Unconventional and cost-effective marketing tactics for business

[00:02] Welcome to the New School of Marketing podcast, the place for smart, simple strategies that will amplify your business results, sharing practical tips, insider knowledge and actionable advice. Because marketing is something that every business owner can do. Now, let’s get started. Introducing your host, Bianca McKenzie, mum, lover of snow, sports, camping, horse riding and in demand launch strategist and Facebook advertising knowledge bank.

[00:32] Bianca: Hey, welcome or welcome back to the New School of Marketing podcast. I’m so grateful to you for tuning in. So before we dive in, I would love to pay respect and acknowledgement to the palawa people of Lutruwita, who are the traditional owners of the land on which my business operates, and I pay my respects to their eldest, past, present and emerging. 

Yeah, thank you for tuning in. I hope you’re having a great start of the week. How is it September already? Time flies when you’re having fun, or in my case, when you’re running a business and looking after kids. 

I want to talk about unconventional, or maybe not so unconventional, but maybe more forgotten and cost effective marketing tactics for business. So we’re all familiar, really familiar, with social media, marketing and websites, but that’s not where marketing starts or ends. There are so many ways to market your business, and I’m definitely not advocating to use all of them. But I do want to talk about less used options, or less almost forgotten options that can be just as impactful and effective, but so many people overlook them because they go for the shiny things like social media. 

So let’s look at some of the overlooked, forgotten or potentially unconventional marketing tactics for your business. So the first one is utilizing your Instagram bio or your Facebook About section, your signature, or what I call other small spaces. We get given quite a few marketing tactics these days. There’s social media, there’s websites, podcasts, blogs, email marketing and so on. But often we seem very focused on the bigger stuff and we basically forget about the little things. So think about your email signature. Are you using that small space as a marketing opportunity? For example, you could add a link to your free lead magnet in your bio sorry, in your signature, or you can add a link to your podcast or your blog. Or you can even ask people to book in for a quick call if you really wanted to. Does it just have your name and your greeting? Or are you actually using that small space to also get people to do something? People who have emailed you somewhat know you already. So having a next step option available in your signature when you reply to them is really just a smart, cost effective way to market your business. And the same goes for your Instagram bio or your Facebook About page section. Are you actually using this space to showcase your business? Give people essential details, plus tell them the next step. I’ve seen so many bios where the space is not fully utilized and honestly just wasted. It’s a great opportunity to tell people what you do, who it’s for and how to take the next step. And if you’re not sure what to put in your bio because I know it’s not always easy to come up with something yourself, then go scroll around and look at some other business BIOS to see if you get some inspiration. Because utilizing the small marketing spaces we get given is something that many people overlook. So go on a bit of a hunt and see where you can get creative and use the space. 

The second one I want to talk about is user generated content. So user generated content or UGC is reasonably self explanatory. It’s content generated by the user or in other words, by your buyers. And it’s used quite a bit in the ecommerce space because it lends itself really well to that. But it could also work for other industries, even if it is not that visual. User generated content can be images, videos, reviews, testimonials or even a podcast or a blog. It doesn’t necessarily have to be something that you can put on Instagram. So using content generated by your user, your buyer or sometimes even your employees really helps with engagement, it helps with relatability and it helps with conversions. And using content generated by your users shows a level of authenticity and it helps buyers trust your brand more. And I get that you can fake it, you can just ask someone but I wouldn’t do that. People are really smart and they will find out. If you want to use user generated content but don’t have any from your customers, then you can get an employee to create some and just be transparent about it. User generated content is more cost effective than hiring an influencer. Besides, it also creates a much higher level of trust because ultimately people buy from brands they trust and it’s kind of like modern day word of mouth. So start asking your customers to create content for you. Maybe give them an incentive to do it. 

Another one that I want to talk about is co creating webinars or workshops. So partnering with other business owners to create webinars or workshops means that you can actually leverage each other’s audiences and sometimes two are just better than one. And in this case it can help you build authority and get in front of more people. Cocreating things brings strength together both of your strengths and it means that you’re working with someone who is in the same industry in the same space, but doesn’t directly compete with you. So for example, for my business I could co create something working with a social media manager. It means that we bring our strengths together. I bring my Facebook advertising strengths, the other person brings their social media strengths. We can create a webinar or workshop together and we have a similar audience so I can get in front of the other person’s audience and the other person can get in front of my audience. And I don’t know why not more people do this because it seems like much easier way in a way. Plus, again, when you run a workshop or a webinar, you are interacting with people. You are building that connection and people buy from people they trust. So, yeah, start bringing your skills and your groups and your people together by partnering with someone. Okay? 

So that is three overlooked, unconventional, sometimes but very cost effective marketing tactics for business. 

Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. I hope it was helpful and I can’t wait to share more marketing tips with you next week. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level with Facebook and Instagram advertising, make sure you visit newschoolofmarketing.com to download practical free resources, plus subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you. Until next time, take care and market your business every day.