Zero-Cost Marketing Strategies That Provide Instant Traction Most brands are often hunting for new ideas to grow their revenue using free marketing strategies, here are three convincing strategies that are proven to get any brand instant traction and a boost in revenue.
By Pierre Subeh
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
New marketing strategies come and go all the time. There is always something new to test out and try, but many brands quickly revert to the proven strategies that produce results month after month, like SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Google pay-per-click advertising, Facebook ads, and occasionally email marketing.
The "OG" marketing strategies will always drive results, but brands that rely solely on those and don't test new trends will never realize their full potential. While many marketing trends eventually slow down and lose their effectiveness with time, some hidden gems can drive fast results if you strike while they are hot.
Knowing where to allocate your marketing budget can be tricky, and if you go big on a marketing strategy that ends up failing, you can miss out on revenue opportunities had you pushed those marketing dollars into your tried and true campaigns.
When you hit a winning trend, the return exceeds far beyond just revenue. You gain valuable brand exposure and acquire new customers that you can market to in the future, but also increase your valuation as a company. My marketing firm, X Network, specializes in SEO and paid advertising, and we have proven case studies about this topic. We are constantly innovating new strategies and marketing angles for brands of all sizes, from new direct-to-consumer products to worldwide household brands. Here are a few marketing strategies that you can try out that will cost you nothing and have delivered some outstanding results for our clients:
Cause-Driven Campaigns and Purpose-Driven Initiatives
We began experimenting with purpose-driven marketing campaigns during the beginning of the 2020 pandemic. With consumers at home and looking for outlets to stay entertained and distracted, it naturally opened the door to online sales.
Consumers were spending an absurd amount of time online and there wasn't any hold back when it came to purchasing. Brands that rolled out purpose-driven campaigns were thriving. Consumers had more time to shop around and take a peek into the backstory of the brands they encountered.
With so much uncertainty at the time, it opened up the opportunity to connect with potential customers by triggering emotions. Consumers were willing to support brands that supported a cause and set out to make a difference.
There is no shortage of causes, from environmental issues to human rights and equality, without forcibly doing so, you can naturally always get behind a cause that you truly believe in. Authenticity speaks volumes, and if your message is truly authentic, the audience will be drawn in instantly. On the other hand, if the message is not genuine and reeks of a marketing ploy, consumers will be turned off and you can lose consumer trust.
Audiences of any brand are more willing to part with their money knowing that some of it will be going towards a purpose they can get behind. By supporting your brand, you can make them feel that they are contributing to your cause — that feeling of making a positive difference is what fuels a lot of purchases.
Launch a FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) Campaign
Let's continue using the pandemic as our case study. Data shows that it caused an increase in the online competition simply because more consumers were shopping at all hours of the day. Brands could launch a targeted Facebook ad campaign and run a profitable campaign with little to no effort in the beginning because the consumer supply was so large.
As more states in the United States and countries around the world began to lift stay-at-home orders and begin to open back up, it required a little creativity to maintain those healthy sales figures. FOMO offers are very underestimated and effective because the average person does not like to lose and miss out on what they believe to be perceived as popular or trendy.
Related: How FOMO Tactics Can Increase Ecommerce Revenue
Game-changing brands shift towards FOMO marketing campaigns because it's brilliant to increase sales without decreasing a brand's value. Be it with limited-edition drops, time-sensitive special offers, or special "online only' exclusive offers. You can take almost any product or service and create a FOMO-based version to spark interest and drive sales.
Consider reaching out for well-being follow-ups.
Early on in the pandemic, brands had to be very cautious as to how they delivered their marketing messages and came across. It was a time of sudden crisis and there was no blueprint to how brands should behave or approach their audiences.
Some brands avoided the topic like it didn't even exist, while some offered relief in the form of discounts or pledged a certain percentage to COVID relief efforts. As things started to resume to normal, an opportunity began to open for brands to reach out to their customers for a little well-being communication.
Related: The Post-COVID World: A Marketer's Guide
A simple, "We hope you are doing well and we are here alongside you while the world adjusts and shifts back to what we remember as normal" without a pitch or discount was a great way to genuinely connect without it appearing to be just a way to slip in an offer.
Reconnecting this way shows your customer that you truly care about their health and safety. It demonstrates to your existing and new potential customers that your brand is there to provide the best possible customer service beyond what they're used to. Always put yourself in the shoes of your potential client and make decisions that would positively impact your decision if you were on the other side. I myself use my own Instagram account to frequently check on the well-being of my corporate contacts and agency partners, but you need to find the perfect way to create that line of communication that best compliments your brand or company.
