You may not have the funds to buy a Super Bowl ad this Sunday, but you can still think like a marketing master and create promotions that will get your fans buzzing.

6 Small Business Marketing Strategies Based on Super Bowl Ads that Get Fans Buzzing

Even if you can’t afford the $4 million price tag for 30 seconds of Super Bowl air time, you can still promote your business in buzz-worthy marketing fashion. Here are six small business marketing ideas based on Super Bowl marketing strategies that can get your fans talking about your business, too.

For some members of the viewing audience, watching and analyzing the Superbowl commercials is more important than actually watching the game. You may not be in a position to foot the bill for a $4 million ad, but you can still grow your business by using these six super marketing strategies.

6 Super Bowl -Inspired Marketing Ideas for Small Business

1. Attract an audience

If an ad falls in the forest, and no one from its target market is there to hear it, does it make a noise? No!

The best marketing and advertising in the world is all for nothing if it not exposed to any your customers, leads or members of your target markets. You don’t need a stadium to get members of your target audiences together; for instance, members of your audience can be assembled using:

• Events
• Open houses
• Seminars
• Presentations at networking or civic groups
• Workshops

What’s more, your audience doesn’t have to be physically assembled at all! Create a captive audience that is ready to respond to your marketing using:

• Webinars
• Optimized web content and landing pages
• Blog articles
• Press releases
• Social networks
• Email marketing
• Contests and drawings

2. Fill the gaps

Superbowl ads do more than just entertain and promote, they also fill the gaps. For your business, this could be a gap such as a:

• Slow month, season or cycle during the year (anticipated or unexpected)
• Discrepancy between the number of new customers (or leads) you want to receive vs. the number you are actually receiving
• Difference between cash flow needed to meet operational needs and what is actually coming in
• Lack of additional income needed to grow the business, not just maintain it

Many business owners make the mistake of cutting the marketing budget when cash flow constricts; in reality, this is the moment to step up strategic, goal-oriented marketing in order to fill the gaps. Likewise, when things are going well, many business owners ease up on marketing activities, only to find that they have created a new “gap” for themselves which then must be addressed.

There is simply no substitute for layout out a marketing plan that includes measurable goals, benchmarks and strategies that are tailored to help you fill the gaps between where your business is today, and where you want it to be tomorrow.

3. Make the interruption worth it

You don’t have to love marketing or a company represented by a Superbowl ad to appreciate the ad itself. Likewise, if you are going to ask customers and prospects to take a break from their own priorities to absorb your marketing message, you need to make it worth their while. The interruption may be worth it to your target markets if you:

• Provide them with relevant and timely solutions
• Help them identify and address a specific need (or want)
• Improve their lives personally or professionally
• Connect them with valuable resources (like marketing ideas!)
• Facilitate learning or growth
• Incentivize or reward them in some way

4. Be entertaining

Even if what you have to say is worth the interruption to your clients and prospects, if it’s not presented in a way they appreciate, it may not accomplish what you intend. In fact, poorly designed marketing materials can even detract from your brand image or preclude prospects from wanting to find out more about your organization.

5. Score some points of your own

With a $4 million price tag for each 30 minute Super Bowl ad spot on the line, you would think that marketers would ensure that their ads are memorable, relatable and relevant. Yet, if you watch enough ads, you will find that many of them fail to deliver a memorable hook. You might have watched and even enjoyed the ad, but you have not connected it with a company or product.

If your marketing fails to make a relevant point with members of your target markets, or it makes a point but your audience doesn’t connect the solution with your brand, you will likely fail to score when it comes to achieving your goals of sales, new customers, new leads, web traffic, social followers, etc.

6. Have a post-game plan

Ultimately great marketing will connect with buyers who are ready to pull the trigger and prospects who are ready to move forward in the buying process. Be sure that your marketing always includes a distinct next step – or call to action – so that those individuals that have connected with your marketing in some way know what they should do next.

And now – enjoy.

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