The growing competition in the market, regardless of what industry your company belongs, would literally demand you to extract every creative juice in yourself for its marketing.

Growing your brand and bringing in customers can be quite a handful of a job, especially if you are not equipped with the best and tried-and-tested marketing strategies.

In businesses, marketing is the sole and most efficient means of communicating with your target audience letting them know and get familiar with the features and benefits your whole company and the specific products could offer.

There is also no doubt that with the most creative and professional advertising mechanisms, building equity or goodwill in your target clients would be the core you could satisfyingly achieve.

What are the best creative marketing strategies for small businesses?

Here are the 20 top creative marketing strategies you can start trying out in your small businesses today:

1. Word of mouth
2. Online advertising 
3. Public relations (PR)
4. Exhibits and events 
5. Direct contact
6. Digital advertising 
7. Trade shows 
8. Social media
9. Business to business (B2B)
10. Promotional products
11. Reverse mechanism 
12. Free samples 
13. Trademark
14. Make alliances
15. Cross media
16. Build a community
17. Search engine advertising 
18. Freebies
19. Signage
20. Stand for a cause 

Let's delve into each of these strategies in a little more detail. 

1. Word of mouth

This is considered to be one of the most practical and most commonly used means of advertising. Since it is part of the human nature to chat and catch up with people around them, achieving what you want could simply happen.

With the best way of representing your brand, there should be no trouble in ensuring that once people share their favorite products and brands, your company would be on it. 

2. Online advertising

Today, there is no doubt that the Internet has been playing a huge role and posing a big impact in everybody’s lives. And using this approach in reaching out to your target customer is really a wise and a competitive step for your company.

Devise a way wherein you could represent your brand in a very attractive way making it easier for you to attract attention from the public.

3. Public relations (PR)

Although the Internet has become the most often used means of communication, the PR Marketing still proves that reliable, even traditional, mechanisms are hard to overcome, especially if it has proven its beneficial use throughout the time.

While using newly introduced options, maintaining touch with the media relations in bringing awareness to public about your existence would still be an undoubted step. More on this.

4. Exhibits and events

People love to socialize. So creating and conducting an event that showcases your company and its main products and/or services could definitely drive the market towards you.

Why not take advantage of the need of customers to shop by exhibiting your company in places where they most likely go for their needs?

This can really be a superb marketing approach.

5. Direct contact

Aside from advertising, doing this technique would also allow you to directly communicate with your target clients.

This is even better as you could simply build linkages and relationships with them that would be beneficial for your company.

6. Digital advertising

Reaching out to your clients with the use of digital devices such as computers, tablets and smart-phones is definitely a convenient approach.

7. Trade shows

This is especially applicable to those who offer big products such as cars, gadgets, appliances and the like. Through trade-show, you could attract clients by letting them experience first-hand the kind of products you are featuring.

8. Social media

With the millions of people all over the world connected to social networking sites, making an account for your company to different platforms would simply just cut across the distance in every aspect. An interesting infographic on SMB’s relationship with social media.

9. Business to business (B2B)

Company owners still prove that even with competition, they could still help each other. B2B approach allows businesses to sell another company’s services and offerings and vice versa. Reciprocity is practiced in this strategy.

10. Promotional products

This is definitely another promising approach for marketing your company’s services and products offered. There are various components under this mechanism. Some of it are contests, coupons as well as give away products.

This can surely drive more customers to you than you have ever expected. More on this.

11. Reverse mechanism

With the use of creative and intriguing contents, commercials and the like, reverse mechanism could happen in an instant before you even know it. You get customers seek you instead of doing it yourself.

12. Free samples

Since most people would only believe in your brand if they have tried it, investing to free samples and giveaways would be a great way to attract them even more.

13. Trademark

There is no better way in building your brand than making a trademark. Choose a quick and simple trademark that would embody your whole company and use it in every possible way as this could simply create familiarity and awareness.

14. Make alliances

Tap other company and encourage them to come together and pool your resources in promoting or selling both of your products. A greater impact is expected in the market with this approach. Wikipedia article on this technique.

15. Cross-media

This covers all sorts of platform such as emails, letters, websites, promotional products, press releases and all other more.

16. Build a community

The result of this technique is building and promoting loyalty among your existing clients making it way easier to effortlessly push them to do the adverting for you. Excellent Forbes article on this.

17. Search engine advertising

Aside from Social Media, this is another rampant and most often used ways of people in building their awareness – they search the web. And setting up a search-engine friendly page would really be a great means of reaching out to your target market.

18. Freebies

People appreciate freebies. To build loyalty among your clients, attaching freebies with the products/services they bought from you would also be a convenient way of attracting them more.

19. Signage

Another fascinating means of marketing and building awareness of your business is by creating ingenious and catchy tarps and billboards huge enough for people to notice.

Aside from this, you may also add up buying/hiring trailers or trucks where you could put your advertising tarpaulins on and allow everyone in the city, and even beyond it, to see what your company is about.

20. Stand for a cause

Building brand awareness by reaching out to the general public via a cause would definitely pique more interest than you imagined. By showing that your company cares for others, encouraging clients to consult you with their needs would simply happen in a glimpse.

Please feel free to add your interesting marketing ideas to the comments section below.