Proven Marketing Methods You May Be Overlooking

Creative Marketing Ideas Will Get You Traffic

Every marketer and aspiring marketer want to discover the “next” world-changing marketing technique. It’s easy to understand why. The marketing industry is one of the fastest changing and evolving industries around. At the same time, marketing is one of the most vital processes for any business. However, while every marketer should always keep his or her eye out for the next hot method, it’s important to also consider potentially overlooked methods as well.

Sometimes, utilizing overlooked marketing techniques can yield excellent results. In some cases, overlooked methods are overlooked because they don’t work. However, in many cases, under-utilized marketing methods can produce great results. Also, changing environments and conditions mean that marketing methods that didn’t work five years ago might work today.

Before getting started, let’s discuss some facts. Fact #1, not all marketers are created equal, and not every marketer excels at everything. This isn’t bad, but it’s important to know your strengths and short-comings. Fact #2, you need a strong foundation. That might mean a great website, a powerful social media platform, whatever. Something needs to be “home base” and it needs to be an excellent home base. Fact #3, the world is clogged with meaningless, low-value content and information, AKA noise. Don’t add more because you’re not really adding anything, except noise. Add value instead.

Let’s examine some overlooked marketing methods to see if they might be useful today.

1. Direct, Physical Mail

Most physical mailboxes aren’t nearly as crowded today as they were three decades years ago. If you were around then and paying attention to the mailbox, you might remember them overflowing with junk mail. “PREAPPROVED CREDIT CARD!” “YOU WON MILLIONS!”, etc. Indeed, physical mailboxes were once as cluttered with junk mail as our email inboxes are today.

Most marketers now focus on email because it’s cheaper and easier to track. This creates both challenges and opportunities. Email inboxes are crowded and trying to drum up conversions through email can feel like trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip.

Physical mailboxes, on the other hand, aren’t nearly so cluttered. You may be able to draw attention by putting some material in that mailbox. With email, it’s easy to ignore or trash emails you don’t want to read. With direct mail, you have to physically move it out of your way or to throw it out. This subtle difference can yield attention. At the very least, the recipient knows you’re paying for their time.

2. Going Native

Native advertising, or “sponsored content” as it is sometimes called, is becoming a favorite for big businesses. However, many small businesses have yet to tap into this often effective marketing method. So how does native advertising work? Basically, you publish content regarding your company or products, and put it up on an external publishing platform.

Often, the content will be labeled as “sponsored” or something similar, however, besides this label, the content will generally read and appear the same as the rest of the content on the platform. So, for example, on a news platform, the native content will read like a news story.

3. Producing High-Quality Content

Everyone produces content, but how much of it qualifies as high-quality? Ultimately, quality may be in the eye of the beholder, but let’s be honest, a lot of people and companies are producing content simply for the sake of content. Drum up social media shares, attract search engines, you know the drill.

However, high-quality content is something different because it’s written for people, and it aims to add value to those people. Cut out the noise and focus on adding value to viewers. You might end up producing less content, but sometimes less is more.

4. Micro-Targeting Your Ads

Digital ads on search engines and social media certainly aren’t overlooked or forgotten. Seems like just about everyone is using such ads these days, however, what is often forgotten or overlooked is the importance of micro-targeting. It’s not enough to simply put up ads and hope for the best.

Instead, every ad should target someone closely and specifically. Know your demographics, understand your audience, try to key into their interests. Google, Facebook, and other platforms offer excellent analytical tools that you can use to hone in on your intended audience.

5. Account-Based Marketing

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is another tool that is fast emerging among the true professionals, however, like micro-targeting it’s not limited just to the big boys. With ABM, your marketing revolves around a select number of high-value accounts.

Rather than mass bombarding these accounts with generic messages, you use hyper-customized messages. For instance, forget mass newsletters, and instead write a deeply personal email to each one of your targets where you talk about their needs, and how you can solve those specifically.

6. Connect with Third Parties

You don’t have to do everything on your own. In fact, it’s best not to. Every industry has its own publications, websites, social media sites, and all the rest. Try reaching out to them to see if there is an opportunity to guest post, speak at conferences, or anything else. The connections you develop could become immensely valuable.

Conclude by Being Yourself and Making it Personal

Thought-leaders make the business world go around and you probably know some thought-leaders in your given industry. The bloggers you read for knowledge and tips, the people you seek out at conferences, etc. These people are brands unto themselves. (Example: for us SEO and marketing folks, Neil Patel is frequently looked to and sought after.)

You can become a thought-leader as well, and in doing so, you can promote your company and products. There are several platforms, such as LinkedIn, that you can use to promote your expertise. By leveraging the tips above, you can help build up your own thought-leadership.

At the end of the day, with enough work and expertise, you’ll become famous, even if only slightly so. People will start to seek you out, and they will look to you for advice. This makes it much easier to pitch them. After all, they identified and came to you for solutions.