This is a weird one, because it usually sits in the remit of user generated content on the web and usually bloggers jump on these ideas. Many times we have seen small bloggers do at least one of the below so well that they grow to be brands in their own rights. We don’t see why businesses, from small to big, cant use these in their content strategies.
Complimentary Services
I have used this tactic early in my career when I used to work with a large number of doctors. Most medical services don’t exist in silo, but required a well formed support mechanism. A good example is orthopaedic specialists who need to work with Radiology departments, physiotherapists etc. I used to encourage doctors to cover detailed information about these related and complimentary services on their websites for two reasons, first its relevant content, second, its very useful information to patients (their customers).
The same strategy could easily be used by a number of businesses, for example if you are running a website for a local garage, information about service providers such as local car part dealers, towing services and even car insurance providers would be useful to their customers.
Product Alternative Uses
This isnt really for everyone, but could in theory apply to a range of businesses. Typically referred to as “product hacking” you will find interesting examples online of how people change one product or service to do something completely different to its original purpose.
Tshirt hacks like the one shown above are quite popular on social sites, and Pinterest is full of some really clever ideas. If I was a tshirt seller, I would try and build hacks of my own, or feature those that like on my site.
In fact, IKEA hacking (click on link to see the no.1 site that works on finding the best IKEA hacks) is so popular, that it has built up heavy search volume:
