64 Creative Marketing Ideas to Boost Your Business

We’ve all hit it – that wall that seems to sap away all your magical creative marketing juices. Suddenly you feel like Peter Pan without his pixie dust. But don’t worry! All you need is a bit of help to kick your marketing strategy back on track.

And guess what? We’re dishin’ out 64 creative marketing and advertising ideas plus inspirational tips to help you bust through that brick wall, generate more leads and increase online sales. Let’s get started.

Table of contents

• Social media marketing ideas
• Urban marketing ideas
• Contest marketing ideas
• Marketing ideas for contest promotion
• Content marketing ideas

Social Media Marketing Ideas

Push your handles

If you’re really looking to bump up those Twitter followers, you can’t be afraid to be a bit shameless. Speaking at a conference? Put your Twitter handle on the slideshow (heck, keep it in the corner the entire presentation). Ordering new business cards? Better include that adorable handle!

Very cool Twitter-themed business card from Luis Felipe Silva

Join in on daily hashtag themes like #ThrowbackThursday

If you want to build your social media following, you need to be an active participant in the community. This means posting regularly and also joining in on fun weekly social media traditions that already have a loyal audience. Show the kids how hip you can be! Get 100+ creative hashtags for every day of the week here.

Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are little 24-hour scrapbooks for your account where you can add pictures, video, text, stickers, and other special effects throughout the day. These are a popular Instagram media type where you can be spontaneous and creative without worrying about perfection. The idea is to be transparent and unpolished!

Pin your own images (and others)

Don’t underestimate the value of this image-sharing site. Post your strongest visual assets (templates, infographics, etc) on Pinterest and link them to your webpages for some serious traffic.

Keep social tabs on competitors

Facebook business pages allow you to follow other accounts via the Pages to Watch feature. Follow your competitors and see what they post, and which of their posts get the most shares and likes. See what works and follow their lead.

From Inside Facebook

Urban Marketing Ideas

Living in a concrete jungle allows for some pretty creative concepts.

Step out on the streets

In an online age, there’s something to be said for going au naturel and exercising a little IRL marketing. Go old school with flyers and poster in local cafes, do some sidewalk chalk writing. This strategy is most effective for locally oriented businesses, but it can work for anyone.

Street chalk Twitter handle by Marquette ITS

Commission a mural

Try getting permission to decorate the side of a prominent building with a large mural. Murals can make for great marketing campaigns.

Great Di Bruno Bros mural found on Yelp

Use your surroundings

Get a little imaginative and think about how you can use your urban surroundings for potential marketing magic.

Very creative urban marketing efforts by Vijar Barbecues, found on Owni

Unusual sponsorships

Urban living results in some unique marketing opportunities you won’t find elsewhere. They secret is, you need to think creatively to capitalize on these opportunities.

Citi Bank sponsoring Citi Bike

Contest Marketing Ideas

Photo Contests

Photo contests are great for a number for reasons – they’re relatively easy to enter (anyone with Instagram and a few spare seconds can submit), and they also provide sponsors with a great form of user-generated content that can be reused and implemented elsewhere.

Check out Harpoon Brewery – they’ve mastered the art of photo contests. (And click here for more Instagram marketing ideas.)

Video contests

Not as many people will enter video contests, but you’re more likely to get a higher caliber of content since creating a video requires more effort on the user’s part. This kind of content can be extremely valuable for businesses down the line, especially when you have talented filmers creating video content just for you!

Submit your vote contests

Voting contests get a ton of entries because they’re so easy to participate in (just click a button, in most cases). What’s cool about voting contests is that you can use the data obtained from the votes to create a mini data study. Share what you learned in a blog post!

Caption Contests

Post a photo and ask users to submit their best caption – this kind of contest can get some pretty great laughs.

Sweepstakes

The most traditional of contests, sweepstakes/giveaways are a tried and true classic. They are quick and simple to enter – plus it’s easy to ask for email subscriptions as part of the submission form.

Marketing Ideas for Contest Promotion

Post to deal sites

People love free stuff, some more than others. The people who really love a good deal tend to frequent deal sites and forums. There’s almost always a sweepstake/contest forum section where you can add your contest into the mix.

