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Proforma Blog

5 Ways to Come Up with Good Marketing Ideas for 2017

By Proforma Durkee on December 21, 2016

Are you hoping to come up with some good marketing ideas for 2017? Here are five strategies that will stir up those creative juices.  

1. Look at your competitors. We're not suggesting you steal or plagiarize. But looking at competitors'good marketing ideas marketing ideas.jpg websites and social feeds will likely spark some fresh ideas for your own marketing.

For example, if a competitor has a bunch of white papers, ask yourself these questions:

  • What information do I disagree with? Then, provide the all-important alternative viewpoint in your own thought paper or blog post.
  • What information is missing? Fill in those gaps! Again, create text-based or visual content that addresses topics your competitors have overlooked.
  • What keywords is my competitor using? Check out one of these 25 tools that will help you "spy" (legally!) on the competition. Target phrases your competitors are ignoring and/or try to go after phrases that your competitors are attempting to monopolize.

2. Look at industry trade publications. Pay close attention to feature articles that highlight a business or that do a Q&A with the business owner. Oftentimes, business owners will talk about their marketing and sales strategies. Again, the idea isn't to steal, but to learn what's working (and what's not) from people within your industry.

For example, if someone in your industry has had a lot of luck with inbound marketing, ask yourself what inbound marketing initiatives you could try (or do more of) in 2017.

3. Review your website's analytics. Your website analytics offer a treasure trove of info—including good marketing ideas. Don't know where to start? Here are some specific areas to check out:

  • Blog posts with lots of views, but few conversions. Make a plan to get these posts working harder for you. Revisit offers, CTAs, and places where you can update info. Then, create a plan for pushing these articles out through all of your social channels.
  • Blog posts with little-to-no views. Evaluate and make a plan for revising and republishing. Remember, it's much easier to revise existing content than it is to start fresh.
  • Poor-performing web pages. Same thing: make a plan for improving and re-promoting these pages.
  • Keywords. In addition to looking at competitors' keywords, you should also look at your own. Note the ones where you're slipping or that you want to "go after" in 2017. Get your team together and brainstorm blog titles/topics based on the keywords. Make it fun! Set a timer for 10 minutes and tell people to write ideas, based on the keywords, for ten minutes without stopping to look up. Then, share the ideas. Keep the good ones. The person who produces the most quality ideas gets a prize, like an Amazon gift card.

4. Inventory your marketing supply closet. Remember last January when you ordered all sorts of cool promotional products and you had all these BIG PLANS for marketing and distributing them? Be honest: did you follow through? Or are you hoarding 1000 coffee mugs, boxes and boxes of water bottles, and goodness knows what else in your supply closet?

You're not alone. We see this ALL THE TIME. People have great intentions and awesome ideas when they order the promo items. It's the execution part that trips them up.

Take some time to inventory your supply closet. Sit down and make a plan for all the items in there. Perhaps you use the coffee mugs at all your events in Q1. Maybe you can give those water bottles to your sales staff. Remember, promotional products are walking billboards for your company. Get them out there. (Go here if you need new promotional products for 2017.)

5. Bring in an outside marketing expert. Even if you have a marketing team, sometimes the best thing you can do is bring in an outside marketing expert who can provide objective advice, fresh ideas, and much needed motivation.

You know the saying "two heads are better than one," right? When you work with a marketing expert or a marketing agency like ours that has a deep creative side, you get the benefit of many heads producing tons of great ideas (along with plans for executing them).

How do you come up with good marketing ideas? Share your strategies in the comments.

Topics: Marketing Tips, Inbound Marketing, Digital Marketing, Traditional Marketing

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