Do you think you can’t compete for attention in a crowded market place? Or that it would cost too much to do it? Many give up before they start, thinking it’s just not possible, so why bother? Fear not! There are several Creative Marketing Ideas that may get you more attention and cost less while being more fun.

Here are my top 5 favourite creative marketing ideas.

These have all been successful for our clients, but there is a common key to their success beyond the creative marketing ideas themselves… more later.

1. Extreme Targeting

The open rate of a direct mail is so low that it has to go to thousands of people to get a decent response. However, if you handpick a very targeted group, I mean not just (for example) accountants, but of a specific size, in a specific geographic location, with specific services, you can craft creative marketing ideas specifically to them and be able to handle the most important part – follow-up calls.

For one client we created a direct mail campaign to a very targeted list of 100 accounting firms that by size; location and services offered would be a great source of work and referrals for our client. We sent it at a time we knew they would be swamped (tax season) and offered relief to the pain at that moment (shoeboxes overflowing with receipts). Then, we followed up with a call. Calling 100 is more feasible than calling 5,000. We were right in our timing, many were so swamped they couldn’t even call, but when we called them they said ‘please help me now.’

This creative marketing idea was so successful for our client they told us to stop the calls. And it cost them a lot less than sending something to 5,000 firms.

2. Love the Diamonds in Your Own Backyard

You want creative marketing ideas to increase your sales, right? For most B2B companies their clients often start small and then ask for more – we hope. While you’d like to get more of the larger clients, it’s often easier to sell more to existing clients than bring new clients in at that level.

It’s a mistake to assume clients you already have would buy more from you if they needed it. You’d be surprised how many only know you for what you already do for them, and/or have simply become complacent.

Creative marketing ideas can include simple things like case studies, newsletters or other Marketing pieces that remind them of what else you do and encourage them to let you help them more, turning small clients into large clients. We’ve interviewed our clients’ clients who’ve said they wish they would market to them more. Add to it something that shows your appreciation for their business, and they’ll appreciate your creative marketing ideas even more.

3. Social Proof

In the hierarchy of buying, close to the top in what would make people buy from you is that you are viewed as an expert or a referral from a trusted source. Let your clients and fans advocate for you through some creative marketing ideas that include them.

This may include the common practice of adding testimonials to your website and other materials (videos are best) or being referred to as an expert by a trusted source by having articles published.

Creative marketing ideas we’ve had success with include a law firm client of ours: instead of just ads in an industry magazine, we paired them with ads that include other professionals who refer to them regularly. There was an ad with a partner talking about why they do what they do, with an ad right beside it featuring another kind of lawyer saying why they refer to that partner regularly. This was a hugely successful example of marketing with social proof.

4. Videos

Do you have aspects of your product, service or even culture that’s really hard to put into words? Videos offer fantastic opportunities for creative marketing ideas. Our client DiversiPro asked us to create a video that explained what diversity means to them. It wasn’t about being politically correct, but making the workplace (and world) a richer place. We produced a beautiful and effective video, but how they use it is the real creative marketing idea.

You can use videos in multiple ways such as:
•    On your website – we know visitors spend 10X as long when there is a video.
•    On YouTube which helps your Google ranking and makes it easy to share
•    In pitches, presentations or as introductions.

DiversiPro – besides having it on their website and YouTube – often use it at the beginning of seminars to set the tone. They’ve gotten wonderful feedback and tons of mileage out of this creative marketing idea.

5. Parties

Celebrate your achievements, get back in touch with old clients, build relationships with prospects and your community, and be known as the fun _____. Everyone loves a good party and they’re ground for many creative marketing ideas. I am SURE you have something to celebrate – an Anniversary, a major change like a brand re-launch, new space, Groundhog Day. At Rapport we love to throw parties.

You know how most of us are attracted to happy, confident people? Even for people who RSVP no, you’re sending a strong, positive message just by inviting them. It can be a really good opportunity to say thank you and maybe show off as well.

Think through every aspect of the evening and come up with as many creative marketing ideas as you can. Everything is an opportunity – from the invite to the catering and decorations to the goodie bag. Do something creative like a photo collage or rent a giant iMac to show off your new website.

See the creative collage we did for our own 10th Anniversary – Part 1 and Part 2. It let our community share in the rich history we have as well as let us show off a different creative side.

The Key to Success in Creative Marketing Ideas?

I mentioned all these creative marketing ideas have a common key to success. And that is knowing the audience really well and defining goals clearly to create effective, exactly right tools that would generate results. A small, out of the box, low budget creative marketing idea executed really well can get way higher ROI than the throw-enough-out-and-maybe-they’ll-stick-approach.

If you’d like to bounce around some creative marketing ideas might resonate with your ideal clients, get in touch with Faith.