3 Creative Digital Marketing Ideas (And 18 Smart Traditional Ideas!)

An Introduction to Creative Digital Marketing

In 1690, the first U.S. newspaper was published. And in 1704, the first newspaper ad appeared. It announced the sale of an estate in Oyster Bay, Long Island.

If this quick lesson in American history should teach you anything, it’s that when a new media enters the scene, it doesn’t take long before people to start marketing through it. With the modern internet officially making its debut in 1983, you can image a similar pattern emerged in advertising, only on a much, much bigger scale.

Digital marketing is now one of the most common and well-known mediums for businesses around the world. In fact, the space has become so saturated by noise, that marketers are constantly working to outdo one another with “the next big thing.”

So, our point is, what makes a digital marketing idea truly worthy of the “creative” title?

We’ll explain our theories are well as give you some digital marketing ideas of your own to chew on.

Creative vs. Traditional Digital Marketing

Everyone is quick to label something creative because, let’s face it, it sounds fresh. In the era of “breaking the internet” everyone is out here trying to set the bar higher.

With how accessible and affordable digital tools are, many organizations are taking risks and trying out a variety of different tactics each day. While this is a good thing, it does make it extra difficult to truly surprise and delight the public. Which is, at its core, is what differentiates creative and traditional digital marketing.

To help further illustrate the distinction between the two, we’ll give you a few samples.

Examples of Creative Digital Marketing Ideas

As a disclaimer, we’ve never actually put any of these ideas into practice ourselves. But we think they would be pretty cool if someone were able to develop them. Just remember us when you’re famous for making it happen.

1. Digital Easter Egg Hunt

Creating something unexpected is a great way to grab attention. We believe a creative way to do this would be by developing a digital easter egg hunt. Partner with different brands who are willing to help you out and hide your branding material somewhere within their site. Advertise the internet wide hunt on your own channels and reward the sleuths who find them first!

2. Create Your Own Adventure Video

When Black Mirror: Bandersnatch came out on Netflix in late 2018 it rocked the world’s perception of what’s possible within media. If you’re unfamiliar, the movie had a series of A/B choices, and the watcher was able to select from them throughout the film to determine the plot. We suggest utilizing that same psychology to build your own Bandersnatch- style videos that let your customers work through a video determining the pathway themselves.

3. Digital Urban Exploration

The popularity of street art and murals in cities around the country is undeniable. People will do virtually anything for that good Instagram photo! Capitalize on the customer’s desire for an experience and build your own digital art installation. Paint QR codes around a city that, when photographed, reveal digital galleries and exclusive content.

If these suggestions all seem like a Herculean effort, that’s because they are. We don’t expect everyone to be able to pull something off at this scale, and that’s alright!

Creative digital marketing also looks like the innovation your organization can put on an otherwise traditional marketing tool. In our experience, text marketing provides the perfect platform to build something creative and memorable for your audience. With a direct like to your customer’s personal device, the sky is the limit!

18 Examples of Traditional Digital Marketing Ideas

Not exactly feeling ready to break the internet today? We’ve got your back. We’ve got a plethora of traditional and highly effective digital marketing ideas that any marketer could jump in and grab inspiration from.

1. Design a snapchat geotag. Then release the tag during relevant events or special occasions.
2. Take part in popular or trending hashtags with your own original content. For example #MondayMotivation.
3. Run social media contests and giveaways. This is a great way to increase followers and advertise exciting products or services.
4. Connect with influencers popular in your industry. From fashion bloggers to foodies, there’s social media authorities on every topic.
5. Write downloadable e-books and guides and collect email addresses or phone numbers in exchange for the content
6. Collaborate and publish blogs with other industry thought leaders. This both boosts credibility and helps your SEO via backlinks.
7. Host interactive webinars or popular topics. You can invite guest speakers or run it in house!
8. Produce an online magazine giving viewers another reason to visit your online spaces.
9. Invest in gamification marketing tools. These are becoming increasingly popular for reaching younger millennial and Gen Z audiences.
10. Have a keyword specific SEO strategy. Search for relevant topics and develop content clusters around those areas.
11. Integrate video onto your website and social sites. 51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI.
12. Start a podcast. This wildly popular form of media gives you a new way to reach customers eager to learn more about topics you may be an authority on.
13. Design pop up ads specifically for apps. With around 1,300 apps being added to iOS and Android markets every day, there’s plenty of potential.
14. Blog regularly. This will help google recognize your site as current and relevant to readers resulting in it ranking higher.
15. Reconfigure ads for a PPC model. This is a popular way to yield more effective social media marketing results.
16. Customize content to the SERP, aka the Search Engine Results Pages.
17. Use digital data collection tools to send out personalized emails and texts to customers.
18. And finally, be sure that you optimize your website for mobile interaction

So, let’s all agree to start working to preserve the sanctity of the word “creative”. Because, like vanilla ice cream, shortbread cookies, and minivans— sometimes the classic traditional ideas just get to job done right.