10. Email Marketing
Email marketing is sending people emails so they buy your product.
Today, it’s become quite complex, you can’t simply send one email to people and hope they buy, as they won’t.
Email marketing is a part today of complex digital sales funnels that usually go like this.
- You offer people something for free in exchange for their email address: “sign up for my free 5-day email course”.
- You send people your course during which you teach them to do something.
- At the end of the 5-day email course, you invite them to a free webinar for those that “want to learn more”.
- You do your webinar and at the end, offer paid courses or individual consulting sessions.
- AND ONLY THEN, you make money.
This is only one example of a sales funnel, which, as you can see, would not work without email marketing.
11. Engineering as Marketing
Engineering as marketing is building a product or service people can use for free, and if they want more, they can get the paid version.
Similarweb, or Ubbersuggest, enable people to use some of their features for free, and to pay if they want more.
12. Business Development
Business development is partnering with another company and introducing each other’s products to the other.
Eg: you can now book a Bolt taxi in the Binance app.
13. Sales
Sales is hiring salespeople that will whether set up sales funnels for you, or contact potential customers directly to sell your stuff.
You usually pay them a basic salary + commission on what they sell.
14. Existing Platforms Marketing
These platforms are social media, aggregators, forums, listicles, and marketplaces.
Social media
There are lots of things you can do on social media nowadays.
Let’s take Linkedin as an example.
On Linkedin, you can:
- Contact people to sell them your stuff.
- Write content as part of a marketing funnel.
- Display ads for your product or service.
A friend of mine got an agency that’s doing exactly that. The reason why it’s interesting to work with them is that the outreach service is on commission – you only pay when they find leads for you. Tell him you came from me if you end up contacting him.
Aggregators
Aggregators are excellent places to display your product/service.
Producthunt is likely one of the most famous aggregators.
Listicles
Listicles are a list that you can find on blogs.
Such an example could be: “best crowdfunding investment platforms in Europe”.
You can reach out to the people that wrote these articles and ask them to be added to the list.
App stores and Marketplaces
You can be present on these to sell your service, or you can also advertise.
15. Community Building
Community marketing is the creation of a community with a heavy content marketing strategy.
Fans in your community exchange together and with you. They’re usually the first people to buy your product when you sell something.
Everyone wants a community because no one understands how they work.
Community building is one of the most difficult things to build but it entails having people giving you BOTH their time and money.
Use software like Discord or Telegram and offer people to be a part of these groups.
Then create massive content so that they keep on coming back.
16. Event Organization
The idea is to organize events to promote your product or event.
When I was at the Web Summit in 2022, the payment processor Rapyd organized a private concert by David Guetta to promote their services, for example.
Event organization can also be online with webinars, for example.
17. Speaking Engagement
No one likes public speaking, so this is quite easy to do.
Find conferences and events in your industry, contact the organizers, and offer them to speak about your topic of predilection.
18. Networking
Networking is an abominable term that simply means “talking to people”.
People will remember you much better (and answer your emails) once you have talked to them in real life.
The easiest to meet people is at industry events.
Be nice, don’t kiss *ss, and ask interesting questions.
Add them on Linkedin too, always helps.
19. Merchandising Marketing
Likely one of the most UNDERRATED marketing channels nowadays, and the reason why clothes brands are so powerful.
Think about Gymshark or Nike for a minute.
Why do these brands have so much power?
Because anyone that buys them broadcasts to everyone they bought them because they have the name and logo printed in BIG on the clothes or shoes.
Consider that these companies sell products that advertise their own brand.
Genius.
You can do the same by selling merch on your site, or simply giving it for free to your customers.
20. Sponsoring
Sponsoring remains a really good way to build your brand and get into people’s minds.
What do you see when you watch Roland Garros?
Rolex. Rolex is everywhere.
You can sponsor anything nowadays:
- Summits, conferences
- Festivals (movie, music, etc)
- Charity events
- Athletes, cyclist teams, formula 1 teams, football teams (eg: Red Bull)
- Movies, through product placement
- A star so they wear/use/talk about your product
- An influencer
21. Stunts
Stunts is akin to viral marketing, just…bigger.
When Felix Baumgartner jumps from his balloon, that’s not viral marketing.
That’s a stunt, because the world was glued to their screen to watch him — and watch Red Bull at the same time.
22. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is partnering up with someone with a large social media following and paying them so they talk about your product.
Max Lugavere, for example, often promotes products in his IG stories, with a coupon so the company can track how effective the campaign is.
Make sure to contact influencers whose audience is compatible with your product.
Lol.
23. Outreach
It’s basically sales.
Now, it doesn’t necessarily mean reaching out to your customers directly.
You can also reach out to potential affiliates or distribution partners.
There are lots of software that help you do that.
Cognism or Zoominfo help you contact potential customers in the B2B shere. Justreachout helps you reach out to journalists, and NinjaOutreach or Heepsy help you reach out to influencers, etc.
24. Building an Audience
It’s content marketing + social media (although not necessary) + newsletter (or at the very least, email capture).
Building an audience helps you always have people to sell your stuff to.
25. Develop Your Own Media
Did you know that Red Bull had a TV channel?
Of course, it’s another scale, but developing your own media can be as easy as having your own YouTube channel, like GoPro.
26. Offline Ads
One of the best ways to grow your biz remains to use some good old offline ads.
It’s important you go put them where your customers are!
Consider using flyers, billboards, posters, or interactive billboards.
Finally, consider advertising in the following places:
- TV
- Radio
- Magazines
- Newspapers
- Cinema
- Bowling Alley
- Bars
- Airport lounges
- Hospitals
- Doctor/dentist offices
- Malls
27. Product Placement
Product placement is placing your product where people don’t necessarily expect to see an ad.
Eg: When James Bond uses a Nokia, that’s because Nokia paid millions for that.
You can place your products in:
- Music (Eg: Balenciaga)
- Movies
- Video games
The next level is actually making one of these.
Eg: when I was a kid, the chocolate brand Leo had made two games to play on the computer.
Genius.
Conclusion
There isn’t only Facebook ads in life.
Did I forget a channel?
Let me know in the comments.
