3 Old School Marketing Techniques That Still Get Results
How to promote your writing without losing your soul
Over the past few decades, digital marketing has made enormous strides. There can be little doubt that in the decades that follow, there will be further great advances. The email campaigns, pop-ups, and social media strategies of today may be made to seem as naive and primitive as the newspaper listings of yesteryear.
There is something almost freightening by the speed of development. Machine learning algorithms have already enabled marketers to spot a woman in the early stages of pregnancy by her spending habits, often even before her family knows. And who hasn’t been alarmed by the prescience of a Facebook advert? We recoil at the thought of our data been harvested but have become accustomed to personal and accurate Netflix recommendations. In the near future, the brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) from Elon Musk and his Neuralink corporation might make it possible for direct advertising piped straight into our consciousness.
Naturally, there is some resistance
The pervasiveness of digital advertising comes at a cost.
“People hate advertising and it’s all advertisers’ fault” — Joanna Coles
Such is the loathing for online advertising in general; there is a rising demand for ad blockers and paid subscription services that offer their users the possibility of never seeing another advert on the internet again.
Email campaigns can work but require a consensual audience. Worryingly a study suggests that 52% of consumers either don’t recall signing up for emails or were unaware that they would receive them when submitting personal information. The same study states that even among those who have signed up to receive further emails, 96% will opt out due to an overwhelming inbox.
The autoplay ads popular on social media sites are the most derided. 72% of those surveyed indicated that they would have a lower opinion of a brand that engages in such tactics.
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Seemingly outdated but not dead.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
How to promote your writing
If you’ve been following conventional advice, you may already have an email list. You may be on your way to having 100 ‘true’ followers. You may have created one ebook to give away for free to your followers and another one for them to buy. You may be doing well. Maybe.
Or maybe you have an account with Convertkit, a landing page, and zero impressions. Perhaps your followers only engagement with your writing is based on your reading of theirs. Maybe you have quickly put together an ebook that you would not read yourself.
If so, stop, read these articles and then move on:
Moving forward
There can be no denying that technology is a useful tool for advertising. But with a saturated market and a burnt-out consumer base, the time has come for a rethink about best practice.
By all means, create an email list but then use it to define an audience for your direct mail campaign.
90% of direct mail gets opened as opposed to 20 -30% of emails. And the response rate is up to nine times higher.
Gunderson Direct, PsPrint, and Vistaprint are the ConvertKit of direct mail marketing. They even offer the option of buying targeted mailing lists.
Rather than a faceless exchange on the internet, handpick your 100 ‘true’ followers through a targeted flyer campaign in your local community.
Make your flyer stand out by having a bold headline, arresting visuals and a call-to-action.
For your printing needs, Nextdayflyer is worth a look.
And remember, the most successful freebie you can give is the value that you add.
Mixing the old with the new
By mixing these old school marketing techniques with the more familiar digital equivalents, you can overcome the shortcomings of each. You can find your 100 ‘true’ followers organically, feel satisfied in the value you’re providing them, and busy yourself with the business of writing.