Presumed outdated, they have been killed, staked through the heart and burned. They don’t work anymore, trendsetters say, and for sure millennials won’t respond to that!
In experts’ world, we all use only mobile apps and social media today. But is that so?
Leaflets, SMS, samples, banners… does the sound of these names gives you goosebumps? Try them: old school methods can deliver impressive results.
The Definitive Guide to Mobile Marketing Automation. Download for free
Social media won’t do
The problem with social media marketing? It’s cheap and available for everybody. Launching a basic Facebook campaign requires less knowledge than working with AdWords, less effort and time than sample distribution, and, last but not least, costs virtually nothing when compared to ads in the press.
In consequence:
– Marketers focus on social media, neglecting other channels, causing substantial loss
– Social media get super-saturated with marketing, so it’s harder to stand out, as Shawn Graham pinpoints.
The good news? If you try some less frequently used ideas and less crowded places, you will be
A traditional leaflet could have a better impact on your sales than fancy pictures on Instagram.
What don’t you know about mobile apps?
We love mobile apps but feel that there is a lot of understatements and myths around the topic. To make a successful app it takes much more than just creating it. No matter how amazing your app is, it still requires:
– marketing, including ASO (App Store Optimization), so your app is easy to find
– engagement strategy, preferably with Mobile Marketing Automation, to make sure that customers will actively use the app after the download.
Read more about mobile apps: 3 Secrets of the most Successful Mobiel Apps, Mobile apps in 2015: vital stats for E-commerce
We don’t want to encourage you from social media or apps, but rather to draw your attention to their limits and to other effective methods you might be overlooking. What tactics do we have in mind?
They still work!
Maybe they aren’t sexy. Maybe they aren’t omnipresent in contemporary marketing discourse. But they deliver results.
1) Leaflets: a lot depends on the type of your business, but wait a moment before you quit leaflet marketing forever. 38% of receivers keep the leaflets they get for a couple of days, and another 13% – for a week or more. (Metrix Marketing) People find leaflets useful.
2) Free samples: it’s a favorite method of Claude Hopkins, the founding father of scientific approach to advertising. He claimed that samples work because they allow customers to discover new products and make a rational shopping decision.
3) SMS: nobody uses them anymore? Well, not exactly. According to SAP, 64% of customers would like to receive more messages from organizations via SMS. They also declare that they visit the website or check the offer after getting information. According to Tatango, they show 99% Open Rate. Not to mention it addresses some of the very modern problems, such as ROPO effect.
4) Email: like SMS, he is a venerable fellow (44 years!). Email still delivers the highest ROI from all the tools in marketer’s arsenal. It’s also cost-efficient and can be easily tested, tracked and personalized. Hungry for more knowledge? Chec out our ebook: 10 Commandments of Email Marketing
5) Events: participate in events and conferences to meet your customers and take a sneak peek into competitors’ performances. Face-to-face contact will also help you establish a relationship with a customer-to-be: she will be more prone to buy from a company she can associate with a real human being she saw and talked to.
6) Personal touch: nothing can replace the feeling that customer is understood and treated in a unique way. In brick and mortar store salespeople can create such aura with tactful questions, smile and paying attention. But you can recreate it in your e-store with personalization: tailor content and offers on the website to user’s profile, apply 1-to-1 messages and adopt the multichannel approach.
7) Banners: do we all suffer from banner blindness? No, because with Marketing Automation banners transformed into a useful and personalized mean of communication. How to create banners with an offer perfectly tailored to individual user’s needs? Read more about personalized banners.
Don’t be a fashion victim
And find your style beyond fads. Don’t rush to new shiny channels just because everyone else does so.
But also remember that trust for old school methods doesn’t mean you practice them the same way they used to be practiced. Rather see how they evolve! Modern marketing doesn’t resemble spam from the 90. Also, banners or SMS changed due to Marketing Automation.
So what marketing tools to choose? Old and proven or new and trendy? The answer is simple: each that helps you understand customers and deliver what they need.
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