Traditional Marketing Tactics That Still Work In The Digital Age

Traditional Marketing Tactics That Still Work In The Digital Age

The internet has become a battleground for marketers. These are increasingly competitive internet marketers who make it harder to stay on top of search engine sites and lead generation.

The statistics are alarming.

  • A look at the previous years reveals that Social Media traffic has decreased by 50%.
  • Facebook Ads are working only for 40% of digital marketing strategies. Even organic ads hover at a mere 2%.
  • Pay-Per-Click (PPC) that was all the rage last year revealed a mediocre conversion rate below 1%.

Email marketing seemed to fair better. On the other hand, email marketers note the struggle to reach their target audience who get an average of 121 emails per day, plus promotional emails.

Search engine optimization or SEO strategies remain to be vital in working with lead generation. Still, the competition for the same SEO keywords is like a breeding ground for crabs, each wanting to get ahead of the other.

In fact, growing website traffic has become the top priority for more than half of digital marketers. In particular, 61% of these marketers reveal building organic presence and SEO as their top priority in 2018.

What are We Leading Towards?

No matter which modern advertising tactic you use, that strategy will go through the same cycle as every other strategy—from conception and testing to finding success and facing the inevitable saturation of your methods.

In the process, we have forgotten old school marketing techniques and focused on inbound noise instead.

This year, more and more marketers are forced to look back. They start to rethink these old marketing strategies. Now is the time to revive these tactics and make them work in the modern digital landscape. Let’s tackle them one by one.

#1 Success in Snail Mail Marketing

You’d think that in the digital age, direct mail is dead.

That’s a myth.

It’s outdated, but the wheels have turned, and its efficacy rate is shocking.

  • Marketers who sent their message through direct mail saw their response rate increase by 10 and even 30 times more than through their efforts in email marketing.
  • Outreach emails for the sake of landing leads and sales are sent to spam and promotional folders.
  • On the one hand, 100.7 million adults in 2016 purchased through a catalog.
  • These consumers believe that direct mail adds the personalized touch that online interactions lack.
  • Your leads have flooded inboxes, but their mailbox at home still has space.
  • Despite the decline of direct mail sent in the past decade, it is reaping a return on investment of 15 to 17%, on average.
  • There is less competition via direct mail. Meanwhile, email marketing has become saturated.

Even Conversion Fanatics, an SEO company, turned to direct mail with a 25% response rate which happened to be big-ticket clients.

The marketing team of Intronis, a cloud backup and data protection company, leaned in favor of direct mail. They invested as much as $10,000 and raked in 700% ROI.

If you like to make a significant impact on your annual revenue, target the big clients. Surprisingly, direct mail is the fastest and most effective way to get big-ticket deals.

#2 One-on-one with Clients and Serve their Individual Needs

Account-based marketing (ABM) is not as old school as direct mail. However, it is built-in older marketing strategies that understand and apply personalization.

These days, marketing campaigns personalize their lead outreach by calling the client by name. Still, the message is a cookie-cutter one with generalized pain points.


Optimizely is one of the companies that had success using the ABM strategy. They targeted 26 different accounts, focusing their efforts on these handfuls.

Among their target market was Microsoft.

Optimizely provided a fully custom experience for their target market specific to their pain points and desires.

The result is a 117% elevation in account signups.


On average, marketers who employ ABM strategies reap 97% ROI.

Here is how you can use the ABM strategy for your business:

  • Study and determine which types of account demographics result in more sales.
  • Identify businesses that match these demographics and will benefit the most from your products or services.
  • Personalize your message to every target account.

The ABM strategy focuses on building real relationships with clients. It drives in massive sales and improved relationships between the client and the company.

Related: Account-based Marketing: Why It Delivers the Highest ROI

#3 The Power of Networking in a Conference

Nowadays, it is considered time-consuming and a waste of money to attend conferences.

Meanwhile, companies like HubSpot rake in thousands of new leads attending conferences.

Think of $10,000 spent on conferences as an investment. Connecting to sponsors and partners in these conferences can quickly pay you a higher ROI.

A Google search will reveal hundreds of sponsors in a single conference, ranging from small businesses to large companies.

Using this data, you can analyze these companies beforehand.

If you do conferences right, you can leverage a sponsor list to create a personalized sales pitch and land the big-ticket clients.

Just remember to study, plan, and specify your objectives, goals, and strategy before networking to the partners in a conference.

Final Thoughts

The resurgence of old marketing strategies does not go to say that digital marketing efforts don’t work in 2018.

Combine digital marketing strategies with direct mail, ABM, and personalized networking in conferences, you have yourself a better game this year.

It’s all about directing your efforts in a market that is still wide and open, and then building relationships that encourage clients deeper into the funnel.

Now we know it’s best not to judge a strategy based on its old and tattered cover.

Build your digital presence, attract the right audience, and engage potential customers with the help of Callbox’s integrated Digital Marketing Solutions.

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