73 Marketing Ideas To Boost Any Business

When Spider-Man sees a wall, he promptly climbs it
like a spider, reaching the top very quickly. When a
marketing team is faced with a wall, it hits it hard
and looks up in desperation. Sounds familiar?

Truth be told we have all been there. The old ideas
work but are not enough, the new ideas either don't
work or are impractical – or you're too scared to put
them to practice. What should you do when your
creative magic jar is empty and you need results?

Fear not, friend! When the metaphorical wall takes
the best of you, we are here to save you. These 73
marketing ideas are everything you need to get you
out of that tight spot. Carry them with you wherever
you go, and you shall never feel desperate and
scared again.

SPREAD YOUR TWITTER
HANDLES

The world would be a cute little place if marketing professionals
were reserved and did not push their brand and product around so
much. Except for the fact that it wouldn't be called marketing then.
Shamelessness is the key – print that Twitter handle on business
cards, stamp it on the corner of whole slide shows, have it
prominently featured on your website. Nowhere is safe from your
Twitter handle.

1

WEEKDAYS SELL

You better buy a new calendar, because
yours has the weekdays written wrong. Great
social media marketing means getting
involved with the community there. One of
the easiest and yet most important ways to
keep yourself in the game is to follow the
weekly traditions. #ThrowbackThursday,
#Humpday, #TGIF – they matter, treat them
accordingly.

2

VINES, THE 6-SECOND
MIRACLES

For a bunch of short videos that go viral
before you can say vine, this social media
network is under-appreciated. Take
advantage of this, and try having some fun.
The lack of competition will definitely make it
easier for you to shine.

3

PINS EVERYWHERE

Some people like to dismiss Pinterest
as a website for bored mums and
teenage girls who filled up the board on
their wall. Don't listen to them. Pinterest
is the perfect place to upload great
images, spread your brand and
communicate with creative customers.

4

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

Facebook now lets you snoop
into your competition using their
Pages To Watch service. It
tracks what they post and what
works best, so keep your eye on
it and learn from what works
best. Piece of cake!

5

FOLLOW PEOPLE, AND FOLLOW
YOUR FOLLOWERS BACK
It's very important to keep followers and gain them, and one of the
best and easiest ways to attract followers is to make the first move
and follow them. Everyone loves followers, and interacting with
your audience this way shows how approachable your brand is.

6

BE RESPONSIVE

Always reply to your customers'
enquiries as soon as you get them to
show your commitment.

7

DIRECTNESS

Twitter's direct message service can be
a blessing, but it can get you banned
too. If you see a customer or a potential
customer who is having a problem you
can solve, use the DM to reach out to
them in a private and engaged way.
Make sure to not look like spam, of
course. Your goal here is to help, not get
banned.

8

SHARE THE INNER
WORKINGS

Regardless of your business, your staff
and your sales can greatly benefit from
having a staff Instagram. Your employees
will be able to pitch in with their creativity,
and the customers will develop a more
personal connection with your brand and
the people there. Make them want to be
part of your brand's 'family', because you
and your team are just too awesome!

9

SNAPCHAT WORKS

While the snaps last little, the
results are here to stay. The latest
and greatest trend among big and
small brands alike is to have a
Snapchat. Everyone can dedicate
a few seconds of their time to
discover something awesome. Be
entertaining, and make sure to not
spam too much, and they will love
you.

10

REDDITTING
A great way to get honest opinions
and insights is to hit Reddit. Its
community is famous for loving a
good discussion and propelling quality
content to the front page.

11

FORUMS
They have been around for over a decade, yet show no sign of
going away. Forums are popular because they are straightforward.
You log in, you speak your mind and engage in lengthy discussions
with people around the world. This is a great way to not only
spread the word but to collect valuable insights too.

12

STAFF PICKS

You can really say a lot about
your company by sharing content
curated by the 'brains' of the
machine. Those can be 'song of
the week', 'track of the day' or
'book we're reading', anything
goes here. Use your creativity to
find a regular type of post that is
unique to your page.

13

SHARE HONEST LOVE

Your fans are people, and they love
to hear feedback. Dropping an
honest and heartfelt comment on
their content is a great way to
interact and show how much you
care. You'll be surprised by how well
it works and the connection it
creates.

