5 traditional advertising techniques that still work in the 21st century

The digital advertising revolution might have arrived long ago, but the obituaries for traditional advertising appear to have been written a little early. While there is no doubting the importance of social media, email marketing, a strong website and being highly visible when it comes to search engine results, old fashioned marketing techniques can still make a significant contribution to the success of your business.

The key to getting the most out of traditional advertising methods is bringing them into the 21st century and use them in conjunction with your digital outreach campaigns. That way, you really do get the best of both worlds when it comes to getting your message heard by potential clients.

Here are five traditional advertising techniques that still work in the 21st century.

Word of mouth marketing

If you’re hot on what’s important digitally, then you’ll know that customer reviews on sites such as TripAdvisor and Facebook carry huge weight. The experiences that previous customers have had with you will often help potential customers to decide whether they want to use your services.

Essentially, these reviews are just word of mouth marketing in the digital age – which goes to prove the value that recommendations still hold. What’s more, according to research by Talk Triggers, Americans value word of mouth from somebody they know 41 percent more than a recommendation left on social media.

The best way to tap into this sort of advertising is by making sure your branding is on point. If a customer struggles to recall your company’s name, then they won’t be able to bring it up in conversation around the dinner table between friends and family or during Friday work drinks between colleagues.

Make sure everybody who uses you knows who you are, what you do, and what your message is. Sometimes, happy customers are one of the best ways of spreading your business.

Radio advertising

Forget Facebook or Instagram – do you know which media platform reaches more American adults than any other? It’s the trusty radio, of course. Each week, more Americans tune into the radio than use social media or any other media outlet for that matter.

The numbers are ridiculous, with 93 percent of those in the US aged 18 or over listening to the radio every week. That massive reach is what makes radio advertising so effective, even in this digital world we now inhabit.

In a short, 60-second advertising spot on local radio, you could be putting your brand message to tens of thousands of people. So, buy up an advertising slot on one of the best radio shows for advertising in your area, at peak time when the 7 am or 8 am news airs and everyone is listening in their cars on their commute, and the audience size is massive. It could be well worth your while!

You can’t put a price on that sort of reach, which is probably why radio advertising can be costly. It is, however, worth it, to the point where you could even consider taking out a loan to be able to afford it. It’s extremely likely that the increase in brand awareness and potential customers will make the investment worthwhile – this great page has some further details on payday loans which could help you get up the radio advertising campaign you need.

Television advertising

Television hasn’t shown quite the same resilience as radio with on-demand services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, allowing us to consume programs when and where we want and binge on series in one hit. Breaking Bad marathon, anyone?

It is still a powerful source of traditional advertising, though. That’s why companies shell out millions of dollars for prime time slots during the Super Bowl or other major sporting events. They know the value of getting their message out on mass to a huge, captive audience.

Now nobody is suggesting that your small business has the budget to gatecrash the biggest sports event of the year, but advertising on a local television station can lead to an uplift in sales.

Much like with radio, it’s all about the timing. If you take a slot when most people are sitting in front of their televisions, say while eating their dinner while 6pm news is rolling, then you’ll again be exposing your brand and message to a huge potential audience.

Print-based advertising

Print is dead. So said Doctor Egon Spengler in one of the best lines in Ghostbusters. Egon may have got a lot right in that movie, such as crossing the streams to defeat Gozer the Gozerian, but he was very much wrong about print. After all, here we are 35 years on, and print is still very much alive.

You’d have thought that eBooks would have killed off traditional books by now, but no, 65 percent of us still prefer to turn the pages of paper rather than swiping on a screen. Even Millennials prefer to get their data in print form.

That makes newspapers, magazines, and flyers an important weapon in your advertising armory. Bold images, bright adverts and powerful words can still captivate an audience in print, much more so than an equivalent digital advertisement. So, don’t neglect it! You can create an awesome physical ad in just minutes with the appropriate software, and then get them printed by an experienced company such as Aura Print for the best results. Then, you can distribute the media wherever you want!

Billboard advertising

The concept of visual merchandising has been around for years, and it isn’t something that technology is ever going to be able to kill off – not all the while we still need to leave the house to go places, anyway.

That makes catching people’s attention when they’re out and about one of the strongest forms of traditional advertising still available.

Whether it be a giant billboard with your business message on it greeting the 374,000 motorists who drive on Interstate 405 each day or a smaller advert on the road in and out of the town where you are located aimed at local people going about their daily grind, these forms of marketing are guaranteed to get you noticed.

It doesn’t have to be costly either. Billboard marketing can take the form of a couple of posters advertising your company in another shop in town. You can offer to replicate, making the whole arrangement free and giving two businesses priceless advertising at no cost at all.