11 Underrated Marketing Strategies to Apply to Your Business Today

11 Underrated Marketing Strategies to Apply to Your Business Today

In a digital marketing world full of diverse selling strategies, standing out from a sea of businesses can be challenging. Every marketer and business owner is now taking advantage of online advertising, which means that you would have to think outside of the box when curating your own marketing plan.

Marketing will always be a part of any business. No matter what niche you specialize in, you have to make sure that you carefully strategize to increase your leads and conversions. A lot of marketing strategies are often overlooked, simply because people tend to think that some ideas won’t t do their business any good.

Contrary to popular belief, when these underrated approaches are done properly, they can help you and your business succeed in ways you never thought possible. It can also help you outrun your competition.

Listed below are a couple of underrated marketing strategies that you can apply to start and grow your business idea.

6 Reasons to Implement Unique Marketing Strategies

Create Your Own Video Series

According to Biteable, 60% of businesses implement video marketing in their strategies. This comes as no surprise, as videos have been a huge part of the marketing industry for some time now.

However, when it comes to creating videos, you have to be creative and unique. One way to stand out is by creating a video series. Find out what type of video content resonates with your audience. For example, if you notice that they tend to like and share your animated videos, then create a whole series on that. Make sure to also post regularly so your audience knows when they can look forward to new content.

The video doesn’t have to be too long. You can consider uploading just a few minutes of it on your chosen social media platform, such as Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube. Get your designer involved and brainstorm about what content to put out.

Work with Micro-Influencers

Working with a huge influencer with thousands or millions of followers can be very expensive. It is undoubtedly effective, as Big Commerce reports that over 89% of marketers say that their ROI from influencer marketing is better than other channels.

However, if you have a limited budget, then you can consider partnering with micro-influencers instead. These influencers tend to have only a few thousand followers, but more often than not, they have a close-knit audience. These types of creators typically respond to and engage with their audience a lot better than those that have larger audiences.

How to Find Micro-Influencers

Join Online Forums

Joining online forums is a great idea since like-minded people usually ask questions on this platform. You can easily join communities such as Reddit and Quora and look for questions that are related to your niche. Work on answering these posts, but make sure to support your claims with relevant and accurate data.

Answering questions and engaging with people on forums can help increase brand awareness. These potential leads can see that you have enough knowledge and expertise in an area that they are particularly interested in, which will make them curious enough to consider following your brand. 

Consider SMS Marketing

You might think that SMS marketing is a thing of the past, but the data tells a different story. According to Campaign Monitor, SMS open rates are at about 98%.

However, you shouldn’t just spam your contacts with nonsensical messages. You’d have to carefully curate the text that you will be sending them, or they wouldn’t be driven to open your messages the next time.

Here are a few ways you can collect mobile numbers that you can use for SMS marketing:

  1. Give the people an option to sign-up on your website.
  2. Offer your audience a freebie or discount in exchange for their mobile numbers.
  3. Create contests and ask for their contact details, including their phone numbers.
  4. Encourage them to subscribe to your SMS campaigns through email marketing.
  5. Include your company number in business cards and advertisements.
  6. Have your customer support agents source out clients’ phone numbers.

While SMS marketing is a great marketing strategy, you have to be careful not to be too invasive of your customers’ privacy. Don’t send out too many messages and always offer them something in return to show them that you appreciate the gesture.

Give Back to the Community

This tactic is especially useful for small businesses that are location-focused. Getting acquainted with the community gives you a chance to get to know them a lot better. This gives you ample opportunities to engage with the people in your area, which can help you create a strong bond with your potential leads.

Consider giving back to the community by holding special events. You can partner up with local schools, offices, and other establishments to reach a wider audience. Encourage people to attend by giving them something in return. This can be in the form of discounts, trials, or freebies. Lastly, don’t forget to ask for the attendees’ contact details so you can reach out to them even after the event is over.

Directly Communicate with Your Customers

Personalization is one of the strongest marketing strategies. The more customized your messages are, the more your customers will feel special and heard. Even simple gestures such as addressing your customers on a first-name basis or sending them content that would be of interest to them can be a huge thing.

You should also make it a priority to answer your audience’s questions on all platforms. Engage with them in a timely manner so they’d know that you are listening.

