By Evan Vitale
In keeping with our recent theme of marketing, some business owners struggle with developing new marketing ideas for their business; products or services.
Here’s an easy way to get the creative juices flowing – start doing more research on the Internet and using this often overlooked tool as an idea generator. You can simple start by conducting an easy search in your favorite search engine for the string “innovative internet marketing ideas” or “new marketing strategies.”
Search results will offer a wide range of ideas and resources from marketing firms to journals. While some might want you to spend some of your marketing budget with their company, your No. 1 plan is to do research and generate your own ideas and your own plan.
Now, while it would be “easy” to steal an idea (but not very professional), try to see if there’s a way to put your own spin on someone’s idea that would work for your business. Grab a pad of paper and start writing down any interesting ideas. Maybe you could even combine some working ideas in your own marketing idea. Sooner or later, you’ll find something that will work for you.
Remember, you want to be a little bit innovative in your marketing plans instead of going back to the well and using the same old ideas and plans (don’t do the same thing over and over if it doesn’t work). While you’re at it, take a look at your competition. What are they doing in terms of marketing? Print ads? Radio? Television? They, too, could be relying a lot on old ideas because they’re not very innovative. They are sticking with the “safe” plan (which probably isn’t working very well for them).
Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone a little bit – you never know what might happen!