7 Strangely Overlooked Marketing Assets You Can Work On Today

Whether you want to be known locally, nationally, or all around the world, the tactics and tools you use to gain attention and raise consumer awareness are at the heart of how your business is going to get there. Are there overlooked marketing assets that you could be using to achieve that?

Small businesses need hard work, close attention, and smart marketing to grow into trusted brands. As a small business owner (or marketing team), your first goal is to reach that target audience via various marketing channels. However, some get more attention than others and it is those overlooked ways to attract consumer attention that we'll be focusing on today.

7 Overlooked Marketing Assets

No one can deny the importance of modern marketing channels, but there are some traditional tactics and channels that have faded from the memory of small business owners and marketers. In the right hands, these methods can drive highly-engaged, marketing qualified leads to your business.

Let's take a look at seven overlooked marketing assets that you could start using to your advantage today.

Local Events and Publications

Consider sponsoring small community events or local sports teams. Most of these events ask only a minor investment and, in return, your business gets a healthy marketing boost with people right on your doorstep.

Getting your business mentioned in local magazines, directories, and publications is also an overlooked marketing asset. Local publications provide focused reach at a fraction of the price of national advertising. You can target very specific customers and interest groups by building the right relationships with journalists and influencers in your area. As with many traditional channels, print media has also reduced their advertising prices to remain competitive with digital alternatives. If you fail to get coverage via your PR outreach, don't underestimate the value of a paid placement to reach the right audience at an affordable price.

Similarly, vehicle advertisements are affordable and provide a powerful marketing asset that can go almost anywhere. There are companies which put your advertisements on their vehicles for a small monthly fee. Your business advertisement reaches a broad range of audience and covers a very targeted area.

Untapped Social Networks

Social media profiles are an important part of any marketing strategy nowadays. Many businesses use these platforms to keep up with customer expectations and . Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are the most common choice amongst small business owners and managers. You can get one step ahead of the competition by using untapped social networks with great marketing potential.

Subject to who makes up your target market, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, or Linkedin can all be valuable additions to your social media toolbox. Add Whatsapp to that list if you want to encourage potential customers to communicate with you more directly. If you're even more adventurous, dive into these four lesser-known social networks to see if your business could benefit from a presence there.

Even on the established networks mentioned above, there are probably areas that you haven't considered. 

Look for local groups and lists that could benefit from your company's insights and offers. Tread lightly at first. Get a feel for the community and try to help others where you can. Once you're in, you can wait for opportunities to invite local people to your events or offer exclusive discounts to a group that already trusts your business.

Custom Phone Numbers

One of the most overlooked marketing assets is undoubtedly the humble telephone number. Despite the fact that it appears everywhere your company name appears and anywhere you advertise, many business owners simply take the first number the phone company gives them.

This misses a valuable branding opportunity and leaves customers struggling to remember what is probably the most crucial and direct way to contact your business.

When it comes to remembering companies or products - even those we might love - we're all busy, with very little time to focus and commit things to memory. That becomes even more true in the context of marketing messages, which consumers are exposed to hundreds, perhaps thousands of times every single day. A custom local number or toll-free vanity number makes your business stand out and creates an immediate call to action. Consider that these benefits can be obtained for just a few hundred dollars in some markets and a custom number should be one of the first items on any list to expand marketing initiatives.

Multi-channel Video Content

Videos are an evergreen marketing method. Creating video ads for broadcast television networks still seems prohibitively expensive, but the competition from online advertising channels has driven down prices in many markets. Creating a short and friendly video describing your products/services is not a difficult task. Suitable video content can also be distributed via - or adapted for - online services. Your business message is amplified to a wider audience and has a marketing asset that spans many different channels. According to research conducted by Business Insider, online video advertising is helping businesses grow much faster than other advertisement channels.

If the marketing budget allows it, hire a professional to make an attractive video representing your business. You can also see if they're able to create online alternatives (usually shorter or multiple clips from the same project) for a little extra. Even if you don't have the budget, there are more affordable options like 30 Second Explainer and others that turn short-form videos out in next to no time.

Even for businesses on a shoestring budget, DIY video content can be one of the most overlooked marketing assets, because owners assume it makes them look unprofessional. Nowadays even an iPhone can record high-definition video that can be edited into a quality piece of content. On the other hand, it can be the very informal, rough and ready videos that are most shared on the web. Find an option that aligns with the image you want to build and there are many ways to leverage video content as an asset for your developing brand.

Local Directory Listings

Directories are an admittedly uninspiring yet undeniably important channel. They are easily overlooked marketing assets, especially by the small businesses who can most benefit from a well-developed directory presence. Get your business listed on popular directory websites like Yelp, Manta, Angi, and others that let you submit your business information for free. After confirmation, your business info goes live on these websites and is accessible to everyone who uses them to search for a service in their local area.

Every city and state is covered by these local directories. Customers can review your business and good reviews inevitably lead to rising site traffic, as more and more people find your business on the first pages. Getting a few local directory listings in high domain authority sites can also benefit your rankings on other search engines like Google and Bing. If you are unable to do it yourself, you can hire someone experienced to do it.

Once established, you can also select the most productive listings by monitoring your referral traffic and where your leads come from. You can then use that information to spend more time fine-tuning your listings on those high-value sites, as well as encouraging satisfied customers to help you build a base of positive reviews that makes your profile stand out even more.

Webinars and Slide Decks

Like e-mail marketing, webinars can be considered an old school online marketing tool. In the right hands, however, they are a powerful way to demonstrate your expertise to a highly engaged audience.

Webinars require some organization and advance promotion, but they can be worth the effort as a way to find the prospects who are most interested in your product or services. After all, if they take 30-60 minutes out of their day to learn about what you do, there's a good chance they'll buy at some point in the future. Slide decks are easier to put together and work best as deep content used to drive traffic to your site or social network. They can be rolled out in multiple locations, like Linkedin and Slide Share for starters, extending the reach of your message at no extra cost.

The best part of webinars and slide decks as overlooked marketing assets is that you probably already have the raw materials to create some outstanding content. Any presentations that your business has delivered or educational materials you've put together can all potentially be repurposed for a webinar or other form of online presentation. Dig into the archives and see what you can find to turn into a new brand asset!

Infographics

Sometimes, the best way to make your point is to paint a picture. Or have a graphic designer create the digital equivalent, because infographics are still big business when it comes to attracting an audience and winning links to your site.

First, gather some data points that offer unique insight into your industry, products, or anything that's of interest to your target audience. Make some calls to find the right designer and produce a visually striking infographic that communicates the data A lot of people are visual learners and simply won't take the time to read even the most engaging text.

Infographics provide a simple and affordable way to access that audience and get your point across. The social shares and referral traffic that they bring is just the cherry on top!

Before paid and digital alternatives came along, traditional marketing channels were more expensive and the number of spots limited. As such, they were the cornerstones of any marketing campaign with significant reach. Nowadays they are still valuable ways to reach potential customers, but take a little more effort to fine-tune.

As we mentioned earlier, a small marketing budget doesn't have to stop your business building a well-known brand. 

These overlooked marketing assets offer a great return on investment at more affordable prices that ever before. Many have a low price of entry, or sometimes none at all, other than the time you spend to secure attention.Blend these ideas and tailor the ideas according to your budget for a fully-rounded marketing strategy that builds your brand by utilizing every available asset.