In marketing, it's all about gimmicks and fast results. For some reason, I've never found any shortcuts that really worked very well.
It appears the real formula for success is to love what you do and to love your audience and customers. That means you are always looking for ways to give your audience something they will appreciate and engage them in a fun and interesting way. If you can only think about how you're going to get money out of their pockets, you'll be way behind the curve.
Love your customers a little more than everyone else
In my business, we have two lists; some are customers, while others are just on the list because they wanted to download something we gave away for free. Sometimes, it's nice to let everyone know that your customers are going to get something really great for free because after all, they are real customers. The idea is to make the takers jealous, so let them know how well you treat your real customers. I do this periodically by sending out a general e-blast about a product update and in that e-blast I let everyone know the people who already own that product will get the update for free. Naturally, we like to update our software products as often as possible.
Love your marketing tasks
If you're on Facebook or Instagram, be sure to enjoy the time you spend there. Enjoy chatting with people and thank them for participating. If you hate social media and pictures, then you need to find someone who enjoys this to do it for you, because it's nearly impossible to succeed at something you don't like.
In short, this is all about being genuine and authentic. Mysteriously, people can sense this and respond well to sincerity and respond quite negatively when they feel they're being manipulated. I call this "21st Century Marketing"; instead of bragging about how great you are, just love what you do; love your customers, and enjoy doing everything you can to make them happy. In almost every case they'll love you back. Monetizing this love will take care of itself, as word will get around.