I’ve seen contests in which 90% of traffic is driven from these types of sites – alright, they aren’t always the most qualified leads, but if you want quantity over quality, this is a sound strategy. Start of submitting to Slickdeals and go from there. This can be a great form of restaurant marketing.

Hashtag-ify your contest

Adding a relevant (and unique) hashtag to your contest helps you keep track of entries and makes them easy to scan through and organize. Besides, they’re just plain fun.

Make contests super sharable

This means adding “share this contest” buttons if you have an entry form on a website, or simply encouraging social sharing in general. The more people who know about your contest, the merrier (for you anyway)!

Offer bonus points for sharing

If you offer users bonus points for sharing news of your contest via social media, they’ll be much more likely to concede. Tools like Rafflecopter make it easy to offer users extra entries for different actions (e.g. Joining the mailing list = +5 entries. Sharing contest on Twitter = +2 entries).

(image from Website Spot)

Notify email subscribers of contest

Remember, you already know that your email subscribers like you and are interested in what you have to offer. If you’re running a contest for a free year of your software, you know your subscribers are going to want in!

Promote your contest on (all) social media

If you’re running a photo contest via Instagram, make sure you still promote the contest on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. You want all your followers, across all social media networks to know about your great giveaway! And promoting your contest means promoting your business.

Share buttons from WordPress plug-in

Content Marketing Ideas

Regardless of your small business idea, you’re going to need content marketing to spread the word. Try out some of these.

Write for your audience

The best pieces of content are the ones directed at your key audiences. Understand your customer: know their pain points, what gets them psyched, and what keeps them up at night. Killer content addresses your audience’s needs and concerns!

Add a visual element to ALL your content pieces

People get bored with text really fast! To keep visitors reading, it’s essential to have images breaking up your text paragraphs. Don’t overlook the importance of a visual element, even in blog posts that are predominantly text-based. You can see some examples of highly visual business blogs here.

Infographics

We know readers love visual content, and infographics are a prime example of beloved, linkable visual assets.

While the idea of creating a top-notch infographic may sound daunting, it doesn’t have to be hard. You don’t need fancy software – in fact, you can make a decent infographic just using Powerpoint. There are plenty of infographic guides templates out there to get you started. Speaking of…

Useful templates

Templates are another powerful form of visual assets that visitors find extremely helpful. Templates serve as a visual framework that can help users create custom pieces without completely starting from scratch. Take this landing page template as an example – it explains the basic layout and fundamentals, letting users get a grasp on great landing page essentials before making their own.

Graphs & charts

The infographic’s less cool cousins, one-piece graphs and charts still have their place as formidable pieces of visual content. They may not be as impressive as infographics, but they require considerably less time and effort to create and are still shareable, so don’t be afraid to use them generously. For visual learners, a graph will be much easier to interpret than a chunk of text and numbers. Make sure you appeal to all kinds of learners!

That’s why you find so many dragons at the animal shelter (image from Reddit)

Videos

Video is an incredible marketing strategy when it comes to promoting a new product or service, or drawing in and retaining the attention of users. The retention rate for visual information can reach 65% vs. 10% for text-based info. Plus, customers who view product videos are much more likely to convert than those that don’t. Video content is a powerful tool, whether you’re trying to demonstrate how your product works IRL or educating visitors.

Statistic lists

Are you hitting a content idea wall? For an easy content marketing fix, collect interesting statistics on a subject matter related to your biz and create a blog post about what you’ve learned. Massive stat lists are easy to make and extremely sharable. Plus, some of the wilder stats may get your gears turning about other content ideas, such as…

Future predictions

Play the soothsayer by predicting future trends in your industry – just make sure you have at least some data to back up your hypothesis.

Controversy

Controversial content always earns attention, but it’s not for the faint of heart – playing with fire can get you burned! Rather than stirring up controversy yourself, the safer road may be to answer or respond to larger industry controversy with your own interpretation.

Rumors travel fast

Aggregate awesomeness from other sources

Another easy way to create killer content is to curate quality content from elsewhere. No, it’s not stealing … at least, not if done properly.

