Every business owner grapples with how to best promote a business and get more customers. The struggle is real.
As our world continues to become flooded with entertainment options and social media distractions, getting your message across can feel like trying to give a PowerPoint presentation in the midst of rush hour at Penn Station. According to Marketing Insider Group, our attention span has been shrinking while our digital world expands. In fact, the average attention span is just 8 seconds. That leaves businesses with little room for error.
While the outlook seems mighty grim, there remains opportunities for businesses and marketers to break through the noise. All it requires is for organizations to venture out of their comfort zones and embrace creativity.
Promote your business: Don’t shy from creativity
Few would argue that the ability to think of and execute creative ideas is key to finding success in business. An Adobe study states that 85% of U.S. respondents agreed that “Creativity is key to economic growth.” But, despite that majority consensus, the Adobe study also reveals that 80% of U.S. respondents are faced with more pressure to be productive rather than creative at work.
It’s clear there is still tremendous value to be mined from thinking outside the box. There is measurable value actually, especially when it comes to using video. A survey from Wyzowl shows that 76% of businesses surveyed said that using a medium like a video helped increase traffic to their website and 83% of businesses stated that video gives them a good return-on-investment.
Clearly, creativity can be a useful tool for businesses. Though what’s less obvious is how you can funnel that creative energy into a cohesive promotional strategy—one that will actually resonate with your target audience. Fortunately, there are a handful of approaches you can take to convert your ideas and brainstorms into initiatives that will capture the attention of the distracted masses.
Promote Your Business: Showcase Your Authenticity
Many owners are intimidated by creativity to promote a business. Meaning that it requires tapping into all matter of wild ideas and radical ways of doing things.
Here’s an example of a company that invested in creativity:
Take apparel company Patagonia. They got a lot of attention for an eye-grabbing advertisement which said “Don’t Buy This Jacket.” The marketing effort encouraged the public to consider a previously worn jacket as a way to lessen their impact on the environment. Use their example for out of the box thinking marketing.
Promote your Business: Take a risk with comedy
Using humor to promote a business is a hot topic for any owner. While comedy can help your marketing effort stand out from the crowd, it can also be difficult to execute. Also, humor is subjective and not everyone will understand your jokes. Businesses can be averse to spending the energy and resources on content that is comedic in nature because there is always the chance it won’t hit the mark.
This shyness can be especially true for B2B companies, which are often buttoned up in their marketing efforts. Going against that trend,the company Phonexa used humor to promote their business with a funny YouTube video.
In conclusion, if your business comes up with a clever concept, it might simply be a matter of finding the right people that can usher the idea from write board scribbling to a fully-realized video ad.
Promote your business: YouTube videos
For those who aren’t comfortable with the comedic route, but feel they are lacking in the creative department you may want to try making informational YouTube videos. Also, it’s easier than you think to use video marketing with YouTube in order to promote your business or services.
It’s within your best interest to use YouTube to market your business. Why? For starters, it’s the third most used search engine in the world. More people view YouTube content than anyone network on television. According to a 2019 statistic from Merchdope almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every single day. That’s a potential market you don’t want to miss out on.
If you need a few creative ideas to promote your business, try these video topics:
- Create a Contest: This can be anything from asking people to send their funniest videos, related to your business of course, to a contest for the best new name for a new service.
- “Behind the Scenes” view of Your Business: People like to see what really goes on behind a brand’s day at the office – probably because it brings us a little closer to them, or makes them seem more like regular people.
- Create a Series of How-to’s or Tutorials: This kind of video content works great for businesses that may have inside information the public cannot easily get but would be useful – such as “how to make a killer impression in an interview.”
Inform and Entertain
One of the best ways to promote your business and stand out is by offering value in a creative way. Consider some unorthodox ways to share your knowledge with the world.
For example, Peanut Blossom broke through in a big way by posting one simple “How to Make Ornaments” video that caught on and garnered over 1.6 million views. Just by sharing a fun and easy Christmas art project with people they were able to elevate their brand to new heights.
Paint the World
Thinking outside the box can sometimes mean going beyond what you’re familiar with — like your computer. There’s a whole wild world out there if you can look at the small mobile rectangle in your pocket (or in your hand right now).
Some businesses have managed to make a splash by using their everyday environment in creative ways. A zoo in Copenhagen went wild with its campaign that put reptiles and other animals across local public transportation. The sight of a giant snake twisting a city bus or a pair of lions stalking a tram car was certainly arresting enough to raise awareness—and reportedly did so with a pretty modest budget.
Just painting your building a vibrant color or mural can put your brand at the forefront. Why you ask? Well, if your building art stands out, you can let social media users do the promotion for you. Businesses are finding that real-world splashes of art can increase engagement when trying to promote a business. The reality is that when small businesses give the freedom for creativity to be unleashed, they can end up with promotional efforts that cost little but deliver big dividends.
Getting Started
What are some of the best ways to plant these creative seeds? Start by encouraging employees to brainstorm. It’s also useful to be supportive of failure or seemingly “bad” ideas. I mean, you never know where that brilliant campaign concept could come from. So, it’s vital that employees know they have the freedom to propose anything. Finally, businesses that create diverse teams will open up more channels of thought, increasing their odds for a creative breakthrough.
For most small businesses, simply making the commitment to be more creative in their marketing efforts is all it takes to “turn on the faucet.” Once the ideas start flowing, you never know what could come out.