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5 Marketing Trends That Are Coming Back

In recent times, some old marketing trends we thought would never see the light of day again have made a fresh appearance. These trends originally grew stale as modern digital trends emerged and older ones evolved. Now, they’re popular again in 2018.

Examples include direct email, physical marketing, print media, testimonials and silent videos. If you want to change your marketing strategy, these trends could make a difference, and we strongly advise you to implement them.

A major reason why they’re coming back is that these vintage strategies focus on what the target audience really wants, which leads to better consumer engagement.

Direct mail

Firstly, let’s make one point clear. Direct mail was never actually dead. It fizzled out in popularity as digital marketing took the world by storm. However, figures from MarketingCharts shows that it’s alive and kicking. Three-quarters of US households still read or scan their direct mail. Many consumers say it helps them make a purchase decision.

The Washington Post says the average person spends 4.1 hours on email every day. The average American receives around 120 emails every day for work. What does this mean? Email has become saturated while traditional mailboxes are getting emptier. The response rate for direct mail is 10-30 times higher than for emails.

In fact, 83% of older people and a healthy majority of Millennials trust direct mail to help them make a purchase.

Convinced now on the power of direct mail? The trick with direct mail is to find a writer for hire who will help you create targeted mails that get a high response rate.

Account-based marketing for top clients

What does real personalisation mean? Is it writing the prospect’s first name in the email? Is it respect, casual conversation or talking to them like they are a friend at the bar?

Consumers can smell a weak effort from a mile away and they won’t convert as a result. They are drawn to personalised offers that feel like they were made just for them. We’ve already mentioned that email is a saturated environment. It takes something more spectacular to build brand awareness and stand out while doing so.

How about talking to the prospect face-to-face? You know, like we did in the past before we had the internet and Skype. If you’ve watched the hit TV show, Mad Men, you’ll notice how the marketing guys always managed the account of a client by building a personal relationship with them.

How to complete this task? ABM says to identify the target, engage them with personalised campaigns and build lasting relationships that open the doors for new opportunities. Think of it as the gift that keeps on giving. Once the account guys brought in an account, Don Draper and his team of copywriters wrote a marketing copy that fit the client’s product.

That’s what your business has to do today. If you don’t have the funds for an in-house copywriter, get in touch with a content writing company to help you.

Trade shows

If you’re a B2B or even a B2C company, trade shows are a great opportunity to showcase your services and products. Got a new product you’re launching in the coming months? Why don’t you launch it at a trade show where customers can experience it first hand?

There’ll be media coverage and people tweeting about the products they’ve loved. You can meet industry influencers, make some new friends in the industry, close business deals and increase brand awareness.

The key is to create a show that stands out from the competition. If you’re a small business, consider attending a few events to see how bigger brands get noticed before giving it a shot yourself. Attend the event as a ticket holder and bring along samples of your products.

Top events for tech include ITEXPO, CES and Techspo.

Top events for digital marketers include Adobe Summit, SMX and MozCon.

You might need technical copywriting services to help you create niche-specific copy for your booth and product. Words have the power to draw attention from the right audience.

Start dialling prospects on your phone

Over 50% of Google searches are conducted on mobile phones and 51% of online traffic is from tablets and mobiles. Most of Facebook browsing is on mobile too. What does this mean? People spend a lot of time on their phones.

A recent report found that 75% of business phone calls originated from a smartphone. This is the time to start dialling. Old school phone calls have made a reappearance with 30-50% conversion rates. You won’t get that number on email, PPC or social media.

Digital Marketer Neil Patel uses CallRail to track website visitors, generate a profile of information from their phone number and their exact web session. This way, he can tell which pages interested the visitor and the products/services that kept them on the website. State of Inbound states that a phone call is the most successful channel for connecting with prospects. It can drive sales for your business even in 2018.

Brand activations and PR stunts

It all began in 1929 when the father of public relations, Edward Bernays, opened a new market for Lucky Strikes cigarettes. He targeted women who had moved from the home front to the workforce in the wake of WWI. At the time, only prostitutes and men generally smoked.

He empowered women for equality and won over a new market for Lucky Strikes, killing two birds with one stone. His risk-taking mentality combined with his keen social awareness inspired many PR stunts over the next century.

Remember Red Bull’s daring stunt with Felix Baumgarter? He reached the speed of sound as he free-fell from the edge of space. The video was watched over 8 million times on the day of the Superbowl. You might not have the budget of these corporate giants but a well-written press release could also do the trick. There are content writers who will help you write a great press release that gets everyone’s attention.

Conclusion

As digital marketing becomes overpopulated with content, each fighting for their visitors’ attention, the need to diversify your marketing efforts and tap into the power of offline marketing has intensified.

Don’t get so caught up in SEO and the latest algorithms that you lose sight of the real drivers of your business- the customers. Data is great but it’s not a substitute for creativity. Be daring, be bold. Take a different approach and find new ways to give your target audience what they need.

Need to breathe life back into your digital marketing? Cornerstone Digital is a web development company in Sydney. We’d be glad to help you. Call us on (02) 8211 0668 or email us at info@cornerstone-digital.com.au.

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Darlyn Herradura

A self-professed book and digital marketing nerd, Darlyn Herradura focuses on building trust between customers and businesses with the written word. She understands that creating valuable content is the best way to get found online and happily spends her time doing that.