You may believe that designing that innovative great product product no one has ever seen before, or creating a service that people will flock to, is all it takes to make it in today’s business world. You are however very wrong. While the hard part may be over, and you may be very proud of your creation, you are still eons away from the finish line.

What you now need to do is get people to try your great product product, and for that you will need to put your marketing hat on, and start working on a plan to draw in a customer base. In order to do that, you will need to think outside the box, and stand out from a very large crowd – the world of marketing today is not like anything it used to be.

Here are a few ideas on how to reach your target audience.

Guerilla tactics

Let’s cover offline steps first: because the average consumer is bombarded by about a billion ads every minute of his life, you need to do something to make him remember you, and not your next door competitor. If you want to attract the attention of a varied audience, you might want to devise a guerilla attack. Think up a street performance, a creative outlet, anything that can be done in broad daylight, and that will make every passer-by turn their head. Remember to carefully brand your venture, to let them know who’s behind it all.

The power of social media

As people spend a staggering amount of their time online, your surest bet is to start targeting them there. Try to learn as much about your target audience as you can, and explore which social networks they use. After that, you can start bombarding their feeds with thought out posts. However, don’t make these posts seem too much like an advertisement. Aggressive sales are not what you are trying to do, merely make a stamp on the consciousness of your potential client base.

Reviews and mentions

If you have a product to sell, try to send it out to influential bloggers who cover topics from your business niche. Don’t just do this randomly – try using prospecting tools like Dibz to find sites which have a following, and have already done reviews in the past. Get in touch with them and see if they’d be interested in covering your product. Don’t be discouraged if not a lot of people want to help out at first. It will take some time to get your brand out there, and raise a bit of hype around your product.

Adwords campaigns

If you are comfortable with setting aside a budget for marketing, you might want to look into Google Adwords as well. Studies show that most people do not make a distinction between a paid ad and an organic result, so showing up on Google’s first page might rake in a few consumers. If you have no Adwords experience, don’t embark on this campaign on your own. Find an expert who can help you determine the keywords you need to rank for, and plan your plan of attack for you. I hope these ideas will help you come up with a strategy that will put you on the map and help you generate sales.