Innovative Ways Brands Are Connecting Digitally with Their Customers

Customers are always looking for something different and unique from businesses — they’re tired of seeing the same old advertising methods. Customers are sick of listening to businesses shout about their brand and products. With this in mind, it’s time to get creative. With the abundance of technology that we now have, there’s no reason why you can’t connect with customers in more innovative ways than ever before.

The Innovative Approach

If you’re comfortable with your current digital marketing strategy, you might wonder why it’s necessary to take a risk and pull in a different direction. For starters, we recommend assessing your strategy for unique techniques. Are you doing anything different to the competitors around you? Unfortunately, most businesses cannot answer a ‘yes’ for this question. Don’t worry, we’re going to change this in the guide today.

Therefore, the first benefit is that you stand out from the crowd. By daring to be different, customers connect in new ways and build stronger relationships with you. In most industries, businesses are fighting for attention in a crowded market, and something simple like one of the ideas on this list could make the difference.

These innovative methods that are used to connect with customers allow for authenticity that other marketing techniques do not have. Doing this, you come across as a genuine service and a shining light in a world where all businesses just care about money and making a profit. With authentic connections, you develop a deeper connection with customers, which lays the foundation for a long-term relationship with them.

With authenticity and a genuine connection with consumers, people will do everything they can to stick with the brand (and recommend it to others). Also, you gain a reputation in the market for being unique rather than following the crowd at every turn.

Innovative Marketing Ideas

1. Show That You Care

At the moment, most consumers probably see you as just another business. To shake this label, one of the best things you can do is tell the world about the causes you care about. In the modern market, customers don’t just make decisions based on price, which is one of the biggest changes in recent history. As well as price, they pay attention to the following:

• Convenience
• Delivery speed
• Customer service
• Company ethics
• Environment

More and more consumers want businesses that are responsible and care about more than just the profit figure on the financial documents at the end of the year. As well as talking about important causes, you can also generate a story around the brand. Where did the idea for the brand originate? Was it on a napkin in a cafe somewhere? What’s important to the business and the people within the business? What legacy do you wish to leave behind?

By building a story, you provide opportunities for customers to truly connect. They see that you’re giving back to the community and providing value beyond just trying to make sales. You can spread the message and start on this path using your website and social media. Ultimately, the goal is to humanize the brand so that consumers connect with the people working for the brand rather than the brand itself.

By sharing your goals and concerns, customers feel compelled to work with you and support you in any way possible. For this to work, it needs to be genuine and authentic rather than just adopting this approach for some attention.

2. Offer Gamification

Have you ever tried to learn a language on Duolingo? The reason this app is so successful is because of the rewarding feeling you get when earning a badge and progressing through the levels. Likewise, Ring Fit Adventure for the Nintendo Switch has brought exercising to the gaming world. Again, it’s rewarding watching the levels progress while unlocking new clothing and exercises. The lesson? Gamification grabs the attention of customers and retains it for longer.

If you think that your industry is immune to gamification, don’t give up so easily. Those with banking apps will know all about the features to track spending. Meanwhile, those with an affinity for pizza (who doesn’t?) will know about the tracking features when ordering from Domino’s. Even if it’s just to track the order, gamification gets people excited by building anticipation.

3. Be Creative — Use Other Platforms

This sounds like an obvious suggestion, but you really need to think outside of the box when it comes to innovative marketing. Since you’ve probably used Facebook to death, you should explore the other platforms used by the target market. For instance, one of the best examples of this came from Barilla Pasta recently when it took to Spotify.

Did it advertise on Spotify? Did it sponsor a podcast? No, it created a playlist so that all customers had a companion for cooking pasta perfectly. As long as customers follow the playlist, they would have perfect pasta each and every time. They could have relied on customers reading the packaging or even adding a timer to their website. Instead, they got creative and took advantage of the fact that millions of people now use Spotify when cooking dinner.

Can you adopt a similar approach? For example, a drill manufacturer could create a playlist for those performing home improvements with its products. Can you use Pinterest, Reddit, Quora, and other platforms to your advantage?

Read More: Spotify Marketing: How to Run Successful Audio Ads on Spotify

Read More: How to Use Reddit in Your Marketing Strategy

Read More: The Do’s and Don’ts of Using Pinterest Ads

4. Use Geolocation Targeting

Location settings benefit both customers and businesses. While customers get personalized content and ads, businesses get to see where customers are located. By knowing where people work and live, you can adjust your paid advertising campaigns and create messages that resonate. Technology is always on a path of improvement, and some companies can send notifications to customers when they enter a certain distance of a physical store. Suddenly, they have a voucher for 5% off and they’re changing their plans to head to your store.

With geolocation targeting, you reach the audience more accurately and have opportunities to personalize better than ever before.

Read More: 10 Ways Geo-Targeting Can Advance Your Marketing Campaign

5. Perform Social Listening

You might see some consumers talking about the brand online, but do you ever wonder just how many comments you miss and what people are saying? With social listening, you use a specialized tool to learn the answers to these questions. Rather than just stumbling across the odd post, you’ll access all social mentions, spot trends, and use this information to propel your marketing strategy forward.

These days, social listening tools are more advanced and allow businesses to focus on conversations regarding their brand, products, and even competitors (you could use one for competitor research!). With a social listening tool, the information is useful for product development, content creation, and more.

6. Live Video

We’ve said it before, but the time to be nervous about live video is over. If you experience palpitations at the very thought of live videos, the good news is that it no longer needs to be a big production with a full script and fancy equipment. Instead, you can grab your phone and start streaming from your office — it’s as simple as this.

We mentioned being authentic and genuine, and there aren’t many better ways of achieving this than through live video. But what will I talk about? Well, this is completely up to you; think about what the audience might want to see. Here are some examples of live video ideas:

• Q&As
• Meet the team
• Office tour
• Behind the scenes at a conference or event
• Product tutorial
• Interview with colleagues or industry-leading figures
• Product reveal

In many cases, brands actually glean valuable information from live streams that contribute to product development, advertising, and content creation. What happens when you’re struggling with content or product ideas? Just ask customers in a live video. Get their opinions and their overall views directly rather than trying to guess (and running the risk of getting it wrong!).

Read More: Video Marketing 101

7. Speak to the Customer

In the business world, there’s a difference between talking to the industry and talking to the customer. When doing the former, there’s a lack of personalization and the connections you create with consumers are limited. If you need an example of how to speak to the customer, look no further than Coca-Cola. Despite its global appeal and millions of customers, it ran a campaign called ‘Share a Coke’ where it added individual names on bottles and encouraged people to buy a bottle with their name, a friend’s name, etc.

When you start speaking to customers directly, you generate something far more powerful than customers — you generate fans and supporters. Soon enough, they’re recommending the brand to others and defending the brand in online conversations.

Follow these seven innovation tips and you’ll develop authentic and genuine connections with consumers this year!

Read More: How to Add User-Generated Content to Your Marketing Strategy