5 unique ways to pair traditional and digital marketing tactics
Digital channels rule our marketing strategies these days but that doesn’t mean we have to ignore more traditional mediums, in fact, adding in traditional marketing tactics can often be a way to reach new audiences and catch someone’s interest as we’ve grown accustomed to ignoring digital ads and recognizing marketing materials from a mile away.
Think about the last time you got a promotional email from a brand. Did you actually open or just delete it? What if that same brand sent you a postcard in the mail? You probably would have at least glanced at it to see what it was about. Print and traditional marketing methods are not dead and can easily be combined with digital marketing tactics for a well-rounded campaign.
If you’re planning a new marketing campaign and looking for new ways to leverage a variety of interconnected tactics, here are five of my favorite pairings.
1. Print + email nurture
Use print ads to advertise a new ebook, video series, or podcast series and then gate that content. Once you’ve gotten the visitor’s email address, add them to an educational or lead nurture drip campaign related to the content you advertised in print.
You could also use your print ad to advertise your participation in an upcoming industry event and encourage people to visit your website for a sneak preview of your conference session or to learn more about a new product you’re unveiling at the event. You can use popups to encourage people to subscribe to your emails while they’re on the landing page.
To better track your print ad performance, use UTM codes or URL shorteners with tracking parameters in place. You could also use QR codes to make it easier than ever to visit your page, but the gated content might not perform as well as people on mobile devices might be more likely to bounce or not inclined to fill out the form.
2. Print + remarketing
Similar to the above, you can use print to send people to a specific landing page and then use remarketing ads to encourage people to visit another page that’s related to the content they already indicated interest in, or direct them to a special offers page, contact sales, or a product-specific landing page.
3. Event + social media
Events were pretty scarce in 2020, but I’m betting as we put the pandemic in the past people will be very excited to return to events and industry conferences in the coming year. Harness that excitement with your event marketing and pairing it with social media – you can be social and conversational at the event and online.
Hand out flyers or business cards with your social media profiles, QR code them for easy access, or post questions, surveys, polls, or key takeaways during the event to generate conversations online.
4. Direct mailer + email ads
Special delivery coming to your leads’ inboxes! Direct mailers can be a great way to get in front of your audience in a different format and direct them back to your website to learn more. I recommend pairing your direct mailer piece with either a dedicated email follow-up or if you have a large lead base that has Gmail addresses, running ads in their inbox that tie back to your direct mailer campaign.
5. Podcast ad + email newsletter
A riff on the old radio ads is to sponsor a podcast or instead of going to TV, sponsor a YouTube video depending on your target audience. Share a discount code or special offer for this specific audience and then enroll them in your newsletter subscription list to keep them as a repeat customer.
What’s your favorite pairing for marketing campaigns? Tell me your ideas in the comments below or tag me on Twitter with your suggestions at @sjdonelson303!
