12 Non Traditional Marketing Channels
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What is one unconventional marketing channel you're using this year to reach prospective customers?
To help you discover unique marketing channels to test, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders this question for their best insights. From out of home advertising to direct mail, there are several ideas that may help you discover a new and effective marketing channel for your business.
Here are twelve non traditional marketing channels:
- Out Of Home Advertising
- Use Youtube to Reach a Potential Customer
- Use the ClubHouse App
- Get on Yelp
- Reach Out To Potential Customers On Dating Apps
- Use Reddit as Marketing Channel
- Dabble in Stunt Marketing
- Medium is An Unconventional Channel for Thought Leaders
- Partner Directly With Providers
- TikTok for B2B Markets
- Voice Marketing
- Direct Mail
Out Of Home Advertising
Right now, out of home advertising is having a golden wave; many companies are using it to reach their audience that has been inundated with digital advertising and digital motions for 2+ years. Ultimately, this marketing tactic is still one of the best ways to make a wave.
Use Youtube to Reach a Potential Customer
Although YouTube is not an unconventional channel, I recently discovered why YouTube is so powerful for marketers: consumers give their money to marketers they trust. If marketers use the Instagram social media channel, it could take years of seeing content to build up enough trust to buy from the marketer. However, on YouTube, consumers can hear and see you. While spending time watching your videos, the consumer learns to trust you. You sound like an expert. End the video by explaining why purchasing your affiliate product will solve pain points. This advertising strategy beats a mere 500-word blog post. Make sure you put your affiliate link in the video description.
Use the ClubHouse App
ClubHouse social media profiles are still a great listening and connecting tool to reach customers. You as a company are able to have a strong voice plus start conversations within the industry and for your target audiences. Moreover, it goes against traditional marketing but it is a great way to create an easy conversation with potential customers.
Get On Yelp
Yelp is a non-traditional media channel that small businesses can and should use. Customers will ultimately communicate on your behalf on Yelp, so make sure you run a customer-centric business. If you treat your customers well and respond to their needs and desires, they will leave positive reviews on Yelp, which will help you attract more customers.
Reach Out To Potential Customers On Dating Apps
We’re getting on Tinder to ask consumers: What do you Value the Most in Your Skivvies? We’re hopeful that a candid approach towards consumer research will have fruitful insights over total reliance on data aggregators. We love underwear and we want to know why our customers love their underwear too. Swipe right if you dig sustainability under the hood!It’s not standard for businesses (that we know of) to be reaching out to potential customers on a dating app, but we want to drive this brand of creativity to blur the lines on getting “intimately” familiar with consumers.
Use Reddit as Marketing Channel
I established a presence in Reddit to get updates on the latest industry pulses and to also use it as a marketing channel. I engage in forums and discussions that relate to my niche so I can interact with like-minded individuals, of which some of them turn out to be prospects. Reddit is an unconventional marketing channel because it is not even the place for corporate speak, but my strategy is to use authentic engagement.
Dabble in Stunt Marketing
A marketing effort my brand has been toying with this year is the idea of stunt marketing. That’s when you plan an attention-grabbing publicity stunt that incites broad conversations about your brand.A good example of this can be found in AT&T’s recent 15-second video commercial that features Ashton Kutcher’s ex (Demi Moore) appearing alongside his current partner (Mila Kunis). The skit was both unexpected and hilarious, and invoking those feelings is an innovative business advertising strategy. Our goal is to create a campaign that will stick with viewers for a long time to come.
Stephanie Venn-Watson, fatty15
Medium is An Unconventional Channel for Thought Leaders
Blog marketing is popular, yet, many of the avenues to post this type of content are overcrowded, so we have opted for using Medium as our unconventional platform for many of our postings. The digital world has become deluged with information, and oftentimes, blogs do not cater to thought leadership, leaving you to compete with an uncategorized system that makes it difficult for people to find your content.Medium is a nontraditional media channel, which is a utilitarian type of platform that allows you to get your blog content in front of a new audience. It also caters to experts and thought leaders, allowing you to put your expertise on display with a base that is looking for your content and does not have to sift through irrelevant posts to find you. If you are interested in positioning your brand as a leader in a particular industry, and your target demographic craves information rich content, than Medium is an unconventional platform that can meet your needs.
Zach Letter, Wonder Works
Partner Directly With Providers
We partner directly with providers to market and bring awareness to our products. This has been an incredibly effective channel for us to help build credibility and advocate with customers that can most benefit from what we have to offer.
TikTok for B2B Markets
Short-form video is growing. YouTube is adapting it with "shorts". For B2B markets and B2B Marketing, people still think that their audience is not on TikTok. While this might be true, the form of content is still highly relevant for industrial markets too.At any rate, it does not harm to establish an appearance on TikTok. B2B companies are still early adopters on the channel. It's an investment in the future.
Voice Marketing
Voice marketing is a non-traditional approach your business can leverage to reach your intended audience. Recent technological advancements allow customers to look and shop for things while talking to their devices. Some well-known cloud-based voice services, like Alexa and Siri, can respond to multiple queries with a high degree of accuracy. Their AI abilities enable the customers to quickly locate particular products and check the specifications in just one voice command. Moreover, you can take advantage of these digital voice assistants by creating a voice brand that your target market can easily remember.
Direct Mail
We're actually going backwards to using direct mail to both reach and follow up with prospective customers. The rationale is this - the digital landscape is so crowded that it's nearly impossible to get attention. Compare that to physical media, which has become dramatically less common. Sure, the CPM is dramatically higher, but we think the outcome will be excellent for our target market.
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