In the digital era, we see more and more businesses completely abandoning the concept of traditional marketing in favour of its digital counterpart. This is mostly due to the fact that it’s a lot easier to keep track of the ROI of your marketing investments, thus checking their effectiveness. John Wannamaker once said that even though he knows that half of the money he invests in marketing is wasted, he can never know which part. Well, this is no longer true even when it comes to traditional marketing. Here’s what you need to know in order to be convinced.
Face-to-face meetings with clients
Networking is an incredibly important part of your traditional marketing. Even in the digital business world, about 9 out of 10 people admit that small meetings tend to be their favourite communication method. Now, these figures may differ when it comes to millennial audiences, who believe that going to the office isn’t necessary, however, the higher up you climb on the professional ladder, you will find that people put more and more fate in face-to-face interactions. Also, keep in mind why online meetings are so popular nowadays – they’re just more convenient. Even though they like face-to-face meetings more they take time and cost money (for commute and organizational costs). In other words, keep them to a minimum but definitely don’t avoid them.
Printed materials
While a lot of people may be sceptical about the importance of printed advertisement in the 21st century, numbers show that about 40 per cent of consumers have made a purchase in the last three months as a direct result of a piece of mail that they’ve received. Also, about 56 per cent of direct mail sent is actually read by the recipients. Why? Well, mostly because, in this day and age, they aren’t often receiving this direct mail, which makes it into a greater paramount for them to actually pay attention to it. Also, for some reason, about 55 per cent of your consumers seem to trust print marketing more than any other advertising method.
Needless to say, printed mail is not the only form of promotional material that you can use. Other than this, you can also go for billboards or print the logo of your enterprise on the side of a company car. This way, you get to spread awareness of it wherever you go. One more similar method that you can use is a branded printed fence wrap, which is an ideal form of promotion for construction companies but can really be used in virtually any other industry, as well. As far as the promotional merchandise like branded t-shirts, umbrellas, hats and similar items go, the usefulness of this method is more than self-explanatory.
In unison with your digital marketing
One of the most important things you need to understand about traditional marketing is the fact that it’s not a polar opposite to digital marketing. In fact, it’s a method that you can use in order to give your digital marketing efforts a substantial boost. While you can optimize your social media presence in order to generate more leads, you can also use traditional marketing methods to promote your online presence. For instance, during face-to-face meetings, you could encourage your clients and partners to pay a visit to your blog, website or check you out online. Other than this, you could also add social media handles or at least icons of social networks that your brand is present/active on.
Business cards
The reason why we’ve put business cards last is due to the fact that they’re a topic that a lot of marketers are quite opinionated of. Sure, there are a lot of entrepreneurs amongst millennials who aren’t using them at all, however, there’s also a statistic that about 27 million business cards get printed on a daily basis. For those who are mostly concerned about the ROI of this investment, it’s important to know that for every 2,000 business cards that you distribute, your company’s sales grow by 2,5 per cent. Only you can tell if this is a cost-efficient practice in your particular case.
In conclusion
At the end of the day, no matter how good your product is, without proper marketing, it’s unlikely that your sales will be anything to brag about. Sure, digital marketing is incredibly effective but there are a lot of people who are cautious of various scams when it comes to e-commerce and online trade. This is why, for the maximum effectiveness of your marketing campaign, you have to combine both new- and old-school methods.