5 Things to Include in Your Personalization Strategy

Focus on Solving Your Clients’ Pain Points

Solving your customers’ problems can help bring them closer to the brand. It can build trust between the client and the company since they know that you are always ready to reply to comments and suggestions, and they know that you are always ready to lend an ear.

Make it a habit to always check your social media and blog comments. Look for emails asking relevant questions about the brand. The faster you reply to these people, the more they are likely to be impressed with your customer support skills.

Make Inbound Strategies Your Focal Point

A lot of companies tend to focus on outbound rather than inbound strategies. While outbound can definitely help with brand awareness, inbound marketing can be a better practice, as you are paying attention to people who are already interested in your business. A good balance between the two can help leverage your marketing efforts.

Additionally, inbound marketing tends to be a lot less disruptive and invasive. Inbound marketing delves on strategies such as SEO and content creation, making it more cost-effective. It can also help raise brand recognition, as long as you continuously deliver engaging and valuable content. Lastly, it can also help you get more leads, higher traffic, and increased trust within the community.

Here are a few inbound marketing ideas that you can apply to your strategy:

  1. Do guest blog posting.
  2. Engage with your social media leads.
  3. Maximize your SEO efforts.
  4. Give out free yet high-quality content.
  5. Partner up with influencers.
  6. Hold webinars.

Create Native Ad Campaigns

To put it simply, native advertising is a type of paid content. It is the practice of using ads that are deemed perfect with the design of one’s platform. These are considered non-intrusive, making them less likely to hurt the user experience. Native ads are usually very clear and straight-to-the-point.

CMI and Outbrain state that only 26% of marketers make good use of native advertising. This might mean that other businesses, including yours, are missing out on an underrated marketing strategy that can help leverage actual conversions. Google does a good job explaining how to create and post native advertisements.

Acquire Traffic from Quora

Quora has about 300 million monthly users. It is a platform where people can ask questions that company owners, marketers, and basically anyone can answer. Long and detailed answers usually get more traction compared to shorter ones, as people on the channel are looking for useful information that they can use.

Here are ways you can use Quora to leverage your marketing strategy:

  1. Look for relevant questions that tend to appear on the first few pages of Google. These rank better on search engines, meaning that your answer will also be found by more people.
  2. Create a profile that people will find reliable and attractive. Fill out the needed information and be as accurate as possible. Add a personal bio, let the people know what your expertise is, add a professional-looking photo, and add your educational background. You can even link your social media accounts to let people know that there is a real person behind the account.
  3. Follow other users that talk about similar topics. This will help you build a connection with other people.
  4. Quora tends to ban people who answer in a “spammy” way, which is why you’d want to make sure that you will be providing accurate and valuable information to other users.
How to Get Traffic From Quora

Implement Interactive and Gaming Content

Gamification helps with improving customer engagement. According to Giga Information, customer activity is enhanced at about 68% when gaming content is applied. It stimulates people’s brains and gives them a reason to stay on websites and social media pages longer.

Gaming strategies include scoring systems, contests, giveaways, interactive games, leaderboards, and incentives. It helps increase conversions and improve brand loyalty. 

Other than that, gamification doesn’t have to be complicated. A lot of companies tend to turn their backs on this underrated marketing strategy, as they think it involves a lot of work. Fortunately, brands can gamify almost all stages of customer interaction without investing a lot of time or effort. 

For instance, quizzes can come in the form of a simple blog post, video, Instagram story, or even just a Twitter poll. Topics that would likely interest your audience include personality quizzes and industry-related questions and answers.

Here are other ideas that you can apply for gamification:

  1. Product quizzes
  2. Experience points (upgrades, level completions, and more)
  3. Competition among customers
  4. Puzzles
  5. Rewards system
  6. Progress bars

Gamification can help you connect and engage a lot better with your clients. You simply need to pick the right format and topic. 

Conclusion

Nothing should stop you from leveling up your marketing strategies. The strategies mentioned above might be deemed underrated, but they definitely can go a long way when done properly. And while these ideas might not be new, they seem to have been forgotten about by a lot of marketers.

Try implementing these to your marketing strategy and let us know which one works best for your brand!