51 marketing tips to grow your business 👈

Every business owner or marketer hits a wall now and then. Creativity seems to have run dry and ideas to promote the brand are thin on the ground. Suddenly, the blank page looks even scarier.

If you have been through this creative block, or simply want to explore new ideas, take a look at these 51 tips we picked to improve your business's marketing and advertising, and to bring in more leads and online sales.

Social media

1. Don't be afraid to show yourself.

If you are giving a talk, speaking at a conference or just have new business cards, don't hesitate to upload the photos or videos.

2. Use trending hashtags

Whether it is #ThrowbackThursday or the current #Sextou (Portuguese for "Friday's here"), what matters is being where your audience is and being an active member of the community. That means posting often and regularly, and joining in the weekly "traditions" that pop up across social media and already have a loyal following.

3. Instagram Stories

Having completely dethroned Snapchat, Instagram Stories are great for showing new products, reaching your target audience and showing that your brand exists!

4. Pin things

Using Pinterest to pin your own photos is great, but it is also important to pin other people's. Don't underestimate this image-sharing site. Post the best photos you have and link them to your website to get more traffic.

5. Follow your competitors

On Facebook, business pages can follow other pages from a dedicated section in the settings. Follow your competitors and look at the kind of posts they publish, or which posts get the most shares and likes. Work out what works and do something similar.

Street marketing

6. Take it to the streets

In the digital age we live in, there is still a lot to be said for the tangible and for marketing in real life. Don't be afraid to be old school: flyers and posters in cafés still work, and so does drawing on the pavement in chalk. This strategy is of course more effective the more local the business is, but it works for every business.

7. Rent a mural or billboard

Try to get permission to decorate the side of a highly visible building or a mural. Visibility guaranteed!

8. Use what is around you

It takes imagination, but think about all the potential in what you see every day to create magical marketing.

9. Unusual partnerships

Living in a city gives us marketing opportunities we would not have anywhere else. The secret is to think creatively and make the most of them.

Competitions

10. Photo competitions

This can be a great idea for several reasons. It is fairly easy for people to enter (anyone with an Instagram account and a few seconds can submit a photo), and the entrants end up promoting you. It is a way to get content created by your audience that you can reuse on other channels.

11. Video competitions

Not everyone will enter a video competition, but this can be your chance to get high-calibre content, because making a video takes more effort from the user. These posts can be very valuable for businesses with little time or budget, especially if you find customers who are good at creating video content.

12. Vote and win

Vote-based competitions usually get lots of entries, because they are easy to enter (most of the time it only takes a click). You can also use the data you collect for a small piece of market research.

13. Caption competitions

Post a photo on social media and ask your audience to caption it. This kind of competition usually gets a good laugh!

14. Giveaways

This is the most traditional type of competition. Giveaways have been tested over and over, and they really work. They are quick and simple to enter, and they bring your business new likes and shares, growing your audience.

Tips for promoting your competitions

15. Promote on bargain websites

Everyone loves free stuff, some people more than others. And people who really love a good deal tend to look for them on websites and forums. Find the websites that best fit the bargains or offers you want to promote and post your content there. This strategy works well for restaurants.

16. Create a hashtag for your competition

Adding a unique, relevant hashtag to your competition helps you track entries and makes them easier to analyse and organise.

17. Make your competitions super shareable

That means adding a share button when the competition runs on a website, or simply encouraging people to share it on social media. The more people who know about the competition, the better!

18. Award points for shares

If you give bonus points for every share on social media, your entrants will want to share. Some tools, such as Rafflecopter, let you do this easily, giving more points for each action the entrant takes.

19. Tell your mailing list

Remember: if you already have subscribers, it is because they like your business and are interested in what you sell. If you are launching a competition that gives the winner a free year of one of your products, your followers will want to know!

20. Promote the competition on social media

Even if you are running a competition on Instagram, make sure you also promote it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and so on. You want all your followers, on every channel, to know about the giveaway!

Content marketing

21. Write for your audience.

The best content is aimed at your target audience. Understand your customers: know their pain points and what keeps them up at night. Excellent content talks about exactly how to meet and satisfy the customer's needs!

22. Add visuals

People get tired of text very quickly. To keep your customers reading, you need to add images that break up the blocks of text. Don't underestimate the importance of visuals, even in posts that are mostly text.

23. Infographics

We know readers love visual content, so we know infographics are essential. Creating an infographic may sound intimidating, but it does not have to be very hard. You don't even need professional software: you can make one in PowerPoint.

24. Charts: the ugly cousins of infographics

Even so, charts are still formidable pieces of visual content. They may not be as impressive, but they take less time to make and they are shareable too. Use them freely.

25. Videos

Video is amazing at attracting and holding users' attention: retention for visual information is 65%, against 10% for text. On top of that, customers who see products in videos are more likely to buy. This kind of content is a very powerful tool, whether you are showing how a product works or explaining something.

