CBS news estimates that the average person sees about 5,000 ads each day as of 2006. While the tried-and-true methods of marketing still have value in the digital age, you may have to think outside of the box when planning your next marketing strategy. This will help your marketing methods to be as distinctive as your product, being one of the products that gets remembered rather than quickly forgotten.
Review Incentives
One of the hardest things to do is market a new product. This is because you have nearly nothing in the way of satisfied customers. However, there are legions of people on the Internet willing to write reviews of products for free. You can entice people to write reviews by offering incentives for reviewers. Whether that incentive comes in the form of cash, gift certificates or free products, you can generate Internet buzz by having a crop of product reviews.
Blogging
While blogging is often thought of as the domain of celebrity gossip and half-baked opinion, it can also be an effective tool for marketing your products and services. A blog allows your customer to get the latest news on your products. Unlike a website that may lay unchanged for months at a time, a blog is updated more frequently, giving people a reason to subscribe to the RSS feed or to visit the site on a regular basis.
Competitions
Find a competition that is related to your product, no matter how tangentially. Some products lend themselves easily to this marketing scheme. For example, if you are marketing pizza, a "design your own pizza" contest or a pizza eating contest are clear ways to have a product-relevant competition. If you're selling software or floor cleaning, the possibilities are not so obvious. However, the important part isn't the relevance of the competition. It's getting people excited about competing for free prizes. You can make your prize related to your product as well -- to use our earlier examples, free pizza for a year or a free floor cleaning.
Online Encyclopedias
Find a way to work your product into online encyclopedias. Use caution with this one. The people who oversee the encyclopedias are generally very protective of the content. However, if you can work your product into the copy in a way that adds something to the article, you should do this. It will boost your website traffic and increase brand awareness.
Tags: your product, floor cleaning, product into, related your, related your product, work your