When you start looking for a marketing guide, chances are that you’ll encounter a list of digital marketing methods. Things like PPC, influencer marketing, social media advertising and more have suppressed a lot of traditional marketing methods, which makes a lot of people believe that traditional marketing is obsolete. However, is this really so? Also, if this is the case, then why are more and more companies investing in traditional marketing even in this day and age. Well, let’s find out!
Rule Of Seven
“The rule of seven” is a unique concept in the marketing world according to which, in order to become a customer, people need to interact with your brand at least seven times. This means that by diversifying the number of mediums that you’re interacting through, you’re actually improving your odds. After all, it’s not like you have to choose between digital and traditional. You can have them both and if this can fit your budget, there’s literally no reason for you not to do so.
Providing Value
When trying to provide value to your audience, traditional marketing gives you the way to do this directly. A blog post may be informative to some but redundant to others. When it comes to promotional merchandise, on the other hand, well… a free t-shirt is a free t-shirt. In other words, all these items have an intrinsic, pragmatic value. Moreover, due to the fact that they will see repeated use, this also plays strongly on the card of the above-discussed rule of seven. All in all, everything seems to be going in your favour.
Promoting Your Business Practices
Another thing you need to understand is the fact that promoting your business practices might be one of the best ways to increase your appeal to your audience. For instance, if you’re a construction company, you have a unique way of branding your construction site with mesh banners. There are agencies that specialize in these custom made banners that act both as protective barriers and branding tools. What this does is allows you to put your own stamp on the site. People walking by will see your brand markings and your staff, equipment and building practices in a single frame.
Enhancing Your Digital Marketing Campaign
A lot of marketers are actually using their traditional marketing to enhance their digital marketing. After all, you can just print your URL or social media handle on any form of promotional merchandise. Other than this, there’s always the issue of giving people something to share online (or even upload it). The best example of this is guerilla marketing. One of the main reasons why people share things online is that they appreciate validation from discovering new things to other people. This is why they are likely to take a photo of a particularly interesting piece of street art. If it’s branded, they might even tag you on social media or use your hashtag.
Cross-formatting
Another pro-collaboration suggestion between traditional and digital marketing lies in the fact that you can easily transition between one format and another. A live event can be live-streamed, thus crossing the line between traditional and modern. Also, a format like an infographic is incredibly easy to transfer into brochures and leaflets. What this means is that you get to pay for the design once and merely introduce several minor adjustments in order to make things work. In other words, it is a frugal and effective method for you to exploit.
The Problem With Analytics
The main reason why a lot of people speak against traditional marketing is that they feel a lack of control when compared to digital marketing. Digital marketing gives you a greater insight into your investments, your ROI and the performance of separate techniques. This helps people understand how the system works and reassures them that all their money is well-spent. However, just because you don’t know the ROI percentage of traditional marketing methods, this doesn’t mean that you aren’t benefiting from their effectiveness. As John Wanamaker once said, half of all the money that he spends on marketing is wasted but he can never know which half. While the system was flawed, it did work.
In Conclusion
As you can see, while traditional marketing is far from dead or dying its role has somewhat shifted in the past several years. Its supportive roll (in support of digital marketing) has reinvigorated it and given it a new purpose. The ROI of traditional marketing is still fairly strong and it is worth mentioning that not everyone is online, even in this day and age. All you need to do is reinvent your approach to traditional marketing and find a way to make it fit into your overall marketing strategy. Needless to say, this is definitely something that you need to look into.
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