Old-School Marketing Techniques for Modern Branding Success

Intro

In the marketing world, the freshest, flashiest techniques tend to get the most attention. Generally speaking, marketing trends and strategies evolve to fit into the world around them—a world that’s constantly changing and morphing over time.

There’s a relentless emergence of new, edgy, and often very technology-focused marketing techniques rolling out onto the advertising scene. But that doesn’t mean they’re worth your time.

In fact, many of today's new marketing techniques have sacrificed substance for style, creating results that feel empty and inauthentic to consumers.

Often, the best marketing strategies borrow age-old wisdom and influence while incorporating innovative new tools and techniques. In this article, we’ll look at some old-school marketing techniques that take all the reliability and substance of the past and show you how to use them to break the mold in the modern world.

10 Old-school marketing techniques to try for modern branding success*

If you’ve been pouring all your energy into flashy online campaigns with disappointing results or simply feel like your marketing strategy needs more oomph, it could be lacking the sentiment and structure that more traditional methods provide.

To help your marketing strategy become more rounded and effective in today’s complex market, consider trying out some of history’s most effective and longstanding marketing techniques:

1. Word-of-mouth marketing

Studies reveal that 88% of consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations from other consumers over a brand’s messaging, even if they are strangers on the internet. Trust in corporations has significantly declined in recent years as consumers shift their attention towards those they can relate to on a more personal level.

Word-of-mouth marketing is a marketing technique that involves sparking organic discussions between audiences about your brand’s services or products in a positive manner. It can be implemented via referral campaigns and recommendation-focused strategies.

The more you can get consumers talking about your brand on social media or other review platforms, the better. Encourage customers to leave reviews and be sure to respond to them, even if they’re not always positive.

2. Cold calling

Cold calling is perhaps one of the most misunderstood and underutilized marketing techniques of the modern age.

In the past, cold calling was used as a popular strategy for contacting potential customers and building a relationship with them over the phone. These days, it can be harder to connect with people in this way, but with the right approach, it can lead to a conversion rate of as much as 18% per call.

However, when it comes to this somewhat controversial marketing technique, the right approach is crucial. Knowing the right time to call, what tone to take, and how to target high-value customers is key.

3. Email marketing

While emailing may still be considered a fairly modern marketing technique, it’s still seen as outdated by some. However, this perception is largely misguided, especially when you consider just how many consumers actively use and engage with their email accounts on a daily basis—4 billion, to be exact.

Every day, billions of people open their emails. If your brand can integrate itself into that part of a consumer’s day, there is a high chance of conversion to be reaped.

The trick to getting email marketing right is to keep things interesting with dynamic newsletters, personalized content, and exclusive offers that make it appealing to a range of consumer demographics.

4. Promotional merchandise

Customers wearing promotional merchandise that advertises your brand is one of the oldest marketing tricks in the book. Not only does it allow customers to develop a close personal connection with your brand by wearing or using it on a daily basis, but it also means that people become walking ads for your business.

Water bottles, t-shirts, mugs, tote bags—these are all things that people use regularly and are often quite happy to use interchangeably from different brands.

By making just a few promotional merchandise items available on your website or social media platforms, you can make it easy for consumers to associate themselves with your brand. And if you can offer them for free or at a discounted rate with other purchases, they’ll be even more likely to invest.

5. Network locally

Brands are stronger when they work together, and collaboration is a marketing method as old as time itself. By collaborating with other brands in your area, you can not only lean on each other for ideas and support but also broaden your net of shared consumers, thus helping your business grow. ** **

Attend networking events and make yourself a prominent figure in the landscape of your community. And if events aren’t already happening, consider organizing some yourself.

6. Community involvement

Speaking of local networking, community involvement is another aspect of old-school marketing that can be leveraged in a modern-day context. In fact, it never really left. Plus, it expands further on the fact that consumers and brands alike both benefit from community engagement.

Community involvement can take many different forms, such as:

• Donating to a local charity
• Hosting a content
• Sponsorships
• Volunteering
• Getting involved in schools
• Participating in other community events
• Finding partnerships

These are all fun, simple, and historically very effective ways to gain the trust and respect of community members. Over time, this can help your brand build a stronger following of customers, particularly local ones, who can drive repeat business for years to come. It can also optimize your local search rankings as you’ll focus your SEO efforts on your local reach to encourage community engagement.

7. Live presentations or trade shows

While it’s true that these kinds of events aren’t as popular as they once were, people do still attend them to socialize, learn, and enhance their knowledge about a new product or service. If you can market an event like this well enough, the turnout can be significant.

Live presentations are especially effective if your brand sells a product or service that’s new or unfamiliar to most audiences. Providing a space for them to interact with it and learn how to relate to it in a professional, comfortable setting can produce good results.

8. Networking with journalists and bloggers

Before influencers arrived on the scene, we had bloggers and journalists who fulfilled a similar role. Don’t forget that journalists and bloggers still have enormous reach in the marketing world, and if you can get them on your side, your chances of success become much higher.

Inviting relevant media figures to attend workshops, events, or presentations in exchange for some kind of value trade, you can create an empire of community and internet spokespeople who may advocate for you on media platforms and collaborate on advertisements based on professional relationships.

9. Business cards, portfolios and flyers

These old-school marketing tools were great brand builders, and they still are. They just need to be updated. While the principles remain the same, this marketing material can easily be customized and converted for today’s world.

A digital business card with a scannable QR code can replace the card versions of before and can easily get passed from mobile phone to phone. An online portfolio showcasing products, branded images, or other material can be created with ease. And flyers can take the form of Google ads and other online alternatives.

The trick is to create a memorable connection with your audience using techniques adapted to suit current trends and consumer behavior.

10. Relationship-building

Traditional marketing efforts have always been centered on relationship-building, i.e., the ability to connect with people on their level and establish a sense of trust between a brand and its audience.

When it comes down to it, there’s no software program, no app, and no strategy that can substitute for real connection—and that’s really what old-school marketing has always been about. If you want to take a leaf out of the old-school marketer’s books, focus on cultivating real, genuine relationships with customers.

Host in-person meetings, show up, engage, talk to them, ask them about their problems, and make customer support your lifeblood. Show them you’re more than just a faceless, robotic corporation. You are real people on a mission to make the world a better place through your products and services.

Old-school or tried-and-true?

Many of the marketing techniques used by some of the world’s most successful brands are ones that have been around for the longest.

Some people might argue that there’s a reason why certain marketing techniques have been left in the past. Maybe they’re out of touch or simply aren’t able to compete with more efficient contemporary tools or strategies. Maybe they aren’t as scalable or relevant in today’s world.

But before technology saturated the advertising scene, brands had to get really creative about how to connect with consumers—all without the help of social media, data analytics, and paid internet ads.

Now, we’re not saying that you should abandon modern, technology-focused tools in favor of yesterday’s analog strategies. Far from it. Time and again, studies show us that staying technologically active is the only way to stay relevant and competitive in today’s fast-paced world.

However, what we’re trying to emphasize here is the importance of retaining that authentic creative spark that so many brands have used throughout history to connect with audiences on a deeper, more naturally emotional level. Sometimes, the best marketing techniques are the simplest!

The bottom line

Old-school marketing techniques have withstood the test of time for a reason. They are more centered on organic human interactions and connections that surpass fleeting, empty trends, and they are also often more affordable and accessible in the long run.

There is value to be found in both old-school and new-school marketing techniques. By borrowing what you need from each end of the spectrum, you can develop a strategy that has the best of both worlds.