14

THE SECRETS OF
URBAN MARKETING
Most people live surrounded by buildings, concrete and cars, lots of
cars. Turn that to your advantage.

RULE THE
STREETS

In a day and age where digital marketing is on
the rise, people's focus has drifted away from
good old street marketing. Seize the
opportunity and show you are really
determined to meet the customers. Print out a
few fliers and posters, head up to your local
café and the library, buy some chalk and
brand the pavement. This is especially
effective if you have a local business, but can
be used for other things too. Be creative!

15

BUY MURAL SPACE
An image is worth a thousand words,
and a 3 metres tall image is worth...
Millions? We don't know exactly, but it's
a lot. Get permission to decorate a wall
on a very visible building and watch the
results.

16

USE EVERYTHING AROUND YOU
Your surroundings are waiting to be used, and best of all they are
free. Use your imagination to stir the audience's mind.

17

ODD BUT EFFECTIVE
SPONSORSHIPS
Take a good look at the city around you and think where can you
stamp your brand on. Opportunity comes to those with vision, and
do it quick before someone else thinks of it.

18

DARE TO WEAR

With enough creativity, you can make
cool branded designs that your
customers will love to wear. You can
sell these on your page, or give them
away. Whatever you do, make sure it
looks so cool people will flaunt it in their
everyday life. Living, breathing and
stylish billboards.

19

CREATE PHOTOGRAPHY
CONTESTS

There are many things that make photo
contests great. Anyone can enter – these
days all it takes is an Instagram account –
and they give the organisers loads of free
user-created content that can be reused
as you wish.
Harpoon Brewery has mastered the art of
photo contests, and you can borrow their
Instagram marketing ideas here.

20

VIDEO CONTESTS
While video contests are less popular than photography ones, the
quality of the content should be better since you will only get users
who are committed to making a video to enter. At the end of the day,
you have many talented film makers creating content especially for
you! How great is that?

21

'SUBMIT YOUR VOTE' CONTESTS
Ease to use reigns here too, and they always get tons of entries.
Make them straightforward (i.e. 'click this button') and you're done.
A bonus for these is that you can use any information received
from these as a mini data study. You can then share these findings
as a blog post for your audience to be entertained.

22

CAPTION
BONANZA
The formula is old but effective: post a photo and ask users to
submit their best caption. The next step is to brace for
uncontrollable laughs.

23

SWEEPSTAKES

Older than fire and twice as
hot, sweepstakes are still alive
because they work. You can
always take them one step
ahead and ask for email
subscriptions in exchange of
entries, thus expanding your
mailing list.
24

IDEAS FOR
PROMOTING CONTESTS

GO TO DEALS AND OFFERS WEBSITES
Tastes vary, but everyone loves free and cheap stuff. Those who have
a passion for deals often live in offer sites and forums, and you are
guaranteed to find a sweepstake or contest forum where you can share
your contest.
The results are always impressive, with some contests getting upwards
of 90% of their traffic from these sites. One may argue that the quality of
these leads falls short, but if you are looking for quantity this is the place
for you. Slickdeals is a great starting point, particularly if you are
working with restaurants.

25

JOIN THE #HASHTAG
REVOLUTION

Add a one-of-a-kind hashtag to
your contest so you can keep track
of entries and make organising a
little easier.

26

OPTIMISE SHARING

Make it easy for people to share your
contests. If the contest is on your
website, add a 'Share' button to it. If
it's already on social medias, remind
and encourage people to spread the
word. Remember, more is more in
marketing so get the word going.

27

REWARD THOSE
WHO SHARE

Sharing out of good will is all fun and
games, but you need to encourage people
sometimes. Adding prizes or bonuses of
any kind will surely get people to spread
the word better, and thankfully there are
tools like Rafflecopter that make it easier to
organise this – like adding extra entries for,
say, joining your mailing list or sharing it on
Twitter.

28

EMAIL ALL YOUR SUBSCRIBERS
Because what's the point of having all these emails if you don't use
them to spread your news? These people love you enough to trust
you with their mailing address. They want to be messaged. Who
are you to argue? The customer is always right!

29

CROSS-PLATFORM CAMPAIGNS
Marketing is about being out there. Use every single social media
channel you have to spread the word about your contest. Leave no
page behind to get maximum outreach for the awesome giveaway
you're doing!

