I’ve been thinking about this point a lot these days – don’t give up on traditional media like direct mail, newspaper, radio, television, and live seminars.
There’s no question I do things differently than I did five years ago. Today, I’m creating YouTube videos to help clients get found on the first page of Google. I’m creating Facebook Reveal Pages that capture leads when prospects come to a client’s Facebook Page. And I’m setting up and running HootSuite to help clients manage their social media presence. These are all things that five years ago I never would have done for clients.
Five years ago I was creating strategic and tactical marketing plans, creating 6×11 postcards to generate sales and capture leads, and creating newspaper ads to generate leads. And I’m still doing all of this stuff today too.
There are many more options today versus what was available five years ago for a small business to market their company. It sometimes feels like my head may explode with trying to learn and use all of options available. The recent release of Google+, the social media experiment by Google was one of those moments. Once I could see it may work my first thought was, “here is another tool I need to learn how to use”.
I actually have a category on my to-do list for training and development and I have five one to two week classes on that list I need to complete right now. The list includes an advanced Linkedin class, an iPhone app creation class, and “Hacking YouTube”, a class on how businesses can get the maximum value out of YouTube. I also want to learn more about each of the search engines. Also a WordPress template and two new Web sites.
But in the end, when I’m working with clients, we are still using direct mail. I still get good attendance at my seminars (seminars are the number one lead generation tactic for professional service companies based on a survey by Marketing Rain). And we all know television must work or we wouldn’t see all of those infomercials on all day and night too.
BTW – take a couple of hours and study these infomercials. These survive only whether they make money. If it doesn’t make money in a couple of weeks they pull the plug, try to make some changes and if that still doesn’t work they pull the plug. So if you see one on for a long time you know it must work and listen to it carefully. If your marketing isn’t as strong as these infomercials you know it could be better.
So my message today is – don’t give up on the traditional media. Well done direct mail pieces work great (pick up Bill Glazer’s “Outrageous Advertising that Really Works” is a great book to learn some proven direct mail techniques that will help you get results. Schedule a seminar and market everywhere. If you are a member of the local chamber of commerce post it on their Facebook Page. Put out a press release and try to get the local papers to pick it up (free newspaper advertising – editorial space is even better than buying an ad). And whatever happens the first time – don’t give up!
