If you ask an entrepreneur or a business expert about useful and operative marketing strategies and ideas, you will probably get hold of plenty of them but in reality, marketing strategies and ideas largely depend on the unique situations of businesses. Growing your business can be a challenge and when all the brand new strategies seem to fail, there is no harm in going back to the basics.
There are several marketing tactics from the “old school” that have been tried but now most of them have been left out in the dust. So, you mean to say that those techniques no longer work. You are right sometimes but not this time around. Haven’t you heard of the unique magic that only an old wine can create? If not, allow me illuminate you. Old marketing ideas somehow seem to find a similarity with the concept of old wine we are talking about.
Old marketing tactics can still play an instrumental role in your marketing plans, particularly if yours is a startup business or a business with a small turnover. Since they can also have a huge impact on things relating to decisions and perceptions, incorporating some of them that suits the requirements of your business in the current scenario makes sense.
Here is a look at why you must dust them off and bring them into the picture all again.
Strategy 1# – Direct mail marketing
It can’t be denied that email marketing is one of the most successful and well proven marketing strategies that can help the businesses stay in touch with their potential customers on a regular basis. Even though the direct email campaigns can be little harder to reach, they are only going to benefit the small businesses in terms of sales and response from their valued customers that are not huge in number. They may be expensive and sometimes hard to measure but still beneficial for small businesses vying hard to reach a local market with the help of postcards, letters, flyers, print newsletters and more. These can be less time consuming and quite effective in the long run for startup businesses.
Here are some of the tips that can help you plan out a successful direct mail campaign:
- Segment your lists and break down between your existing customers and prospective customers. Segmenting can also be based on the location, demographics, interests, etc.
- Concentrate on sending fewer but useful and quality mails which means you genuinely think they are worth your customer’s attention. Use them strategically rather than using them only frequently. Don’t spam or bombard your customer’s inbox with useless and spammy contents.
- Make sure that you use content that is appealing, pleasant, engaging and interesting. It must be something that tends to inform, educate and encourage action
- Be logical and sound genuinely aware
- Follow up the mails and look for ways that can help you suffice the expectations of your customers. It’s often advisable to give them time to think rather than asking them ‘What do you feel about us?’ more often than not!
- Consider including social media activities, blogs, brand promotion, etc through events and so on!
Strategy 2# – Trade shows
For businesses that are in the B2B phase, trade shows are definitely going to be hard to ignore. Often, these trade shows can represent almost 20% of the marketing budget of your company. For the attendees and exhibitors, trade shows are definitely one of the biggest investments that can prove to be worthy.
Trade shows often signify that the ones who are there are actually serious about buying and selling and mean sheer business! Trade shows are the events that can not only influence the buying decisions of the target audiences but also work in the favour of the businesses like nothing else.
Strategy 3# – Experimental marketing
You may wonder what we actually mean by experimental marketing. Case studies, webinars, events, videos and even the social media engagement strategies of the businesses constitute the most reliable and the most fruitful experimental marketing. We mean to suggest that the first hand experiences that the customers have with your brand go on to making a huge impact on their purchasing decisions and the brand choices.
They also play a crucial role in your overall content marketing strategy and are capable of giving it an altogether different shape. After blogging, articles and newsletters strategies like in-person events, case studies and webinars have proved to be one of the most impactful and exceptionally effective content marketing tactics in the local as well as in the global market, sometimes.
Training and advertising are among the few other tactics that may sound ‘traditional’ to some marketers but they still grab a valid position in your marketing and promotion campaigns. Businesses that are majorly or partially relying on the third party channels for boosting their product sales would realise how every strategy seems to be incomplete without a comprehensive and well planned out channel training program. Other brand building strategies that have proved their prolonged impact include online, print and mobile advertising.
About the Author: Colin Boykins is a blogger and social media addict. He is currently associated with the UK’s most trusted supplier of security posts – Parking-Posts.com.
Photo credit: Incase
