By Heather Wilde, Inc.
While everyone is focused on social media, there are plenty of "old-school" methods of advertising out there that still work -- and give great results for low cost.
As recently as a decade ago, social media was not an important part of a company's marketing and promotion plan. Advertising on the internet was a new frontier, staked by companies who used bold, flash banner ads and cared more about click-rates than actual sales. The "Rule of 7"--you need 7 impressions to close a sale--was evident on every page.
Fast-forward to today where the marketing tech industry is focused on payment. Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin all offer paid advertising opportunities that give you granular demographic and psychographic data of your customer, and even re-targeting opportunities for every possible conversion goal--which now mean anything from brand awareness to customer loyalty, to, of course, sales. They allow you to easily test titles, images, concepts, advertisements, and more for less than $5 a day.
And, due to the amount of data a company collects for the relatively low cost, today it is often the only advertising option a business considers. But for businesses who want to think outside of the box, there is a golden opportunity--in old-school technology.
And that's where Michael Dougherty, CEO of Jelli, believes brands should be looking if they want to gain a competitive edge. His service, which allows for radio stations--yes, that thing that people listen to over the air--to play programmatic ads in much the same way that websites can display your Facebook ad. Via his platform, a company just logs in and uploads their ad, and after keying in the types of people they would like to reach, it goes out to all the stations that meet that criteria.
With over 6,000 broadcast and streaming radio stations in the U.S. alone being listened to by hundreds of millions of adults daily--sometimes for hours at a time, that's a huge market that is being ignored by brands solely focused on a social media strategy. Dougherty's bet on radio isn't a risk at all--it's smart business.
Instead of focusing on expensive marketing methods, such start-ups need to focus on marketing hacks with a low budget. Here are a few other non-traditional ways you can get creative with your marketing:
1. Links
A simple--and old-school--way to ensure that you show up in search results is to register your company on all the sites that share business information for your region. This is the basic service that many SEO companies offer to rank you higher on Google but is simple for anyone to do. Start with the basics like claiming your Google My Business page and go from there.
2. Sponsorships
Local businesses are often looking for sponsors for events--anything from a business lunch to an awards ceremony. Look for these opportunities, as they will be an to have your logo displayed prominently and your business mentioned in press releases for an extended period of time at a minimal cost.
3. Collabs
Cross-promotion enables you to work with related companies that can sell your services, in return for your marketing of their services. For example, if you provide online business-owner consulting services, you can recommend that they use a particular web designer to build your website. While certainly not new, this is now called a "collab".
4. Billboards
Many of your customers probably prefer video and images as a means of consuming content, rather than written content--but that doesn't mean you have to spend $2.50 per impression on a Facebook ad. Digital billboard advertisements are available in many locations, with just $5 a day, you can have your ad shown over 100 times a day across the country.
5. Radio
And, should you decide to create a radio ad, Dougherty has this piece of advice -- as annoying as jingles are when they are trapped in your mind, a brilliant and ear-catching jingle is an excellent way to make your ads more successful.
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