We’re witnessing significant shifts in marketing and it’s advancing more and more towards the digital realm. Despite this, the role of traditional advertising should under no circumstance be overlooked when reaching a broader audience. In the case of targeted offline marketing, the results of the campaigns are more trackable. Advertising campaigns, on the other hand, are presented to the masses and measuring the overall influence is only possible for a certain time through inquiries. Whichever way you’re leaning, check out the best cost-effective means below to ensure a high ROI for your traditional advertising and marketing initiatives.
Outdoor advertising
In the late 90s, major advertising campaigns ran around TV broadcasts, billboards and posters and event advertising. With the advance of modern technologies, digital campaigns took the wheel to provide highly targeted ads. However, traditional advertisements always had their share in attracting customers, and they still do.
Even today, with the growing list of digital marketing tools available, traditional advertisements, such as print ads and business signs can be as effective as online ads. Besides being a means of mass advertising, the mentioned physical displays can also target specific audiences when placed in visible areas. Billboards and interactive digital displays are also perfect for ensuring high ROI for your advertising operations.
Newspaper and magazine ads
Unlike copywriting which is widely used in the digital realm to attract prospects through engaging branded copy, newspaper and magazine ads target the public through straightforward advertising messages. Brief business info with attractive imagery can ensure your ad catches readers’ attention.
Keep your niche in mind to make the ads more targeted and to increase the ROI rate. The idea is if you attract an audience that is interested in your products or services, you will be allocating your resources wisely.
Flyers and brochures
Similar to newspaper and magazine ads, flyers and brochures are aimed at attracting customers with compact advertising texts and visuals. Flyers are affordable, one-sided leaflets suitable for a very low budget. With a flyer distribution service, a company can easily target many potential customers. Moreover, they can be easily designed and printed in a short amount of time. Unlike flyers, brochures contain more complete information about products and services and are usually handed out to prospects who have already shown some interest in your offerings.
Both of these advertising media have targeting potential. Should you be offering some educational services, hand out flyers or brochures around a nearby school. So, when students from the same school apply, you’ll know it’s your recent advertising campaign that drew them to your institution.
Direct mail
Does sending direct mail to attract customers still make sense? The answer is yes, but on the condition that you’ve interacted with that customer beforehand. Or at least, they should be prospects who have already shown some interest in your products or services.
Otherwise, people pretty much ignore mail coming from unknown sources. Taking this into consideration will ensure you run a targeted advertising campaign which will, in turn, lead to an increased ROI.
Phone calls
Making phone calls is one of the best ways to inquire and get insights about your recent advertising initiatives. Suppose you’ve recently made a non-targeted advertising operation to attract the masses and you’re curious about the outcome. One of the ways to understand the extent of customer satisfaction with your product or service is through follow-up calls.
Answers to questions like: “Did you use our product over the past three months? How satisfied are you with the quality and the delivery service? Will you purchase the product again?” will give you a solid understanding of how to proceed with your advertising investments. Staying in touch with your loyal customers is also a worthwhile investment.
Door-to-door selling
This advertising medium is especially effective if you’re on a budget. Find someone to trust with the whole process. The salesperson will conduct research on who might be interested in your product. Then, he or she will visit the prospects at their homes and present the product’s advantages. The person will act like a brand advocate who speaks about your product with a powerful word-of-mouth marketing approach.
They can be the one to best present your product, answer questions and dissipate doubts, if any. The person can offer purchasing options and present the delivery conditions. An added benefit is that your salesperson can find more contacts who might be interested in your offer from those prospects. This way, you will also be able to further extend your targeted door-to-door sales campaigns.
Cross-promotion
Cross-promotion with other local businesses is another high ROI traditional advertising medium. In case you’ve interacted with a business under your niche, you can negotiate with the business owner on how both of you could come up with cross-promotion initiatives.
Suppose you’re specialized in car mechanical repair. You’ve repaired a customer’s car and they want to restore it. As a trusted expert, you’re sure to guide your customer to a local car body shop. And the same works for your business partner. He can guide his customers to your garage with a powerful word-of-mouth marketing strategy. Such a strategy works for virtually all businesses. This cooperation is very cost-effective and creates grounds for steady business growth.
Final words
Despite the fact that digital marketing is the champion in running highly targeted and trackable campaigns, traditional advertising has maintained its significant role throughout the years. Traditional advertising operations and offline marketing strategies have withstood the test of time and should in no way be left out of the game. The main point is that in order to easily measure the ROI for your traditional advertising and offline marketing efforts, you need to run targeted campaigns. So, we can view targeting as a cornerstone of building high ROI traditional advertising and offline marketing operations.
