Five Alternative Marketing Tactics Your Business Isn’t Using Enough

There’s a lot to be said about the power of SEO and social media marketing ― but millions of other blogs have said them so much that the value of those strategies is decreasing as you read this. Instead of devoting your marketing budget to half-hearted attempts to attract attention on well-trodden marketing avenues, you might find more success by directing your team down an alternative path. Here are a handful of less common marketing tactics you should be using more to engage your target audience.

1. Scent Marketing

Smell is easily the best sense for marketing purposes, thanks in large part to the Proust phenomenon. It’s named for Marcel Proust, who wrote entire novels about the power of memory triggered by different sensations. This psychological occurrence is characterized by vivid, potent memories that contain sensory and emotional components.

The olfactory sense, i.e. smelling, has been shown by various studies to be the sense most closely linked with memory ― people remember roughly 35 percent of what they smell, compared to 5 percent of what they see ― making it an advantageous tool for marketers.

Scent marketing has been around since the 1970s, but businesses are only just now beginning to unlock the tactic’s full potential. Casinos have found that floral scents encourage gambling 45 percent more than no scent whatsoever, but other businesses, especially retailers, can benefit by introducing different scents in stores.

2. Referral Programs

There are some amazing statistics about the power of referrals, such as:

• More than 93 percent of consumers trust referrals coming from friends.
• About 65 percent of new business comes from referrals.
• People are four times more likely to buy when they were referred by a friend.
• Though 83 percent of happy customers are willing to give referrals, only about 29 percent do.

Word of mouth has long been known to be the most powerful way to generate awareness and interest in a business, but it can be incredibly difficult to motivate customers to tell their friends ― unless you do so with a referral program.

Offering rewards to customers who refer others increases the likelihood of referrals, and the best part is it doesn’t matter what the reward is. That means you can increase your customer acquisition with a referral program without even seriously cutting into your marketing budget.

3. Brand Advocacy

Many old-school marketers might be more comfortable calling this tactic “testimonials,” but there is a marked difference between modern brand advocates and antiquated endorsements. Most importantly, the most powerful testimonials of the past usually came from paid celebrities, whereas today’s most sought-after brand advocates are average people who are merely satisfied with a product.

However, identifying and engaging brand advocates is much more difficult than buying a good blurb from a famous person. Keeping a watchful eye on your social media tags is a good way to find happy customers who are willing to gab about it. You can narrow that list to those who have some influence ― a blog, a social media following, a cool group of friends, etc. ― that they can use to spread awareness of your business. Then, you should offer your favorites incentives, like product discounts or features in content, to continue to gab.

4. Content Acquisition

If you have any marketing strategy at all, you are probably already commissioning more content than you know what to do with. Here’s a solution: Purchase the talent you use to create and distribute your content so you have full control. Unless your business is content creation, it is unlikely that your company blog will ever become effectively influential.

Meanwhile, you are paying other publishers (physical and digital) to generate interest in your business. If you can recognize the talent and you have the resources, you should consider acquiring an established media brand so your marketing messages have somewhere to go.

5. Phygital Marketing

Online is the natural state of the modern consumer, so it is only the accepted next step of marketing to merge the physical and digital worlds. Phygital marketing is popping up here and there around the world:

Lightning Fast Groceries. Subway stations in Korea, a grocery chain installed interactive billboards that allowed customers to shop online while waiting for their train; once the customer arrived at home, the groceries would be ready and waiting for them.

No-Stress Clothing Shopping. Clothing retailers, including Kate Spade, Ralph Lauren, Nike, and Adidas, have installed shop-able windows that allow shoppers to browse collections and even try on clothes without undressing.

Perfect Fit Sportswear. A sports store integrated motion recognition software to analyze customers in specific activities, like running and swinging golf clubs, and suggest appropriate apparel or equipment to improve form.

Rather than keeping your digital and physical marketing tactics separate, you may want to begin imagining how you can bring the two together to provide an unforgettable customer experience.