We may be obsessed with the digital world at the moment, and it may appear as if online marketing and e-commerce have taken over all other marketing activities, but the reality is that we are still inundated by subliminal messages as we go about our daily life. Banners and posters, lighted signs, billboards, branded buses… everywhere we look, we are being urged to consider and buy any number of different products.
We look back on the most popular and enduring of methods, and assess their impact on today’s social media saturated world to ask the question: do they still work?
Billboards and signage
Wherever you go in this world you are accosted by large lighted signs, posters, billboards, declaring their messages to the world and encouraging you to put your hand in your pocket. A clever billboard campaign will not be designed to elicit sales on its own – this would be nigh on impossible and difficult to monitor. However, as part of an overall marketing campaign, it can incite curiosity, pose a question, evoke a trend and create a narrative. A good billboard campaign will spark a debate and interest in a wider campaign, driving enquiries to digital media that can then better nomitor overall ROI.
Snail Mail
A couple of decades ago, one of the country’s greatest laments was the amount of rubbish coming through the letterbox each morning. Today, that trend has completely reversed, to the point where a household receives barely any mail – or at least mail that is more interesting than a tax bill or demand for money.
Which has opened up the way for more creative marketing opportunities when it comes to physical direct mail. With less ‘noise’ coming through your letterbox, you are more likely to pick up a physical letter with some form of curiosity. Thought about with some degree of creativity, a good direct mail campaign can yield some amazing results, much improved on previous years.
Re-inventing the brochure
While much of the noughties was spent trying to convince people that print was dead, the brochure and other print media quietly continued evolving and adapting, adopting new technologies to give them the edge over their competitors. Printed media is a long way from being dead. Although it is rarely used in isolation, as part of an overall marketing campaign it can be the tangible link between the potential customer world offline, and a more trackable environment online.
Nothing beats human contact
Since the pandemic the workplace has become accustomed to working virtually. Even for those back in the office, face to face meetings have been reduced considerably to short and to the point Teams and Zoom meetings. While the productivity of these types of meetings for day to day operations has improved considerably, saving hours of time, as well as the carbon footprint due to reduced journeys, in person meetings where relationships are formed and trust won are still a vital element to the marketing mix, particularly when you are talking about large scale projects involving significant sums of money.
Additionally, in-person events, such as trade shows, events and presentations, are also highly valuable forms of marketing. While initial contact may have been made online, often potential customers need the reassurance of visiting a physical office, seeing with their own eyes where products are manufactured, and meeting face-to-face the people whom they are going to be dealing with every day.
Physical marketing can no longer be dismissed as ancient, unwieldy and unproductive. When done properly, they can be the difference between converting a client or losing them to your competitor.
