Effective Marketing The Old School Way

The rise of digital marketing platforms and social media influencers have helped the direct mail industry to find inventive ways to market products. If you didn't know what direct mail was before reading this then keep on reading because this article will not only shed light on this ingenious marketing strategy but will also highlight some key advantages to direct mailing as an industry alternative for brand exposure.

By now you probably get the gist of what direct mailing is about but to put it in simpler terms, this is a type of marketing that involves brands sending their promotional items to a person's home or work address without their knowledge. The main objective behind this strategic approach is to drive online sales of that brand or business. Nowadays, brands target influential people through this age-old marketing technique. 

Now that you are familiar with the concept, it is important to understand what the advantages are for brands when they opt to use direct mail as their marketing strategy. 

• It Commands  Attention

This is the oldest and most effective way for a brand to be noticed by a prospective client. It provides an intimate relationship with a client because it shows them that you have been attentive to their needs and wants. 

•  Personalized 

Everyone wants something different from the next person. Each delivery is customized.

•  You Get What You See

It is a tangible delivery service and as a client, it's easy to find out if you will like your promotional gift or not as soon as you open the door to sign for your delivery. 

Direct mail is popular for its efficiency and cost-effectiveness. You can receive your direct mail from anywhere in the country and there are many services providers that you can find for instance, if you search for direct mail services in Atlanta you will have a selection of more than twenty businesses that offer the marketing option to brands. So, it doesn't matter where you are you always have the option to do marketing the age-old way. 

Tips for Marketing to Millennials

Depending on your intended audience and product, you may want to target millennial customers. Do you find yourself baffled by where to start reaching out to younger consumers? Learn the finer points of the marketing art so you don't waste time, and so you improve your chances of experiencing favorable results. 

Make Your Content Social 

Millennials embrace new technology that allows them to connect with other people. From a marketing standpoint, that means you want to make your content quick and easy to share on multiple social media platforms. Not only is this how you appeal to younger consumers, but it's also a great way to let your target consumers handle marketing and advertising for you. This helps you save money and time. 

Concentrate on Word of Mouth 

While true of consumers of all ages, millennials are especially apt to let people know just how much they enjoy (or dislike) a specific product. To make it easier for millennials to sing praises of your product or service, offer a free trial. Such offers make it easy for shoppers to give your brand a try, as there's one less hurdle for them to clear. Marketing professionals like Eyal Gutentag would surely recommend that you encourage those who take you up on your trial offer to share their thoughts with their friends and family if they enjoyed your service or product. 

Offer Rapid Responses 

The world has never been so connected, and communication has never been so instantaneous. From a business standpoint, that means your shoppers and potential customers want a quick answer to their inquiries, especially younger consumers. Set up your customer service so that shoppers always receive a quick and thorough response to their question, no matter if it's early in the morning or late at night. Take too long to respond and you may send a potential long-time customer into the arms of your competitors. 

Know Their Values 

When you want to either market to or manage millennial's, you've got to appeal to their values. That means learning which causes millennials care most about and see how your company can support those causes. This could mean supporting a charity, a specific organization, or just doing what you can to support your local community. Even if you aren't targeting younger consumers, supporting charities is good for your company's public profile. 

Remain Transparent 

Millennials shop with a fair degree of skepticism, and who can blame them? No consumer wants to feel taken advantage of or become a victim. That means you need to operate with complete transparency about how you do business, what ingredients or components you use in your product or service, and how you use customer information. Remember, it's easy for modern shoppers to do a bit of research on their own to see whether companies are as reputable and honest as they claim to be. Make it easy for younger consumers to understand where you're coming from. 

Once you gain the attention of Millennial shoppers, take steps to keep it. Once you have their loyalty, it could be easier than you think to keep them coming back to your company again and again.

The Advantages of Offline Marketing

In the day and age we live in, with technology right at our fingertips, it is important for any business to have an online presence. People are online, and if we want them as potential customers, then we need to be online too. However, it is important to not forget about the fact that having an offline presence can also be important. There are offline marketing strategies that have been shown to work, but they just get forgotten about.

Benefits of offline marketing

One of the big benefits that comes from offline marketing is that you don’t need to use the internet, and rely on having an internet connection. If your website goes down for whatever reason, for example, then during that time, you can lose some important custom. If that is all that you have, then it can be tough for your business. 

Another aspect to think about is that online advertising is something that is so present, but as a result, it can lose a little bit of its impact. So for some people browsing online, it can be something that they ignore. Whereas if you give someone a business card, it is something they hold in their hands and pin on their boards; it isn’t something that can be as easily ignored. There has even been research in printed media and reprographics that has found that something visual physically causes reactions in the brain that are more likely to lead to purchasing, compared to digital media.  

One aspect to also consider with offline marketing is that it can make it much easier to concentrate on just using a local area, with specific selling to what you want to do. The potentially large customer base that comes with online marketing means that it can be easier to get lost a little in the digital crowd. If you specify your business to your local area, then you will have a much better chance of understanding what your local customers want, and then you can target what they need directly. Being a local business also means that you can get involved with a local community, through local events, local newspapers, and so on. 

Types of offline marketing

Offline marketing covers a range of things, which could be business cards, as well as the use of banners, leaflets and flyers, and even billboards. Offline marketing can also be in print, like magazines and newspapers, as well as face-to-face networking, or giving speeches and presentations.

Direct mail is another aspect to think about. When you use email marketing, your email could get sent to spam, or just not opened. Similar things can be said of direct mail, of course, as they could just get thrown in the recycling. But if you are reaching your target customers, they will be more likely to read something, rather than throw it out. Target your offline marketing directly and then it will work well for you.