The future of marketing lies in it’s past
Despite its potential, the misuse of digital advertising has created a space that has allowed the marketing techniques of old to make a comeback. Let’s quickly examine three of them and then see how we can apply them to promote our writing.
1. Direct mail
Seemingly outdated but not dead. Studies show that reaching out to your customers in this way has an ROI of 29%. Paid searches and online displays have an ROI of 23% and 16%, respectively. If that’s not enticing enough, a study by the Data & Marketing Association shows that 100 million Americans made mail-order catalogue purchases in a single year. 90% of direct mail gets opened as opposed to 20 -30% of emails. And the response rate is up to nine times higher.
2. Flyers
If you want to reach consumers in a local area, then flyers offer an immediate and effective option. They boast a high speed of distribution, are cost-effective, and give you a direct experience with your customer.
Understanding your audience is key to flyer distribution. This will not only help you design the flyer with images and words they can relate to but enable you to distribute them in areas where your target demographic are likely to frequent.
3. Freebies
Jell-O, a Kraft brand, went from earning a pittance to $1million annually in three years. How? They gave away free recipes to uninspired households who didn’t know how to create their own using the product.
William Wrigley Jr started life as a seller of soap. He gave away baking soda with every purchase as a way of increasing sales. Baking soda became more popular than soap, so he switched to selling baking soda. Still convinced in the power of freebies, he searched for something different to give away. He settled on chewing gum and became one of the wealthiest men in America.
“Reciprocity is a very, very strong instinct. If somebody does something for you, you really feel a rather surprisingly strong obligation to do something back for them.” — Dan Ariely, a behavioural economist at Duke University