It’s completely kosher to borrow content from other sources if you’re doing something new with it. For example, take our guide to the best SEO Reddit AMAs. The content we quoted from was originally posted on various Reddit forum threads. We took what we deemed the “best” portions of the Q&As from different threads and put it all together to make a super SEO advice guide. This new post is much easier for users interested in SEO to read, rather than scouring through various Reddit threads. NOTE: Play it safe by always giving credit where it’s due.

Ask the experts

Another great content marketing idea is to interview industry thought leaders with set questions and share their responses in a blog post; for example, our interview with industry experts on the future of PageRank. This kind of content tends to do well, and it’s always interesting to see where industry gurus agree and where they don’t. One great thing about sharing expert opinions – chances are, the folks you write about will share your write-up with their own followers! (Pro tip – ask the opinions of groups with large Twitter followers!)

A very impressive panel of experts

Top 10s

People go nuts over top 10 lists – top 10 tools, top 10 blogs, you name it.

Lists

Piggy-backing on top 10s are lists in general. Starting your title with a number can make it stand out more in search listings (e.g. 3 Ways to Slice a Pineapple). Why do people love lists? Because they are super scannable and quick to read. This is probably why over a third of Buzzfeed’s posts have a number in the title. Great content strategies involve a mix of quick, snackable content pieces and more in-depth, long-form articles. Variety is the spice of life, yo.

Product comparison guide

Decisions, decisions – oh, the pitfalls of capitalism. It’s tough being a consumer with so many products to choose from. Help out users with a marketing comparison guide, especially if you have a series of product offerings for different needs. If you’re comparing your product with competitors, be objective and fair; maybe you’re a better fit for small businesses, while a competitor is better for larger corporations.

Alternatively, write up a comparison guide for a product you don’t offer, but which relates to your audience’s business. For example, a video game reseller could write a product comparison guide for different video game controllers. This is helpful content that gets relevant users familiar with your brand; and a strong brand makes for strong advertising.

Content is an open door

Don’t just create awesome content and abandon it – feature your best stuff in other related blog posts as well. You can link to or call out other pieces of content mid-post, or list some related articles at the end of your post. Something along the lines of “Want to learn more about ________? Check out our _________ guide and our __________ infographic.”

Content, love = apples, oranges. (Image from Disney’s Frozen)

Slideshare

The slideshow is back and better than ever! Repurpose PowerPoint presentations for audience-friendly slideshares. Check out these tips from Jonathan Colman on getting more views on Slideshare.

Webinars

Host your own free webinar or partner with another business for twice the expertise (and twice the promotion power). Webinars are a great source of business leads.

Google related search

Checking out the Google related searches (found at the top and bottom of the SERP when you perform a search) for a keyword query is a great tool for generating content ideas. Just Google a term and see what related searches turn up. You may be surprised!

Pop-up opt-in

There’s a lot of debate around newsletter opt-in pop-ups. They’re annoying, they’re intrusive, but quite often, they also work! A/B test one and see how it affects your newsletter subscriptions. If newsletter subscribers have proved to be valuable leads for your business, do what you must to obtain them.

Continue your lucky streak

Not sure what to write about? Go into your analytics account and take a peek at your most popular posts to see what subjects users get excited about, then write a variation or extension of one of your most popular posts.

eBooks

Another great marketing idea is to write a comprehensive ebook on a known pain point or popular industry topic, then create a quality landing page around the offer. Better yet, don’t start from scratch; repurpose past blog posts and articles into a mega e-book collection.

101 guides

There’s always someone just starting out in the biz; beginner’s guides and Industry Knowledge 101 content pieces will always get linked to and shared around by newbs.

Even great content needs promotion

Don’t just publish your content and expect it to promote itself; share it with a promotional email or through your social media channels.

Post about industry hot topics

What’s the buzz in your field? Post about topical news and trending topics related to your industry to get in on the burst of action and show that you’re in the know.

Guest posts

While the SEO value of guest posts has been called into question, there’s nothing wrong with guest posting if done right. Just focus on the value of getting your brand in front of a new audience, rather than the links.