30

CONNECT WITH THE AUDIENCE
Every word you publish must be
geared towards the audience and
the audience only. You need to
know your customer, their problems,
their pain points and their interests.
Get them hooked, and they will do
whatever you tell them to.

31

VISUALS MATTER

A killer article cannot change the
human tendency to get bored of text
quickly. If you want your readers to
keep revisiting and checking your new
content, use images to split
paragraphs and beware of text walls.
These are very, very hard to climb. If
you need some visual guidance, this
link has some ideas you can borrow.

32

INFOGRAPHICS

Speaking of visual content, the infographic is a tried and tested
asset that goes down well with just about everyone. It is a sure-fire
way to get a lot of information across while remaining entertaining.

33

TEMPLATES ARE YOUR FRIENDS
These are easy and inexpensive ways to keep your client focused
and establish a regular format that is easily recognisable. This
visual framework lets users create a custom piece without having
to spend time on the basics. Here is an example of a custom
landing pace layout. It teaches the essentials without forcing the
user to commit hours to designing it.

34

GRAPHS, CHARTS
& PIES

All those years in school taught many people how to learn from all types of
graphs and other visual representations. They aren't as trendy or fancy as an
infographic, but they have their value nonetheless. A great advantage to
them is that graphs and charts all follow a basic format that does not take
that long to make and is easily recognisable. The simplicity can work on your
favour if you make the content worth it.

35

VIDEOS
That cat video you watched is going viral for a reason. Retention for video
content usually averages at 65% compared to 10% for text. 6 and a half
times, that's right. When you film something, this is the customer's
opportunity to see the products or services live and in colours, making
them much more confident in buying the product. For presentations, videos
can also save you time and resources because they can be replayed ad
eternum without you demonstrating all the 97 functions of your new Swiss
army knife every time you display it.

36

NUMBERS, NUMBERS, STATISTICS
9 out of 10 customers like to drink milk. See how easy it is? While this
number is not based on actual research, an easy way for you to keep
customers entertained is to show them a mash-up of interesting
numbers and metrics about things that both them and your business
relate to. Statistics are simple to understand and fun to share too. Plus,
a by-product of statistics is that you can use them yourself to market
better or to improve your product.

37

PREDICTIONS
Fortune tellers – real and bogus ones alike – have made fortunes
off their predictions, and you can join this bandwagon too. Nothing
stirs the pot more than predicting the future trends in your industry.
Whether people agree or disagree, they will share and they will
chip in with their own ideas. They get to have their say, while you
get your links to go around.

38

CONTROVERSY, DRAMA, INTRIGUE
Tabloid media runs strictly on controversial bombastic headlines.
Follow their example, and try your hand at bringing in some
attention by using controversy in marketing. This is a path for the
cautious ones though – go too far and you may lose a lot of
credibility. A safer way to start is to reply to larger industry
controversy instead, with your own spin on it. As they say, pick
your battles.

39

USE OTHER SOURCES
TO DIVERSIFY
YOUR CONTENT

'Borrowing' content from elsewhere is
surely easier than sending your own
employee to Alaska to take quality photos of
that thing your customers are dying to see.
Share, do not steal, and use common sense
when doing it. If you are looking for ideas,
see our guide to the best SEO Reddit
AMAs. A golden rule here is to ALWAYS
credit the original creators, and anyone else
you find deserving.
40

INTERVIEW TIME

Another great way to get quality content, albeit a
hard one sometimes, is to interview an industry
trendsetter or expert and make a blog post about it
– like we did on the future of PageRank. All the
professionals and enthusiasts will flock towards
your blog to hear what's hot and what's not, and
the more interviews you get the wider the variety of
opinions and concepts you have. People love
variety. Plus, if you are lucky the interviewee might
share the interview with their own followers, giving
you extra marketing points.

41

TOP 10

Everyone from your neighbour to
MTV likes top 10 lists, period.

42

LISTS, AND LISTS
OF LISTS

Case in point:
you are reading a list right
now. See how popular and
effective they are? Share it
while you're at it, by the way!

43

PRODUCT COMPARISON GUIDES
Decision-making can be very hard, and people are always resorting to the internet to find
out if their money will be well-spent. Help your readers out and point them in the right
direction by putting your products in a comparable chart format outlining their features,
prices and other things that ensure they make a confident choice.

