Does traditional marketing still work? That’s the question that marketers ask now that digital marketing dominates marketing budgets.
By 2023, eMarketer predicts that digital marketing will account for two-thirds of all marketing spending.
That doesn’t mean that traditional marketing strategies don’t work. In fact, there is plenty of evidence that there are plenty of strategies that deliver a return on investment.
Knowing which strategies are the best ones is a challenge. You also don’t want to completely throw out digital marketing strategies, either.
Don’t worry, because this article has you completely covered. Keep reading to discover the best traditional marketing strategies and how to make them work in today’s digital world.
1. Networking
There isn’t anything as effective as good old-fashioned meeting in person. Networking continues to be one of the more effective forms of marketing.
That’s because people get to interact with you. They see your non-verbal cues and pick up on your passion and enthusiasm for your business.
They also get to know you over time. They’ll refer business to you and trust that you’ll take care of their friends and family. If you don’t then your business will dry up.
The key to networking is to find the right groups. Look for chambers of commerce, industry groups, and B2B networking groups.
2. Trade Shows
Trade shows work for similar reasons as networking. People prefer to have in-person meetings and network.
For both B2B and B2C companies, this is a great way to launch a product or just get in front of potential customers.
You do need to have a solid trade show marketing campaign. Your presence takes planning. It’s important to have an impressive display and enthusiastic staff to meet your customers.
Look to other trade show displays and designs for inspiration. You can see several ideas at Rockwayexhibits.com to get started.
3. Referrals
Most companies depend on referrals to survive. Yet, they’re not intentional about generating referrals.
They just do work for their customers and assume that their customers will tell others. You have to prompt your customers to refer business to you.
Most are happy to do so, they’ve never been asked. Create a campaign to get people to refer people to you.
4. Direct Mail
Direct mail is still effective because people love getting things in the mail. The most effective direct mail campaigns aren’t one-time mailings.
They’re a series of mailings. The repetition gets your brand in front of customers and leaves a lasting impression.
5. Signage
Brick-and-mortar locations can see a lot of benefits from having a clear sign outside of their location. The right sign in a great location can reach hundreds of people a day.
You can take signage even further inside your location. You can use signs to inform customers of sales and special items.
6. Local Sponsorships
You can’t go to a sporting event without seeing dozens of ads. The global sports sponsorship market was about $29 billion in 2020.
You don’t have to sponsor Real Madrid or have a stadium named after your business. You can sponsor local teams and events and have a sizeable impact on your business.
Local sponsorships are great for brand awareness. People will see your brand in multiple places and become familiar with it.
When they are ready for your services, they’ll call the companies that they already know and trust. Yours will be one of them.
How to Make Traditional and Digital Marketing Strategies Work
You shouldn’t have to choose one marketing strategy over the other. Traditional and digital marketing strategies work best when they’re integrated.
They’re complementary, not competing strategies. An integrated marketing campaign can increase the effectiveness of any of these individual marketing strategies by 57%.
A great example of an integrated campaign is referral marketing and digital marketing. People still trust personal referrals, but they usually do their own research before they contact a company.
They’ll look up a company online, read reviews, and view the company’s website. You have to have all of these pieces in place to get the sale.
You’ll want to set marketing goals for your integrated campaign. You can create several goals, but make sure they don’t compete against each other.
You should have one goal as the primary goal, which is where most of the attention and marketing budget will go.
Map out how digital and traditional marketing strategies achieve your goals.
For example, you can use traditional marketing for brand awareness. Digital marketing can support that and turn those efforts into direct sales.
You’ll need to decide how to measure success. You’ll need to use analytics to measure results. This is tricky with many forms of traditional marketing because you can’t attribute it directly to sales.
The main thing to keep in mind as you execute the campaign is to keep your branding consistent. You can’t have a brochure with one set of colors and fonts and a website that looks completely different.
Keep the message and look consistent across all marketing strategies.
Bring Your Teams Together
Integrated marketing also means integrated marketing staff. All too often, companies run integrated campaigns, but they still separate teams.
They have a digital team and a creative team, and the two rarely work together. You need to make sure that your teams work together.
They should develop strategies and tactics together. They also need to share data to get a complete understanding of the marketing campaign.
The Best Traditional Marketing Strategies
Traditional marketing strategies still work. Companies spend billions on trade shows, direct mail, sponsorships, and other traditional strategies.
They all work and they’re incredibly effective in their own right. When you add digital marketing to the mix, your marketing strategies are even more effective.
Now that you know what traditional marketing strategies work, take a look at the digital marketing section of this site to help you create better marketing campaigns.