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Episode #9 of the course Startup marketing for everyone by Jonah Bliss
Well what do you know—we’ve managed to cover the basics of marketing in just eight emails. That means it’s time to get ADVANCED. In other words, the past lessons are great ways to get started, but here are a few other techniques you can utilize to jumpstart your growth (or if you want to sound really cool, you can call this “growth hacking”).
Retargeting
Have you ever looked at an item on Amazon but ultimately decided not to purchase it, and then found that ads for that very product seemed to follow you around the internet for the next week? That’s called retargeting, where a cookie (a small data file) keeps tabs on people who have visited pages of your choosing so you can circle back with specialized advertising.
The advantage is, unlike a random user on Facebook or Google, you already know these people are interested in your business, and they already have some basic info on you. Converting them to customers should be all the easier. While this may sound very complex, tools from companies like AdRoll and Google make it pretty simple for anyone to set up basic ads and take advantage of this technology.
Referrals
Nobody is a better advocate for your company than happy customers. So why not empower them to help spread the word for you by incentivizing them with rewards for every customer they sign up for you? Consider setting up a referral program where you keep track of who sent in new customers and pay them (either in cash or credit toward their account with you) for every buyer they bring. You can either set this up informally, add a box like “who referred you?” to any sign-up forms you may have, or make use of pre-existing referral software.
Craigslist
Here’s another technique that has helped grow businesses both online and off—make clever use of Craigslist. Are people looking for services like yours? Respond to them! Or maybe you can generate listings relevant to any new offerings you’ve come up with. The fact is, they have a community of millions, and most actions on it are free to take. So get creative.
A great example of this is AirBnB, where every new home rental unit can be posted to Craigslist’s housing section, instantly putting their brand in front of thousands of new eyes every time.
Looking to learn more innovative marketing techniques? Great communities like GrowthHackers.com are full of great ideas you can apply and learn from.
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