling the same campaigns you’ve used before, just tweaking them here and there to make them seem different.
Whereas it’s never a bad practice to repeat what works, you’ll never discover new ways to connect with your audience if you just do the same thing time and again.
Plus, there’s the risk your audience will find your campaigns uninspired (perhaps even boring) and you’ll find it difficult to stand out from your competitors.
The solution to your problems is to mix things up and experiment with something new. To show off your creative side, try some of these catchy marketing campaign ideas.
1. Support a Cause
Demonstrate your brand’s values by connecting your business with a cause.
There are several ways you can do this: you can give the percentage of your sales to the cause, offer customers the chance to donate when they make a purchase from you, or even just pledge you support.
To create a philanthropic brand image (at the same time as increasing your visibility), your best option is to engage in selfish giving. This involves forming a partnership with a nonprofit to benefit you both.
Whatever you do, and whether you connect your brand as a whole to the cause or just certain products and services, this is an excellent tactic for garnering greater respect for your business. In fact, expressing your values is extra important if you’re targeting younger customers, as most Millennials favor companies that share their values.
However, this does mean you’ll need to think carefully about what causes to choose or which nonprofit to partner with — it’s essential that your choice matches your brand image and is something your target audience cares about.
2. The Scarcity Principle
A classic type of marketing campaign to try is scarcity, which involves creating the impression of a shortage.
This is great for making an impact and increasing short-term sales. The way it works is you create the impression of a shortage. This type of campaign is also effective if you’re releasing a new service — for instance, you could offer just a certain number of signups at the beginning.
Finally, it can work with discounts: you offer a big discount for a limited time, after which users need to pay full price.
The reason scarcity marketing can be so effective is that users have no time to think if they want or need your offering.
They need to purchase now or lose the chance forever — or perhaps lose the chance to be one of the early adopters.
3. Jump on a Weekly Hashtag
Using hashtags that are trending with your audience should already be part of your marketing strategy. You can take hashtag marketing a step further by making it a weekly tradition.
Post something fun, informative, or insightful on the same day each week either using a popular hashtag that already exists (such as #MotivationMonday or #GoodNewsTues) or create your own hashtag.
4. Nothing But the Deal
Often, when companies send customers a coupon for a special deal, they provide users with a large amount of information. This can be useful if customers require some convincing to take action.
However, much of the time, users have subscribed to your newsletter or follow you on social media purely because they want to buy from you — and they’re looking to save money. In these cases, making the message the deal and nothing else can be particularly effective.
5. Be Controversial
Some of the most impactful marketing shocks or even offend. This may sound too risky, but hear us out. You can use controversial marketing to grab your audience’s attention and then explain why you used it.
It’s a great way to express your values, challenge stereotypes, or make people think about an issue in a different way.
The best way to understand how a controversial marketing campaign can work favorably is to look at an example. One such example comes from Lung Cancer Alliance with its “No One Deserves to Die” campaign.
The campaign uses several different messages, all of which end with “deserve to die,” including “Crazy Old Aunts Deserve to Die” and “Hipsters Deserve to Die.”
The campaign draws people in with the initial message and then explains how lung cancer doesn’t discriminate. This leads to the real message about ending stigma for lung cancer — and putting an end to the disease.
6. Urban Marketing
Many businesses have dropped traditional marketing tactics (if they ever engaged in them at all) because marketing in the physical world is too expensive and ineffective compared to digital campaigns.
However, there are some forms of physical marketing that can have a low cost: urban marketing is a great example.
Urban marketing is particularly suited for local businesses, as it’s all about using your surroundings. The point is to surprise and stick in the head of your audience.
Some ideas to consider include chalk on the sidewalk, graffiti, or a mural — the more creative, the better.
7. Sponsorships
Another way to make a presence in the real world is through a sponsorship. You could sponsor an event to have your name appear throughout the day.
Alternatively, there are more permanent forms of sponsorship, such as when you sponsor a sports team or a local amenity. Whatever you do, it will show your commitment to the community — at the same time as gaining you visibility.
8. Make a Meme
Memes are fun and shareable and they resonate especially well with a younger audience. Take inspiration from memes that are currently trending to create your own.
9. Run a Contest
The great thing about contests is that they allow your audience to become actively involved in your marketing. A top choice is always to ask users to create a piece of content to match a hashtag.
Content could feature your product, show users interacting with your service, or express what your brand means to them.
You’ll receive an influx of user-generated content (taking the strain off your content creation team) and generate social proof.
10. Celebrate the Smaller Holidays
Most brands do something for the holiday season, not least because it’s the time of year with the highest sales for many industries. To stand out, though, it’s a good idea to celebrate some smaller holidays that are relevant to your brand and audience.
As well as celebrating the more obvious ones, search for lesser-known holidays that your competitors may be unaware of. You have many choices, as there’s something to celebrate every day of the year.
For instance, April 22, 2021, was not just Earth Day — it was also Teach Your Children to Save Day, Jelly Bean Day, Beagle Day, and Thank You Thursday. Check out all the days of the year for inspiration.
11. Predict the Future
Use your knowledge of your industry to make predictions about the future. It’s best to be specific about the date by which a prediction will happen, as then users can check back to see if you were right when you post an update.
When you are right, you’ll build credibility. Plus, even if you’re completely wrong occasionally, it will only show that your brand is human — provided this doesn’t happen too often!
12. Bring Positivity
The internet can feel like a negative place at times. Bring some positivity by sharing something that makes your customers feel hopeful or puts a smile on their faces, such as an impressive statistic or a heartwarming fact.
13. Share Insights from Experts
Interview experts in your industry to share some insights. Top quotes from the interview are ideal turning into social media posts, whereas the full interview is great for a piece of video content, a podcast, or a blog post.
You could even release the full audio version of the interview and write a blog post to get the maximum mileage possible from a single interview.
The problem with catchy marketing campaigns is they often require a great deal of resources and expertise that you may not have in house — especially for the most original ideas.
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