Are you a traditional (old school) marketing type of person or is online marketing more your kind of thing?
Quick rant: I wish the media would stop referring to digital marketing as “new”! It’s been in common use for a decade now and some of us were using it back in the mid 1990′s! OK, rant over 
I spoke with a small business owner last week, who told me he had been suffering from a lack of business recently. He went on to say;
What really frustrated me Jim, was that I had to go back to some old school marketing techniques in order to generate the sales inquiries I needed.
I asked him why this frustrated him. He told me;
It frustrated me because it worked really well and I’m a new school marketing kind of guy. I’m into online marketing and social networking, not writing marketing letters and calling people. I’d rather stick with Internet marketing.
If you are going to divide marketing up into 2 different sections, it should be effective marketing and ineffective marketing, not old school marketing and new. Some of the newer forms of marketing are often ineffective, whilst some of the old school marketing tools are more effective than ever.
For example, one of the best kept secrets in marketing right now, is the incredible power of a traditional marketing letter, with a hand written signature. With so many businesses using social networks, email and other forms of Internet marketing to reach their prospective clients, fewer and fewer people are sending personalised marketing letters. As a direct result, a small personalized mailing, with a targeted message to a small, hand-picked group of people, can be extremely effective.
The bottom line: Before you rule anything in or out of your marketing mix, make sure it’s on merit. If it works, use it.
PS – Here are my top 10 marketing tips, to get you started!
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I would agree with you about mailing letters with real signatures and a handwritten envelope. I receive a few a month and I take the time to read the letter in its entirety. Very effective indeed!
Hi Carissa. It’s about using the correct marketing tool for what you want to achieve.
Thanks for reminding us Jim! I see far too many people dropping all other marketing activities in favour of social networking & all things online. All they’re really doing is following the crowd – like so many sheep!
As you rightly say, it’s about getting the balance right between traditional and digital. And, of course, doing something other people aren’t doing …. which brings us back to your post
In my experience, Louise, it’s always easier to find the right marketing mix for a business, when you approach the options looking for answers.
Sometimes, the answer IS online-only marketing. 100% of my marketing for the past 6 years has been online – But different people need different things.
Another example of a kick-ass blog post written in very few words.
How do you do that?
Seth Godins the same. You guys get the idea out there and cover the points fast so I read every word of every post.
Thanks Carl. I give all my content secrets way over here:
http://www.internetmarketingjam.com
Hi.
Many people I talk to see social media marketing as the Utopian method of marketing their business at the expense of all else – and then fail to engage at all in the space and wonder why nothing is happening!! (Post on this myself coming tomorrow).
It is part of the collective to marketing your business. It takes time and effort and if it’s not being done right – then you’d be better off focusing on the efforts that are producing results.
Absolutely, Barney!
By the way, let me know when that post of yours goes live.
Will do my friend
Awesome post !
For those who love books there is a one I really advice you to read by Jonathan Baskin “Histories of Social Media”: http://www.amazon.com/Histories-Social-Media-Jonathan-Baskin/dp/0982700423/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297083479&sr=8-1.
Jonathan is also a writer in AdAge in the CMO section:
From there you’ll understand that there is nothing really new in our era…all is about Marketing
I totally agree, Jim.
The online/offline separation of marketing may ahve made sense in the early days of digital marketing when organisations wanted to test these new tools. However, today they are two streams of the same thing. Marketing is marketing, and nothing *really* has changed to the original marketing concepts, it is simply new tools that have arrived.
The rush to try the latest new thing (read social media in todays current landscape) can often lead organisations to jump in feet first without thinking about whether it is right for them, or what they want to gain from it.
Any marketing activity needs to be approached from the viewpoint of ‘I want to achieve X. What is the best way for me to do that?’ Clearly, as you say, using the effective type of marketing is going to get you to that goal.
You nailed it with your approach:
“I want to achieve X. What is the best way for me to do that?”
Perfect, Zack!
A solid marketing strategy incorporates all media outlets, including traditional, new and social… And as you’ve pointed out Jim, all of these can be done effectively or ineffectively.
I love your big picture point of view and expertise on how marketing is done for small and emerging market companies. It’s not one-size fit’s all as most marketing blogs reflect.
Businesses need to consider all options available, identify best outlets to get specific desired results for the budget available and develop a marketing plan that compliments all efforts and maximizes ROI from marketing $$ invested.
You can’t do that effectively without considering and understanding all of the options available — the costs associated with each and potential ROI each should provide. Otherwise you couldn’t put together a realistic marketing plan that can be measured and adjusted accordingly — you’d basically be shooting in the dark and hoping for the best — hence ineffective marketing practices.
Only a well thought-out marketing strategy developed by someone who knows and understands all options intimately can serve a business well.
Cheers to this post and marketing competency!
Good point. In marketing it really comes down to your target audience. Are you selling to an older audience? If that’s the case, digital marketing might not be the best way to go since many older people still turn to traditional advertising for information. On the other hand if you cater to a younger generation digital marketing could work really well if implemented correctly.
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Hi Jim
Spot on again!
I find that too many small business owners try to follow the social media fad and get told by social media marketing ‘fans’ to ditch everything else. This just isn’t right.
Agree with previous comments – the ‘old’ marketing thinking still applies, but the range of tools we have access to is now much broader with some ‘newer’ ones to add into the mix!
As you say it’s horses for courses. For some businesses, social media/digital isn’t right or will play a smaller part in the right marketing approach for their business.
I love your 2 categories!
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