Innovative Concepts to Leverage for Creative Marketing

5 minute read

Upland Admin

Marketing strategies get stale over time, making it essential for B2B organizations to regularly explore innovative concepts to catch new customer attention and retain brand loyalty. But how?

It’s easy to say “just be more creative,” but the power of an idea is all about execution. To expand into new marketing success requires inviting in a little calculated risk. You can’t control how people respond to what you put out there, but you can be as creative as possible when taking an innovative concept and bringing it into action.

Doing something innovative doesn’t necessarily mean starting from scratch or doing something different just for the sake of it. It does, however, require you to:

  • Take stock of what marketing campaigns are working and why
  • Review your current target market and if you need to expand or refine it
  • Get clear on what marketing content you already have and how to expand on it or use it in a new way

Getting to the heart of what makes your offerings unique—and what’s already working—allows you to explore innovative concepts that stay rooted in your core business but open up creative ways to market your offerings.

Ready to get creative about how your organization plays with innovative concepts to craft marketing strategy? For a little creative bump, try these marketing strategies:

Ask Questions to Build Trust and Leverage Your List

If you’re unsure of where to start when coming up with innovative concepts, start with a dependable resource: clients and prospects.

All businesses have blind spots or unexplored areas of opportunity because they can’t fully operate from a client perspective. To build a pool of fresh ideas, why not tap into clients and prospects? Not only will they feel honored that you asked for creative input, but you can leverage it as an opportunity to connect in a way that’s not selling-specific. Clients or prospects are also likely know what the competition is doing, and may have insightful feedback you can use or refine.

Let Clients See How the Sausage Is Made

Telling only goes so far, so be sure to show your customers the human side of your business. Use video to make things more personal, and reveal “behind the scenes” sneak peeks of your company culture or processes.

Sources like Vidyard offer great examples of how to take what you do and turn it into an educational and engaging marketing tool that builds awareness through human connection. Investing in video also helps support a consistent brand voice that builds trust, rather than creating one-way marketing that just aims to sell.

In addition, video helps illustrate that your organization is comprised of humans who really want to help and support clients to accomplish success in their own right. To hit this point home even more, ask a client to participate in a “behind the scenes” video you can both use. It helps strengthen a specific client relationship, and it exposes you to a whole new set of potential clients interested in their story.

Mind Your Marketing Content Funnel: Keep Content Simple, Accessible, and Consistent

The common thread of an all-star B2B buyer experience is the quality, consistency, and relevancy of content throughout the entire buyer’s journey.” —Christine Viera, Kapost’s SVP of Marketing

The B2B sales process is a long one filled with several decision makers. To keep buyers moving through the funnel instead of stalling out, it’s essential to have value-add marketing content. Providing easy access to a content repository for employees allows anyone who’s part of the sales process to find what they need quickly, and offers clients educational purchase incentives.

The bonus? A buyer’s journey built around a clear, strategic path of content eliminates content chaos both in terms of development and execution, and also offers extra time to explore more innovative concepts.

Focus on How Integrated Marketing Can Craft a Personalized Purchase Experience

Eighty-three percent of consumers expect and see value in a brand delivering a personalized shopping experience across all channels.” —CMO Solution Guide to Leveraging New Technology and Marketing Platforms

Buying needs to be simple and personalized in order to catch attention from customers already bombarded by marketing. Between emails, social media, and ads, clients want to know that they’re seeing what’s most relevant to them, which means B2B companies need to know how to deliver this experience.

Marketing automation offers a powerful way to keep relevant marketing outreach coordinated and relevant, and offers data tracking to help improve or enhance future marketing and social strategies using more innovative concepts.

Foster Creative Partnerships to Build Outreach on Various Marketing Platforms

Your B2B organization can’t be all things to all people, but you can find a way to stretch an online presence through creative partnerships that reach more diverse eyes and ears. Guest blogging on the site of an industry alliance, co-creating content on YouTube with a popular personality, or joining forces with an innovative start-up to build something unique can go a long way in breathing new life into how people see your business and what you offer.

Remember, the most successful innovative concepts start with one important seed: your core business. Use that as a base and find creative ways to reach out that make sense, rather than going for something splashy and crazy that can’t be related back to the brand voice and message you’ve worked so hard to build.

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