Another Sign That You Still Need Some Conventional Marketing

Over the past few months in this blog we've talked about all of the things we do here at Minds On. To say we're a marketing company sounds vague in today's terms of specialization, but it's true. We are audience driven. That means we look at who our client companies are trying to reach and build the tools that can both get to them and carry the messages they want to deliver in the most effective way. Sometimes that means traditional marketing, like brochures and trade show booths. Sometimes it means online, interactive, and social media, or sometimes it's both. But the key is to find a way get to through to that target audience.

We just went through an election primary and a lot of candidates were pushing the envelope on social media. There are some advisors who insist that they spend all of their money on social media. But every night on my drive home from the office, I saw what must have been over a hundred yard signs for a local candidate; someone I’d never heard of before.  If I hadn’t seen those signs, ALL of those signs, I wouldn’t have known about that person. It was very effective.

After a few weeks of seeing that candidate’s name hundreds of times, I checked out his website. It was very well-designed, and he was promoting his Facebook and Twitter feeds. It was a well-rounded approach.

And that’s the point. It was well-rounded. It must have been very inexpensive to print and distribute those signs. And it was those signs that got me to his website. For little effort, a campaign can have a printer print dozens of plastic signs and have volunteers distribute them. The signs serve two purposes: one is to highlight the candidate’s name; the other is subtler: you see a sign in a yard and you know that every person with a sign supports that candidate. The more signs, the more support.

If this candidate had gone strictly online, I would have never heard of him. And I’m betting that most of the people who had his signs in their yard wouldn’t have either. It was a combination of conventional marketing and the personal touch of a volunteer showing up at your door and asking you to display a sign that made the difference.

This is something that a lot of people miss: social media is a PERSONAL media. You need an introduction. You take an active role and decide if you’re going to engage or not. And all of the things that help you engage are keys to a successful marketing effort.  In this case it was a yard sign… a LOT of yard signs. But for your business, it might be a tradeshow booth, a data sheet, a mailed postcard, or it might be an online video and an e-mail campaign. What matters is that your campaign finds its way to where your customers and prospects live.

OK, so you might not be running for office, but you’ve got a product or service to sell. Are you spending everything online? How are people going to learn about you in the first place? Are you missing out on the simple and effective conventional marketing benefits that a few brochures, an effective business card design, or a well-executed trade show display can bring you?

You should definitely be exploring online marketing and social media, but on occasion, look up from your computer screen and find out where your customers and prospects live and where they move about in the world. It might not hurt to plant a few signs in their yards.

I’d love to talk with you about your marketing, both online and conventional. Are you getting the most impact from what you’re doing? And would you like to explore combining social, interactive, and conventional marketing? Give me a call or drop me a line.