Alternatives to Advertising

Alternatives to Advertising

Most small businesses think of advertising as the primary marketing tactic to drive sales.  There are lots of other alternatives to advertising to consider. 

Know this:  on MarketingZone we're marketing "tactic neutral", meaning we won't push one marketing approach over another.  Instead we highlight the pros and cautions for you to decide what will work best for your situation and budget.

Advertising alternatives

 

What are alternatives to consider instead of advertising?

• Direct mail marketing.  Direct mail is like advertising sent to people directly.  There are more than 50,000 different mailing lists you can buy to very precisely target the exact type of people who may be most interested in your message and offer.  You can send direct mail letters and postcards to test response rates of direct mail vs. advertising. 

• Personalized direct mail is a done with integrating computer files of contact information for people (direct mailing lists) with special digital press equipment that allows a commercial printer to personalize mailings for an individual or for a group of customers with different text, photos, offers, etc.  Marketers using personalized direct mail (also called digital printing) claim response rates from 5% to as high as 50% for very targeted business-to-business offers. There is a lot more work involved to set up these customized direct mail programs and the cost per printed piece is higher so you'll want calculate if this is a worthwhile approach as a way to increase your response rates.

• Email marketing.  You can buy an email list and use an email service to send emails with graphics, email newsletters and email alerts (short messages).  You can even do it yourself if you're so inclined. Email is less expensive than direct mail because you're not paying for printing and mailing, but there are other forces to contend with -- SPAM filters, for example. In addition, it's still difficult to purchase a squeaky clean email list that meets all of today's legal requirements. As a result, email is often used for contacting and communicating with existing customers.  And direct mail is used for communicating with prospective customers.

• Direct mail coupon mailers.  This is a type of direct mail where a coupon company mails an envelope or book of coupons, and provider companies pay to have their offer included.  It's less expensive than mailing yourself but you must make an offer (coupon) which may attract prospects who are not the most profitable to serve long-term as customers.  And your competitors may also be included in the mailing (you can ask for and pay more for an exclusive).

• Social media marketing. It's now the 21st century and today's minds have developed a number of hugely popular tools that are changing the face of marketing. Millions of people each day interact with sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. And wherever millions of people go, marketers are sure to follow. Successful marketing via these social channels is still being defined. At a minimum these outlets can be leveraged at little cost and be a great support for brand recognition and word-of-mouth advertising. Their value as demand generation vehicles that lead to bottom-line impact remains to be seen.

• PR/Public Relations.  It's free.  You just need to create a story idea that appeals to a reporter and their editor.  PR won't have the frequency of paid advertising and you won't be able to know for certain generally if the reporter will write a story (and how it will turn out), but an article in a paper or magazine or a story on TV or the radio has a lot more credibility than an ad.

• Trade shows and events.  This is like advertising in person to people who have paid to attend a trade show or event to learn more about new products/services.  In advertising most of the time you are trying to interrupt someone (from watching their favorite TV show, reading a story online or in print) to pay attention to your ad.  By participating in trade shows and events that are relevant for your products/services, the people coming are already interested and more ready to listen/learn what you have to say.