Promoting your business via social media is very much the center of many companies marketing strategies. There is plenty of great advice out there that points to the ongoing successes found in targeting your marketing messages to social media users. Of course, sites like Facebook have so much metadata stored on their users, it is very easy to make some astoundingly accurate pictures of the type of person they are. From this, it is easy to put people into marketing categories for specific products. Recent developments in marketing technology have seen this targeting being refined to an even greater degree with artificial intelligence. By letting algorithms control a companies marketing budget, they can work out exactly who to target, and when they will be online to see that specific advert. There is absolutely no second-guessing anymore when it comes to online marketing. It is a precise science.
Social media is, of course, a major area in the lives of so many people. For lots of people, the first thing they do in the morning is to check their social media, and the last thing that they do at night is exactly the same. We probably could not live without social media. It is, therefore, quite right that small businesses invest their resources into social media marketing campaigns.
But we all still live in a world that exists outside of our phone and computer screens. We still interact with other humans. We still ride trains and buses and drive down the streets. The world is a vast marketing opportunity, and some newer, smaller businesses may forget this fact because the focus is so much on the power of online marketing techniques.
If your business is guilty of paying too much attention to the virtual realm, and not enough time on the real-world marketing opportunities, then you may want to change your game and implement more traditional promotional activities in your business.
Here are some suggestions for ways that you can do that.
Get Your Branding On Items Relevant To Your Business
Whatever product or service your business offers, there is probably a free complimentary item that you can give your customers. Items such as this can be included in the costings of your products or services, that way, this handy bit of marketing does not actually have to cost anything.
Think about having your branding put onto complimentary items that have relevance to your business. For example, bars and hotels would have their branding on matchboxes.
If you run any kind of business that deals with vehicles such as car rental firm, a used car dealership, a car wash or detailing service, a garage, or even a spare parts store, you could use personalized air fresheners as a free way of getting your brand out there.
Advertise In Newspapers And Magazines
The best print advert designs ever
You may have heard claims that print media is long gone and dead. This, however, is certainly not the case. There are many thriving newspapers out there that reach a wide audience. There may be the assumption that only older people are reading papers. Again, this is not true.
A great example of a newspaper with a vast readership is the British paper, The Metro. The paper is given away for free at train stations and on busses. It reaches millions of commuters every day and is regarded fairly highly for the standard of its content. The newspaper is obviously a great conduit for advertising, which is where it derives its income. With a wide reach of loyal readers, it is a great place for relevant businesses to place an ad.
Magazines are also a great place to advertise. Some magazines become collectibles, while others may hang around in hair salons and doctors waiting rooms for months or even years to come. Your advert may find repeat readers for a very long time.
Attract The Attention Of Commuters On Trains
When we are not in our places of work, much of our time away from our homes is spent commuting. We travel more and more for work than we ever have done. Many people will think nothing of taking a job that is an hour or more away from where they live. And, with the potential of spending two hours of each day either on public transport, changing between modes of transport, or waiting for the bus or train to arrive, there is a lot of opportunities for marketing messages to be delivered.
With millions of people commuting each day, you could be reaching some vast audiences. Of course, you will need to make sure that your adverts are eye-catching and simple enough to get while you are passing them. Especially if you are putting them on the walls of train station interiors.
You can use more detailed adverts that provide a bit more depth if you are going to put these up inside trains and buses.
Reaching Road Users
The sides of buses are a great place to put an advert. With more and more people taking to the roads, there have never been so many drivers. Buses are a great way of putting across marketing messages to drivers. Having a simple, but effective message on the side of a bus will mean that it will get seen by countless drivers each day.
The design needs to be very simple and eye-catching. Ideally, you should be able to understand the concept and recognize the brand after looking at the advert for a split second. Even simple adverts such as this can be very effective in delivering an almost subconscious marketing message.
Billboards
100+ Best Billboard Designs
Billboards are another way of communicating with car, van, and lorry drivers on the roads. Billboards are big enough to really make a visual impact and catch a driver’s eye.
You can place billboards in positions of relevance relating to your business. For example, a few streets away, on a main road, you could place a billboard, and you would then include directions on how to find you.
Digital billboards are also a very effective tool that will allow you to really capture the attention of drivers. Of course, you don’t want to distract them from the task at hand. But, this type of campaign can be very effective.
Direct Marketing Techniques
Do not overlook the power of communicating directly with your customers. Go and visit them where they live or phone them up. You could even set up a stand on the high street and engage with people as they walk past you. People actually like human contact.
While direct marketing is something that many people may cringe at the idea of, with the connotations of door-to-door salespeople and cold callers being very negative. It is, however, a very effective way of engaging with customers. You need to ensure that the employees that you are sending out to actively engage with customers are using the right approach.
Learning how to not be too pushy, and how to avoid heavy-handed sales techniques is important. It is possible to sell to people using an honest and friendly approach that actually engages the interest of the customer without them feeling as though they are being forced into anything that they do not want.
Direct marketing of this style is really not much different from sending out emails to your mailing list, but it can be very effective in reaching certain demographics that are not necessarily swayed by advertising or from digital marketing techniques.