In 2019, it is predicted that internet marketing spending will eclipse the amount spent on traditional marketing tactics like TV ads and print advertising for the first time ever in the United States. This shift in budget accurately reflects the changes taking place in the world of communications today. Social media networks have contributed to the frameshift taking place exponentially. The growth in these platforms’ popularity and abilities is both exciting and nerve-racking. Evolution is supposed to be a slow process but these networks have quickly evolved into the huge corporations they are today. Due to this extreme rise in use and popularity, the “fail-safes” that come with evolving ecosystems did not grow with them. The recent spread of fake news and misinformation during our election cycle points out the downfalls that come with a case like this. Marketers must. prevent a collapse by utilizing multiple communication methods beyond social media, like email blasts, direct mail marketing, and TV ads.
Email marketing, while still contingent on the operation of the World Wide Web, is a tried-and-true method for directly contacting your customers. Adding software services like marketing automation to your tech stack turns this method into a two-way form of communication and it is upgrading incessantly. Customers’ interaction with the content you distribute can provide insight into what they want from your company empowering both your marketing and sales teams to customize your lead’s journey to fit their needs, similar to what you can accomplish on social media. Through new email changes like AMP, stores can actually display their catalog directly in the email, making it simple for a customer to engage. Through building your contact base, you can actually continue to have one-on-one contact with the leads directly. This is beneficial if there’s a timely message you want to get out to your audience. If social media were to fail, this would become the quickest way to interact with your customers.
Even though email and other messaging forms have grown to dominate the long-range communication space, there is still a place left for marketing through mail. In fact, my employer SharpSpring has had phenomenal success with its direct mail campaign. Through a partnership with a local startup, Fracture, we send out customized mazes imprinted on the glass to prospects that, when completed, create their logo. This process defines the marketing mantra of “surprise and delight” and has resulted in new customers time and time again. Conducting this practice requires you to gather this information through other marketing efforts to follow through, but offers something to the prospect without a guaranteed return. This builds trust between your companies and engages them in a unique way. It is important to be creative and stand out from the rest of the stack of envelopes.
For a less direct approach, you can run programs on TV from a normal commercial to a PSA announcement. For this method, it is best to know your target base well to run the ads when and where they are most likely watching. Law and Order is notorious for having announcements by organizations that are related to the episode they are airing. During an episode dealing with a drunk driver, they had a segment covering the damage you can do driving under the influence. Today, the younger generation is less likely to pay for traditional cable TV, so new methods of running these ads will need to be utilized and discovered going forward.
There is a difference between spending and investing if you spend money you do not expect a return but with investing you plan to make money. To be successful you want to invest in your company with every decision you make and just like monetary investing, you want to diversify your portfolio. Social media is a worthy investment today, but that may not hold true forever. Protect your company and marketing by pursuing marketing efforts in a variety of different avenues.