Alternatively, you can also compare your own product to the competitor's if you are
confident enough (be objective here, and if the comparison is unfavourable it's better to
stay out of it). Writing comparisons of related products can be good too – an example
would be a game developer discussing which console or processor is better overall and
in relation to their product.

44

SLIDESHARE
Slideshows are not just for teachers and small business
presentations anymore. Jonathan Colman has some great tips on
how to get good views on Slideshare. Remember, a familiar format
makes selling and sharing easier. Always mind the customer's
needs.

45

WEBINARS
A free webinar by yourself or with your
partners (for twice the expertise and
customer base) is a great knowledge
giveaway. Use it wisely, and watch the
results.

46

GOOGLE RELATED
SEARCH
At the top and bottom of the SERP, you
will find a goldmine. The related
searches are great starting points for
ideas, and may provide you with the
inspiration you need for new content.

47

OPT-INS IN POP-UPS
Nobody really likes a pop-up or an opt-in for that matter, but the truth
is they work! Perform A/B testing and see what works best and how
they affect your newsletter subscriptions. In businesses where
subscribers are worth their weight in gold, do what you must, but get
them to sign up.

48

IF THE TEAM IS
WINNING, DON'T
CHANGE IT

If you are ever in doubt about what to
write, follow this recipe: go to your
analytics of choice, and find out what
is your top rated content. Note the
subjects, the approach, the format and
so on. Next, make new content that is
a spin off the original. It can be a
variation, an extension or else, if the
formula worked before it is granted to
work again.

49

EBOOKS
Writing a comprehensive ebook on a pain point that most of your audience
can relate to is a way to strike gold and demonstrate your expertise with
facts. Anyone can say they are the best in this or that, but this is your
change to show that. If you don't know where to start or don't have the
time to spit out a whole ebook, re-purpose existing content and create a
landing page around it. This is an easy way to create an enormous ebook
collection that is very accessible to the visitors.

50

101 GUIDES
Everyone was a beginner once, and
beginners need help – lots of it. 101
guides are always current and useful.

51

CONTENT NEEDS PROMOTION

There is no way around it: no matter how good
your content is, it won't sell itself unless you push
it out there. Use your email subscribers and
social medias to get great exposure for the
content you put precious time and research to
create. Don't let it sit dusting on your page.

52

POST INDUSTRY
HOT TOPICS
People are interested in hearing
about the news and trends in
your field. Demonstrating just
how current and well-informed
you are is a great way to attract
customers.

53

GUEST
POSTING

Many experts question the value of guest posting, but when done
right it can strike gold. A key to getting the best out of it is to focus
on exposing your brand rather than worrying about the links and
SEO so much.

54

WHITEPAPERS

Like guides and ebooks, whitepapers
show just how cool and well-informed
you are in your field. That being said,
while they are kind of the same thing
this change in format can be
refreshing, and gives you an
opportunity to test them in the field to
see what do your readers prefer.

55

METAPHORICALLY
SHOW SOME SKIN
Your brand is ran by humans. While you don't
forget that, customers and readers may if you
come across as robotic, lacking personality or too
'spammy'. Sometimes you must loosen up a little
and have some fun.

56

VIRTUAL MAGAZINES

A rather epic and thorough form of marketing is to have your very own
magazine. Take Dark Rye for example, a stylish online mag by Whole
Foods. Paper.li is a great way to start for its ease of use. Give it a go!

57

PODCASTS
The real value of the podcast is that your audience can download it
then listen to it on the go, be it on the way home from work or while
cooking dinner. Interviews and hot industry topics are great
concepts to introduce.

58

EVENT COVERAGE
You don't have to go TMZ, but if you attend a conference, festival
or even an online gathering, take this chance to write a post about
what you saw, what impressed you and so on. If the event has a
hashtag, use it. Those who you mention will surely take interest in
your piece.

59

COLLABORATE

Two heads think better than one, and two brands work the same
way. The outreach possibilities double, and the ways you can use
this are endless. Reach out!

60

MEMES
They are fun, and easily recognisable.
Most of all, they are easy to make and
people love sharing a funny post on their
social media page. Be sure to stay up to
date with the latest memes, otherwise you
may look tacky.

