It is no secret that marketing plays a critical role in a business’s success. After all, how else your target audience will know about your products or services if you aren’t getting the word out?
Marketing is not helpful for just startups; established businesses need it more to survive the upcoming competition. However, since generating leads and seeking sales is the main agenda today, companies use almost similar marketing methods. As a result, customers tend not to pay attention to their advertising and promotions.
This doesn’t mean businesses should take a back seat and hope for the best; instead, they must think outside of the box! To keep their revenue afloat, they need to adopt different, more unique strategies.
Trying subtle yet effective strategies here can go a long way. Below, we have outlined a few subtle marketing techniques that established businesses can use to reach next-level success.
Table of Contents
Promotional Gifts
If you’re wondering how the most basic products can do the trick, read on. These simple giveaway gifts are not as simple as one might think. They come bearing your business’s logo, meaning they leave a visible mark wherever they go!
Not only are they useful, but they also extend your reach to your employee’s family and friends. Most promotional gifts, like printed t-shirts, engraved pens, customized calendars, and diaries, are not just useful for the offices, but they also make for freebies that people tend to use outside of work.
The best part about these products is that they are cost-effective. So make the quality a little better, send these out on every occasion, and let the subtle marketing work its magic!
Email Signature
If you think emails are dead in the modern digital world, you cannot be more mistaken. On average, roughly 306.4 billion emails are sent and received each day, carrying your brand name, promotional letter, discounted offers, and whatnot! So why not take advantage of the staggering stats to make the best of email marketing?
Make your content so catchy and creative that the customer is compelled to open your email. And once they open it, leave an impact with the catchiest deals, appealing product images, and chic company signature.
The content is the key here, so make sure to personalize the email addressing customers by their name. In addition, you can enter powerful CTA such as scheduling a demo, signing up for a newsletter, promoting a sale, etc. However, make sure to keep your CTA concise and straightforward.
Public Relations
Another way that businesses have adopted throughout the years to promote their brand subtly is through public relations. What image of your business is in the audience’s eyes, or what people are talking about your business – all of this holds great significance. PR is all about maintaining a good reputation for your business and building strong relationships between your organization and public communities. Since getting positive third-party comments is more effective to win the trust of your customers, PR is a compelling way to market your business.
Whether you have launched a new product or service, achieved record-breaking results, or won a new contract, PR is the best way to get your brands in the right publications. However, be mindful; all your PR strategies will fall by the wayside if you haven’t researched properly. Thus, determine who your audience would be, what your competitors are up to, how to get the right media attention, etc.
Search Engine Optimization
Subtle marketing refers to continuously promoting your business to your customers without them even realizing it. And what better way than bringing your website up every time a search engine user searches for a query? With millions of web pages on the internet today, it is pretty challenging to rank higher on search engines; and this is where your white-hat SEO techniques come into play.
The more you appear first on the search engines, the more likely your target audience will see your brand. So, do thorough keyword research and learn what phrases your target audience uses to search for their queries. Also, make sure your website is mobile–responsive and loads quickly.
Social Media
According to Datarepotal, approximately 4.48 billion users used social media in October 2021. Despite showing that half of the world’s population is available on social platforms, what else do these stats indicate? Yes, you guessed that right! Marketing Opportunity! So go ahead and market right and build a fortune in no time.
While there are several platforms available, determine which one can be used the best for your product or services! Your social media posts must not include obvious advertising. Instead, it must be educational or entertaining to retain your followers. Vocalize or visualize your content there and let your audience come towards you!
You need to know that social media isn’t just about branding the business. It helps one build a strong customer base with effective and quick responses. Don’t underestimate the power of two-way communication in a business as it can grow organic reach and generate revenues! With social media, businesses now have platforms where they can take first-hand feedback, promise to provide better and make an impact with direct contact.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the most potent techniques to market products or services for businesses in today’s technological era. You might have come across the line content is king. Well, it truly is. Content marketing can include blog posts, podcasts, videos, case studies, and much more.
The primary reason behind content marketing is to demonstrate your thought leadership to your target audience. Doing so can help you earn their trust and thus boost your sales. However, while crafting your content, make sure it isn’t just an advertisement, which can ruin your efforts to stay subtle. To be more effective, determine the pain points of your target market and then create high-quality content to address them. Finally, don’t forget to keep it regularly updated, using all the latest facts and figures.
In a Nutshell
No matter what size or type of business you run, a good marketing plan is the backbone of success. Different tools and techniques can be used to promote your brand and reach the relevant customer base. Nevertheless, when it comes to a good marketing strategy, there is no one ingredient that guarantees success. Market your products or services in numerous ways, but be aware that today’s consumers aren’t easy to convince. It would be best to develop different subtle marketing techniques to boost your brand awareness.
I’m a writer, artist, and designer working in the gaming and tech industries. I have held staff and freelance positions at large publications including Digital Trends, Lifehacker, Popular Science Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, IGN, The Xplore Tech, and others, primarily covering gaming criticism, A/V and mobile tech reviews, and data security advocacy.