It’s important for marketers to keep generating fresh ideas to better connect with their company’s or client’s target audience. While traditional marketing tactics may continue to perform well, sometimes things seemingly unrelated to the world of marketing can inform innovative and memorable campaigns.
Whether it’s engaging in an outside hobby, pursuing continuing education or working with unique talent, a concept that is not specifically marketing-oriented in nature can help inform more effective strategies. Below, members of Forbes Communications Council share unconventional and inspired approaches to marketing.
Members pictured from left to right.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.1. Don’t Always Be Selling
Marketing campaigns that try to hard-sell can be perceived as insulting to prospective customers, which can result in prospects losing trust in you. Offering new customers something of real value, something as simple as education, with no obligation can be a great way to start a conversation. You don’t always need to be selling. - John Gumas, Gumas Advertising
2. Target Audiences Indirectly
As a B2B brand, our marketing strategy targets HR tech decision-makers. But we recently launched campaigns targeting the average employee through social media, TV and other avenues. The campaigns feature TikTok star Corporate Natalie and actor Shemar Moore and highlight pain points the average worker can relate to. As a result, we’re seeing employees asking their companies for better HR tech, and we’re adding clients. - Adam Ballard, Paycom
3. Engage In Continuous Learning
A passion for continuous learning guides me every day. I apply that to my work, which has led to a deeper understanding of a wide range of marketing disciplines. This desire to push myself outside of my comfort zone has led to new opportunities and career growth. I try to encourage others I work with to do the same. It’s been a thrill to watch them grow and succeed as a result. - Michelle Yoshinaka, Sound Agriculture
4. Build A Mobile App
Building a mobile app allowed us to connect with customers in a more personal and interactive way, leading to increased brand awareness and customer loyalty. It also provided valuable data for tailoring marketing efforts and improving the customer experience. - Vincent Phamvan, Vyten
Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Read More Diverse Voices
I read a range of writing, including fiction and memoirs as well as business writing. Reading how diverse voices communicate builds my writing and editing tool kit. It gives me more options for how to tell, and help other writers craft, compelling stories. - Sarah Falcon, Object Edge
6. Use Fiction As A Model
Often, reading fiction can inspire the way you approach writing a comms project such as an e-card, newsletter or landing page. While it may seem unrelated, the character and plot development, dialogue and distinctive style of an excellent work of fiction can help shape the way you approach the art of communication and turn messages into stories. - Melissa Kandel, little word studio
7. Apply Your Passions To Your Marketing
I’m a street artist and apply many principles of street art to my marketing. For instance, I look to create content that people will talk about; so as a first step, I often scope out my canvas and learn about the people in that area. Similarly in marketing, before I create content, I investigate my audience to ensure I create something that resonates with them, resulting in more engagement. - Roshni Wijayasinha, Prosh Marketing
8. Bring Mental Toughness To Your Work
As a gymnast, hiker and lifelong athlete, I’ve constantly pushed myself to test my limits and overcome challenges. I strive to bring the resilience and mental toughness I’ve developed in that part of my life to my professional efforts as well. Applying this to my work and to the way I collaborate with my team makes a massive impact on how we tackle obstacles and work toward our goals. - Alyssa Kopelman, Healthline Media
9. Repurpose Outdated Terms
A few years ago, we borrowed an old term from 1990s tech called “WYSIWYG,” which describes content management systems that followed a “what you see is what you get” publishing protocol. We applied it to convey the transparency of our brand, which outranked competitors in transparency. It was fun to recreate and allowed for eye-catching creative treatments. - Lauren Pasquale Bartlett, Ingenovis Health
10. Consider Your Own Preferences
When I am given a branded gift, there have been times I do not use or wear the item as much as I would if the item wasn’t branded. While planning and giving client gifts, we applied that same concept to our strategy. We put our branding on pieces such as wrapping and in subtle ways with the color of items instead of plastering our logo on every gift. Ultimately, we received feedback that the gifts were great! - Sarah Lero, A.L. Huber
11. Lead Your Team Using Military Strategies
Apply military leadership strategies to lead a marketing team. We embraced Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead, a book by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. It pushes people to take accountability for their domains. It made our team “get in formation,” tightening up demand generation, marketing ops, content marketing and more. Through this structure, the team produced stronger results and even became more creative! - Casey Munck, Act-On Software
12. Incorporate Pop Culture References
Pop culture references have paid off with targeted ad campaigns. When Lizzo was hot, we used her popular song lyric “took a DNA test” to express that our product was 100% what the audience was looking to buy. It was trendy and lighthearted for a B2B marketing campaign, and it generated clicks and awareness. - Erica Morgenstern, Virgin Pulse
13. Rely On Predictions From An Adjacent Industry
Find your “crystal ball” industry. Nothing in marketing is truly unique. You take inspiration from someplace else but must do so in a timely fashion (preferably with a one- to three-year horizon). For me in B2B services, B2B software as a service is my “crystal ball” industry. I can reliably predict that trends in B2B SaaS will eventually come into my space, leading me to be an early adopter and gain a unique advantage. - Patrick Ward, Rootstrap
14. Create An Advisory Board
As a startup founder, I knew I had a strong network, but not a large enough one to create a sustainable business. So I built an advisory board to help drive vision, values, market and product choices, as well as increase my company’s networking effect. What I found is that one strong and trusted network connection opens more doors than a $10,000 marketing campaign in the market. - Jonathan Shroyer, Arise Gaming
15. Stay Up On Social Media Trends
Pop culture and social media trends have proven to be great tools for diversifying content and keeping fresh, relevant content at the forefront of all marketing strategies. While it’s not important to jump on every trend, it is important to monitor what the trends are and to “hop on the bandwagon” when it makes sense for your brand. - Victoria Zelefsky, The Menkiti Group