61

You know when amusement parks sell you photos of you looking scared for
your life in a haunted house or roller coaster? That. Nightmares Fear Factory
did a great job by uploading photos of their customers in the thick of the
action on their Flickr page. This proved to
the world that they really are as scary as they claim
to be. The concept applies elsewhere – hairdressers
posting photos of their customers, and so on.
Think of ways to apply it to your business,
there is bound to be one.

62 SOCIAL PROOF

DON'T EXHAUST THE
CUSTOMERS
With everyone trying to get the audience's
attention, it is your duty to control your output.
Nobody likes spam, and there is a fine line
between sharing excellent content and shoving
it down people's throats more than they want.

63

CONTENT
AUDITS
Evaluate your content every now and
then to see what reaction is it causing,
what is booming and what is falling on
deaf ears. Of course you are afraid of
finding out that your most precious post
is a disaster or just underperforming,
but it must be done. Don't be scared –
this will help you use your time and
opportunities better.

64

BRAND
TOOLS
Solve people's problems while spreading
your brand. There are many ways to do
this, like using parts of the tool to push
your products, but the main thing is to
have your brand somewhere and above all
deliver a high-end tool that people can
use. This paints you as a friendly brand
that cares about the reader's well-being
too.

65

GO MOBILE
EARLY

There is no running away from it, 79% of
internet users are making their purchases
from their mobile devices. Not being mobile
friendly is marketing suicide these days. If
you don't have one, go create a mobile
version of your page ASAP. And no, this is
not a good-to-have. It's a must, and you are
missing out on most of the world by
excluding it.
66

MAKE IT A GAME

Whose Line is it Anyway presents you with meaningless points, but the fun
is still there, isn't it? People love getting points even if they don't go any
beyond a number. Look at the effort people make to keep their Tripadvisor
pages up-to-date so they can compare the number of places they visited to
their friends. Belly and Foursquare also take it to the next level, together
with Starbucks. Think about giving your customers some points. It's free,
and they will come.

67

GET YOUR FRIENDS
AND THEIR CONTENT
ONBOARD
Sharing good content and pieces by others in the industry shows you
care about spreading the good material over selfishly pushing out
your own stuff viciously. Find the right balance, and your readers will
think of you as a good sport and a friendly brand.

68

COMICS
Newspapers used to provide amazing funnies, but with people
buying less newspapers few have bothered to fill this ever-
increasing gap. Content related to the crazy aspects of the industry
is readable. Pixton and Strip Generator are great places to start.

69

LEARN FROM THE MASTERS
This is basic, but people often forget about it. Take your time to watch
who is creating great content and getting a good response for it, and
learn from their experiences. Likewise, see what doesn't work and
steer away from it. Think about your audience's needs and interests
and apply the lessons you've picked up from other brands'
experiences to your own content. Buzzfeed and Upworthy have crazy
numbers because of how shareable their clickbait articles are.

70

TITLES MATTER
Since we've touched Upworthy, take a look at how irresistible their
titles are. Headlines are the make or break of any content, including
newspaper headlines. No matter how good your content is, nobody will
check it if you don't make the headline interesting enough. Sad? Yes.
But the fix is easy: pay good attention to the titles, and make sure it
answers the 5W1H – what, why, when, who, where and how.

71

NETWORK
WITH POWER
INFLUENCERS

Create a list of the 25 most influential people in
your industry.  These people could include high
quality prospective clients or maybe influential
introducers; introducers are people who can
recommend you to lots of buyers.  Then, put a plan
together that will allow you to EARN their
attention.  This targeted approach takes time, but
the rewards are enormous.  If you do this correctly
you could now pick up the phone and talk to the
most influential people in your industry!  It’s a
game-changer.

73

You now have 73 effective ways to market your business, the next
hardest thing is figuring out which one will have the biggest impact. At
SpargoConnect we help business and start-ups answer this very
question every day.
If you are serious about growth and want to partner up with a digital
marketing team that has a proven track record and the certifications to
match, contact us today! visit spargoconnect.com to learn more about
our process.
Email: Aloha@SpargoConnect.com
Phone: 808-797-2695
"Success breeds success let's make it contagious"
Fernando Gomez
CEO of SpargoConnect

73 Marketing Ideas To Boost Any Business

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