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It's Time to Rethink Traditional Marketing Methods

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Abigail Gleason
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Outbound, old school, traditional, whatever you call it, it’s time to rethink how you use it. Popular forms of traditional marketing include:

  • TV commercials
  • Radio ads
  • Billboards
  • Newspapers and magazines
  • Direct mail
  • Direct sales and networking 

These are popular because they’re familiar and they’ve worked pretty well for a long time, but they’re becoming less and less effective. Here’s the nitty gritty of it: traditional tactics are no longer a sustainable solution. Here’s why:

  • They’re expensive and hog your time, money, and labor that could be used to benefit your business elsewhere.
  • With the rise of the internet and digital platforms, consumers have more power than ever to ignore and even delete disruptive, old school advertisements.
  • Accurately tracking the ROI on outbound strategies is nearly impossible.

There’s a smarter way to market your business: inbound marketing.

The key difference between traditional, outbound marketing and digital, inbound marketing is that traditional marketing focuses on reaching people, while inbound marketing focuses on attracting people.

Reaching vs. Attracting

Just because an ad reaches a potential consumer doesn’t mean it’ll result in a click, call, or sale. In fact, it’s more likely to result in a skip, a bounce, or even an eye roll. When you focus on attracting consumers with relevant content, a unique brand experience, and great service, you’ll generate more qualified leads and engage with an audience who is already interested in what you have to offer. 

How to rethink the traditional methods

Now, just because traditional marketing methods no longer fit the bill for the most effective strategies doesn’t mean there’s not an appropriate time and place for traditional forms of outreach. Once you’ve attracted and engaged your audience through inbound strategies, you can then leverage some old school materials, such as:

Print materials

Nu is a digital marketing agency, and we specialize in inbound marketing, but our customers have told us they like getting a booklet that describes our services. This information is also available on our website, but as long as our hard copy materials are still in demand, we’ll continue to use print materials. However, it’s our inbound strategies that draw people to us in the first place, meaning our print materials supplement our service, while our digital strategies (think: relevant content, customized emails, and our stellar design) do the heavy lifting. 

(Hey, pssst: we still offer a variety of print services as well!)

Event marketing

Rather than plastering ads all over and hoping someone might show up, you can curate special events to match your specific buyer personas and existing customers, but you’ve got to do the right preliminary work via inbound marketing in order to pull that off. Inbound tools give you access to the right demographic information to help you promote your event to the right people.

Direct mail

You might’ve heard that direct mail is ineffective, wasteful, and irritating to consumers, and it very well can be, but it can also be personal, appreciated, and highly effective for connecting consumers with your brand. The key? They have to already be interested in you, and you have to know how to personalize materials (like a handwritten note or invitation to a special event) in order for direct mail to be effective.

Tried and True? Or time to try something new?

Outbound marketing isn’t totally obsolete, but it needs to take a backseat to inbound in order for it to work and be worth any of your resources. Inbound marketing draws potential customers to your brand and digital tools help you get to know your customers better, which allows you to engage with them more effectively.   

For proven growth and results, invest in marketing that works. See how inbound marketing worked for these clients. The Ultimate Marketing Checklist


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