Like most marketing campaigns, you are very likely trying to think of a way to make your brand stand out while growing your base with more signups, subscribers, and users. Every successful brand needs to try to expand their audience without overpaying for marketing. By thinking outside of the box you can come up with marketing campaigns that promote your company on all channels and funnels. Here are some creative ideas to start growing your brand in unusual ways.
Launch a Referral Program
It’s a fact that the majority of consumers trust a product that has been recommended by someone they know than other forms of marketing. Use this simple strategy where your customers help promote your product for you. A referral program can be easily built by using a tool like Ambassador to handle all the details, giving you time to focus on crafting a successful campaign. Dropbox proved double sided referrals work, awarding extra storage to both the inviter and the invitee. Airbnb offered travel credits to both parties after a qualifying booking, which lifts participation and ties rewards to product value.
Give Away Stickers
It sounds so simple, but giving free stickers out to customers and placing them in public places can really pay off. The founder of Reddit spent only $500 on promotional tours and traveled about placing them in visible places and giving them away for free. Without spending anything on any other marketing investment, the company has grown to be a huge online community now.
Host a Contest
Hosting a contest is a great way to grow your brand, and many successful startups have used contests to quickly build their audience and customer base. For example, when starting up, YouTube offered a free iPod Nano giveaway each day for users who invited their friends to join and uploaded videos. Now it’s the biggest video-sharing platform on the internet. It’s even easier now to run contests with the latest tools and apps. Publish official rules, eligibility, prize values, and your winner selection method, and follow each platform’s promotion guidelines. Tools like Gleam and Rafflecopter manage entries, verify actions, flag duplicate submissions, and automate random draws and winner notifications.
Bribe New Customers with Cash
Do you know what your acquisition costs are? If you’re like most businesses, your company already spends money to gain each new user. What if you cut out the middleman and spent the money directly to a user rather than ads or other marketing strategies? That is exactly how PayPal went from a startup to the success they are today – they paid users $10 to join their site and another $10 for each user they referred.
Offer a Free Gift
Everybody loves getting a freebie. If you find yourself struggling to find a unique selling angle for your product, consider offering something “free” with every purchase. This strategy has worked well for many brands. For example, Diamond candles offers a promotion that includes a free $10, $100, $1,000, or $5,000 ring with every purchase, tying in with their branding. While it seems like a hefty investment, they buy the rings in bulk, and it’s turned into a profitable campaign for increasing sales.
Launch a UGC Hashtag Campaign
Ask customers, contractors, or distributors to share product in use photos or short clips with a branded hashtag. Reshare top entries across your channels and website, turning real installs into social proof that builds trust. GoPro and Chipotle grew reach with hashtag challenges on Instagram and TikTok, showing how simple prompts unlock sharing. Offer small rewards, product credits, or a homepage feature, and request permission before reuse to cover rights.
Create a Viral Explainer Video
If you’re searching for a way to generate traffic and encourage viewers to buy more of your product, create a hilarious “explainer video” that is designed to entertain while also explaining how useful your product is. This has worked very well for both the Squatty Potty and Poo-pouri. Neither spent much on their advertising campaigns, but their videos are funny and were frequently shared on social media, reaching over 40-million views. To achieve success, create an unusual and unique angle to promote your products and then film a short video explaining how to use it and what makes it different from competitors.
