It is easy to overlook the value of traditional marketing strategies amidst the power of social media and other digital marketing methods. Methods like engaging in community events, sponsorships, direct mail, and participation in trade shows give you genuine, face-to-face interactions with customers and potential leads that can stand out against the deluge of digital content people are served throughout our day. 

The 28th edition of The CMO Survey, which gathers data on US firms’ marketing practices, found that businesses intended to increase  their spending as a share of overall marketing efforts in 2021 and 2022 after a decade of steady declines. And, in what could be seen as counterintuitive, companies that earn 100% of their sales through the internet are actually leading the way with this greater focus on traditional marketing, with the survey predicting that their traditional marketing spending would increase by 11.7% over 2022. 

And by 2024, the CMO survey found that even as larger businesses began to contract their traditional marketing budgets again by early 2023 and through 2024, small businesses with between 50-99 employees expected to increase their traditional marketing spending going forward.

Traditional marketing methods should not be ignored when planning to optimize your business and reboot marketing strategies as a part of your plan.

How can traditional marketing techniques be used to optimize and improve a business?

Community Events: Sponsoring or participating in local community events is a great way to increase visibility and engage directly with potential customers – it takes you directly to people and puts your business’s values on display. 

Trade Shows: Industry trade shows give you a chance to meet with likeminded people and present your products or services to a highly targeted audience. They also provide opportunities for networking and partnership development, which can lead to future business growth.

Sponsorships: Sponsoring local sports teams, non-profit events, or charity drives can increase your visibility and credibility within a community or specific niche market. Like community events, sponsorships can develop your brand image as supportive and involved in the community.

Promotions: New discounts, coupons, product bundles, or seasonal offerings can drive significant customer engagement and renew interest. Time-sensitive promotions can create a sense of urgency for loyal customers, or for leads that haven’t quite committed to a purchase. 

Traditional Ads: Radio, TV, billboards, and print ads still reach large audiences, and can put your product in front of audiences that are inaccessible through digital means, especially if your business thus far has largely marketed through digital means.

Direct Mail: Sending physical mail, such as postcards, brochures, or catalogs, directly to customers remains an effective way to capture attention and allows you to target audiences that are not accessible through other means. Direct mail also has less competition when stacked up email, and could create a strong, single impression on potential leads.

Cold Calling: Cold calling is still a valid method of reaching potential customers, especially for B2B business models. If you are able to gather high quality contact information for leads that are highly-relevant to your target market and want to find new customers, cold calling gets you straight to a conversation with a potential lead.

Word of Mouth: Incentivizing customers to advocate for your business to other potential customers is a very strong way to find new leads and build your customer base. And the best part? It’s nearly free for the business. 

Evaluating and optimizing marketing strategies can directly contribute to higher business valuations

Effective marketing that shows improvement over time not only boosts business revenues but also proves to prospective buyers that your business offerings have high demand from customers along with growth potential.

Go for sustained growth in lead generation

Keep in mind that the evidence of effective optimization is growth. When evaluating lead generation, set a goal for sustained growth. If your traditional marketing sources are generating a steady stream of leads, but you’re not seeing an increase year over year, this means it may be time to rethink your approach. First evaluate which strategies have shown the most consistent growth and analyze why they’ve been successful, and also make note of what hasn’t. Also make note of shifts in the market that may invalidate a successful but older strategy. 

Data-driven approaches can turn your marketing activities into a business asset that drives value

To maximize the impact of these marketing strategies and optimize business operations for an increased business value, you will need to implement a data-driven framework that rigorously tracks performance and creates a record to back up your success.

Make a plan to track the results of new campaigns in a detailed way. Determine some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to record and set goals for, such as number of impressions, leads, lead conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, and return on investment. Keeping detailed records on the results of each campaign will inform your future decisions and hone your messaging.

Regularly conduct A/B testing on your marketing approaches. A/B testing involves running two similar but different campaigns in parallel to smaller audiences in order to compare the effectiveness of each. Once the campaign has ran for some time, results are recorded and evaluated, leading to new testing or full investment into the winning message.

Make sure to maintain meticulous records of all marketing activity, their associated costs, and their direct impact on revenue and customer growth,as  you’ll not only optimize your current marketing strategies but also create tangible evidence of the business’s marketing effectiveness—a critical factor that potential buyers will scrutinize during valuation.

Taking a data-driven approach with your marketing activities transforms marketing into a strategic asset that demonstrably enhances your company’s market position and potential sale value to buyers

Bridge Financial works with business owners to optimize their marketing strategies

Optimizing a small business can be achieved in a number of ways, and effective utilization of traditional marketing continues to be a time-tested approach to building business value. The trick isn’t simply throwing money at new advertising techniques, but in taking a thoughtful, methodical, and data-driven approach to crafting new marketing campaigns. 

You want to build on past success, learn from failures, and end up with a proven track record of successful growth that can be presented to future prospective buyers to back up your business’s unique growth potential. We have a track record of helping business owners do just that.

Bridge advisors work personally with business owners to take their long-term goals and the unique strengths of their business to craft an optimization plan to boost profitability now and business value in the future. Set up a free consultation with an advisor to get started with your own plan!