26. Lists of statistics

If your page of ideas is blank, don't despair: just find interesting statistics on a topic related to your business and write a blog post about them. Long lists of statistics are easy to make and highly shareable. Some of that data may also give you new ideas, like the next one.

27. Predictions

Don't be afraid to talk about the future. Explain how you expect the market in your sector to behave, but make sure you have data to back up your claims.

28. Controversy

Controversial content always gets lots of attention, but be careful when playing with fire. If you want to follow this strategy, the safest route is to respond to a controversy that is already shaping your field.

29. Curate content from other sources

Another fantastic way to create content is to gather it from other websites. No, it is not stealing or plagiarism if you do it properly. If you are making something completely new from content from other sources, that is fine. Think of this list, put together from tips on several websites. To play it safe, always give the authors proper credit.

30. Ask the experts

Another way to do content marketing is to interview leaders in your industry and share their answers in a blog post. These posts tend to do well, and it is interesting to see what experts in the field think about a given subject. Better still, these professionals usually share the interviews with their own followers.

31. Top 10s

People love this kind of list. Top 10 songs, top 10 restaurants, whatever you like.

32. Lists

Top 10s are lists at heart, but starting a post with a number makes it stand out more. And why do people like lists? Because they are very easy to read and understand. That is probably why more than a third of Buzzfeed's posts have a number in the title.

33. Product comparison guides

Decisions, decisions: that is the market today. Being a consumer is hard with so many products to choose from. Help your customers decide with a comparison guide, especially if you have a range of products that meet different needs. If you compare yourself with competitors, be objective and fair.

Alternatively, write a comparison of products you don't sell but that relate to your business. For example, imagine you want to sell controllers for a games console. Comparing two new games would be a good idea.

34. Content is an open door

Don't create quality content and then abandon it: link to it from other blog posts. You can do this in the text itself, or list related articles at the end. Something like "Want to find out more?".

35. Webinars

Host your own webinar, or partner with another brand to share twice the knowledge, and get twice the promotional power. Webinars are great for collecting leads.

36. Google related searches

Look at the terms Google suggests when you search to understand what your audience is looking for.

37. Pop-ups

This topic still causes a lot of debate: pop-ups that offer a newsletter sign-up. They are intrusive and annoying, but the truth is that they work most of the time. Run an A/B test and see how it affects your sign-ups.

38. Build on successful topics

Not sure what to write about? Look at your most-read posts and find out what gets your readers most excited. Then write a variation or follow-up of those popular articles.

39. eBooks

Another good way to capture leads is to create an eBook on an important or popular topic in your sector. Then you need a good landing page to present the offer. Better still: you don't have to start from scratch! Rewrite some older articles and bring them together in a collection.

40. Even good content needs promotion

Don't just publish your content and wait for it to promote itself. Share it with your newsletter subscribers and your social media followers.

41. Write about popular topics

What is the hot topic in your line of business right now? Write articles about these big topics to be at the centre of the action and show that you are up to date.

42. Guest posts

Invite someone influential in your field to write a post for your blog. As well as saving you time, it means far more interactions with a bigger audience. If you prefer, we can help you create guest posts: here

43. Quality content

It should go without saying, but only produce content you are proud of! Google does not like thin content, and neither do readers. So content is something to take veeery seriously these days!

44. Humanise your brand

Show that you are not a robot. Don't be afraid to be funny (always with class) and to show your brand's personality. Express yourself; after all, we are all human.

45. Online magazines

Producing your own online magazine is another epic way to do content marketing.

46. Report on events

If you go to a conference (even an online one), think about writing a post on the information you gathered and found most important. Chances are your audience will think the same! Use the event hashtag when you promote it.

47. Memes

Used well, memes work because they are funny and familiar to internet users. If your business is not highly corporate, you can create a few of these images to get closer to your audience.

48. Watch the volume

Don't overdo it, or you will tire your audience. We now live in an economy that competes for customers' attention, and if you publish a new post every day you may be boring your readers, even if the content is excellent. Work out what works best for your users.

49. Mobile first

Very soon, more than half of internet users will shop exclusively online, and on smartphones. So don't forget to make your website mobile friendly. And this is not optional! In a recent article, Google said it gives priority to mobile-optimised websites!

50. Copy the leaders

See who creates the best content and do it the same way. Take a close look at clickbait sites such as Upworthy or Buzzfeed, which always get thousands of shares. Even if their audiences have nothing to do with yours, they can be excellent inspiration for improving your marketing strategy. What do they do well? Can you do something similar?

51. Spend time on your headlines

Even a brilliant article may not get the attention it deserves without a good headline. Should it be funny? Should it provoke the reader? Be SEO-friendly? Think about what attracts your audience most. We recommend writing 5 to 10 headlines for each post, then picking the best one!