(Image from Flickr user matsuyuki)

White papers

Guides, ebooks, white papers – they’re kind of all the same thing, but labeling your assets differently can help your message resonate with different audiences. Test your labels to see which works best with your prospects.

Quality content

This should go without saying, but only produce quality content that you can be proud of! Google hates thin content, and users don’t like it either.

Show some skin

I mean metaphorical skin of course – show that you are not a robot. Don’t be afraid to have some fun and show off your company’s personality. Express yourself; and if that means literally showing some skin, well then, more power to you. You’re human after all.

Online magazine

Producing your own virtual magazine is another epic form of content marketing. For a great example, check out Dark Rye, a stylish online magazine produced by Whole Foods. For a quick and easy fix, make your own online newspaper with Paper.li.

Podcasts

Podcasts are great because users can download them and then listen on the go! Possible podcast concepts include discussing hot industry news or interviewing experts, in your space.

Cover events

If you attend a conference (or even an online event), consider writing a post about what info you gathered from the event, what you found valuable, etc. Chances are others will find it valuable too! Use the hashtag from the event in your promotional efforts.

Collaboration

Collaboration can extend your reach and build your reputation. Consider all the different partnerships you could build – partner with a charity? A related business? You can co-author a blog post or guide, co-host a webinar, etc.

Memes

Memes are fun and familiar for internet-goers. Get a little cheeky with some fun memes – it’s easy to make your own with sites like meme generator.

#SummertimeSadness

Social proof

Sometimes great content marketing ideas also serve as fantastic forms of social proof. Take this inventive content project by a haunted house called Nightmares Fear Factory. They take photos of victims…er, I mean guests, and post them to their Flickr feed. The photos are absolutely hysterical and prove that Nightmares Fear Factory is as scary as they claim to be! (Thanks for the heads up from Shopify).

Divvy up your content

Don’t go content-overboard or you’ll end up overwhelming users. We live in a competitive attention economy, and if you’re creating new stuff every single day, people may tire of you, even if everything you share is excellent. Them’s the breaks, kid. Figure out what pace works for your audience.

Conduct a content audit

Is your existing content up to snuff? What is driving conversions? What isn’t – and why? Asking these questions might make you sweat, but you’ll be better off knowing the truth. Finding the answers to these questions will ensure that your marketing strategy moves forward in the right direction. Learn how to do a content audit here.

Branded tools

These are a great way to market your business Create awesome, valuable tools that your audience will find useful. You can use parts of the tool to push towards your product offering, but make sure the tool itself is high-caliber – don’t just make it a glorified sales pitch. Providing free tools will make users think fondly of you and extend your brand as more people share your awesome free tool!

Mobile!

With 79% of internet users conducting online shopping via  mobile devices, you should be embarrassed if you’re not mobile-friendly. This is not optional, although many still treat it like it is.

Gamification

Gamification is a great marketing idea to get users excited about engaging with you. As on Whose Line is it Anyway, the points are meaningless, but you’d be surprised how much people really enjoy getting points. We all love instant affirmation – it’s like virtual crack!

Apps like Belly and Foursquare combine gamification with customer loyalty programs. Starbucks also has its own tame version of gamified loyalty programs in which you earn stars for Starbucks purchases. Consider if gamification could work for your biz.

Get by with some content help from your friends

There are a ton of great tools out there to help you find quality content (Storify & Buffer to name a few). Remember, you don’t want to just share your own content – sharing great pieces by others in your industry shows that you’re a team player and valuable source of unbiased knowledge.

Comics

While newspaper funnies are a dying breed, online comics are alive and thriving! Consider making your own internet comics that relate to the absurd and surreal aspects of your industry. Try free tools like Pixton or Strip Generator to get started.

Copy the masters

Watch to see who is creating great content, and follow their lead. Take a close look at clickbait sites like Upworthy and Buzzfeed that get a ton of shares; while their audience and content subjects will be different from yours, they serve as an excellent study in how to improve your marketing strategy. What are they doing right? Can you implement something similar?

Take your time with titles

While we’re on the subject, Upworthy is famous for their killer, clickable headlines. Even a superb blog post won’t get the attention it deserves without a good title. Should it be clever? Eye-catching? SEO-friendly? Think about what will appeal to your audience. It’s recommended you write as many as 5-10 titles for every article, then choose the best!

