24 Marketing Ideas to Start 2024

If you're a small operation, I want to help you start the new year brimming with ideas for how to engage people. The type of marketing that you don't just scroll past and forget, but something that in some small way makes an impact. It endears someone to your brand and maybe even makes them want to share it.

Marketing, at it's core, is just inviting people into your work, your business, your brand.

But ideas without strategy, it’s just guessing. And there is a time and place for experimentation, but more often than not, just trying things is a recipe for overwhelm and burnout. So before we get to the ideas, let's explore the connection between a brand and its marketing.

Brand strategy and marketing strategy go hand-in-hand.

Brand strategy is all about knowing who you are and who you serve. Building a compelling brand starts with strategy. Digging down and getting crystal clear on every piece of why you exist. But most of this brand strategy work goes unseen from the outside.

Sure, you'll see the branding — as in logos and colors and fonts. But most of this strategy work is internal knowledge. Think of a tree. You don't see the roots, but they are what make the tree strong, make it thrive. The roots are brand strategy. Marketing strategy, on the other hand, that is what you do see. It's a big part of how you bring your vision into the world. How you invite people to engage with your brand, your work.

Often, we get caught with tunnel vision with our marketing. Especially when it comes to social media. Whether it's you or a social media manager you've hired or even AI, many times it's just "what do I post now?" I hear this so often from the businesses and organizations I work with.

What do I post now? What do I do next?

So few are able to break through the immediacy fog and really use the opportunity. Instead, we tell ourselves "done is good enough." But it's not. Contrary to a lot of advice out there, we don't need more. We need better. Especially when you're small.

Because when you're a small operation, you don't have the big teams and huge budgets to throw behind your marketing. You need to use each opportunity wisely because it's such a valuable percent of the time, energy, and attention you have available.

But the good news is that if you genuinely care about your work, you already have the secret ingredient to great marketing.

Because the key to great marketing for small operations is personality. Combine personality with solid strategy and you'll really start to hit a state of flow. Of sustainable growth. Of peace, knowing your actions are actually leading to progress.

When putting this marketing idea guide together, I didn't want to give overly specific marketing ideas. The goal is to give you starting points and leave lots of room for you to infuse your own goals and personality.

So when the pdf guide says host an event, think this through for yourself. Are you brick and mortar or locally based?

Ask yourself how you can do something fun that brings people in, something you'd actually want to do?

If you're a bike shop, maybe you host a free bike repair class or mountain biking fundamentals class. If you're a non-profit, maybe host a screening of a film that touches that on what you're working toward too.

But more than anything, aim to bring authenticity and personality and uniqueness to the table. We’re all looking for more of this in our lives. Your people will appreciate it. And it makes it easy to stick around.

Bon chance!