4-1-1

The 4-1-1 concept comes from Andrew Davis, author of Brandscaping. Davis’ social media sharing strategy dictates that for every six pieces of content shared on social media:

• 4 should be content from other industry influencers that is relevant to your audience
• 1 should be your own original, educational content
• 1 should have a sales aspect (coupon, product news, press release), aka, a piece of content most people will simply ignore.

The philosophy behind the 4-1-1 concept is that when you share industry thought leadership, you’re building relationships within the industry and demonstrating a certain level of selflessness which earns serious reputation points that come in handy in the long haul.

Seasonal marketing

While National Fruitcake Toss Day isn’t exactly exciting, there are plenty of observances and themes for every month of the year that can help you come up with creative and authentic blog articles, social media posts, email campaigns, and more. Here are some creative monthly marketing ideas for:

• 15 January Marketing Ideas to Start the New Year with a Bang
• 20 Fabulous (and Affordable) February Marketing Ideas
• 30+ Creative and Cost-Friendly March Marketing Ideas
• 20+ Free April Marketing Ideas to Freshen Up Your Content Calendar
• 50+ May Marketing Ideas for Any Business or Budget
• 50+ Free June Marketing Ideas for Sizzlin’ Hot Campaigns
• 37 Free and Creative July Marketing Ideas (With Examples!)
• 57 Easy & Engaging August Marketing Ideas (With Examples!)
• 17+ Free and Creative September Marketing Ideas
• 21+ Free and Effective October Marketing Ideas
• 19 Simple Yet Superb November Marketing Ideas (with Examples)
• 20 Super-Festive December Marketing Ideas

Creative marketing ideas [summary]

So the next time you’re wondering the best ways to promote your business, try out these 64 creative marketing ideas:

1. Promote your social media handles, even in person
2. Join in on popular hashtags
3. Instagram Stories
4. Pin your site images and graphics on Pinterest
5. Keep tabs on competitors’ social profiles
6. Try urban marketing like flyers, posters, and sidewalk chalk
7. Commission a mural
8. Use your surroundings to your advantage
9. Consider unusual sponsorships
10. Host a photo contest
11. Host a video contest
12. Host a voting contest
13. Host a caption contest
14. Host a good old-fashioned sweepstakes
15. Post to deal sites like Groupon
16. Add a hashtag to your contests
17. Make contests super sharable on social media
18. Offer bonus points for sharing contests
19. Notify email subscribers of contests
20. Promote your contest on (all) social media
21. Write content catered to your audience
22. Add a visual element to ALL your content pieces
23. Create data-packed infographics
24. Use templates to make content creation easier
25. Include graphs and charts in your content
26. Use videos for interactivity
27. Leverage the power of lists
28. Make bold future predictions
29. Inject controversy into your copy
30. Aggregate awesome content from other sources
31. Create an “ask the experts” roundup
32. Write relevant top 10 lists
33. And other lists, too!
34. Write a product comparison guide
35. Link to your existing content with CTAs
36. Post presentations on Slideshare
37. Host free webinars
38. Get ideas from Google related search
39. Use pop-up opt-ins on landing pages
40. Use analytics to take advantage of popular content
41. Write eBooks
42. Create 101 guides to teach the basics
43. Promote your content
44. Post about industry hot topics
45. Write (and allow) guest posts
46. Create white papers
47. Only generate quality content
48. Give your company some personality and don’t be afraid to use it
49. Contribute to online magazines
50. Host a podcast
51. Cover local and news related events
52. Collaborate with peers
53. Create viral memes
54. Use social proof in your content
55. Divvy up your content
56. Conduct a content audit
57. Create branded tools
58. Make and promote mobile-specific content
59. Use gamification to promote interaction
60. Find and share content by others
61. Create hilarious web comics
62. Copy the masters
63. Take your time with content titles
64. Stick to Andrew Davis’ 4-1-1 content strategy
65. Use monthly awareness themes and observances for creative and authentic marketing.

What are your best creative marketing ideas?