Published on: 22 November 2018
Last Updated on: 13 September 2024
It is the age of digital marketing but that doesn’t mean businesses should abandon traditional methods of promoting their products or services. While many people seem permanently attached to their smartphones, some people choose not to be constantly connected. Since these people may still be interested in what you have to offer, you will need to reach them through traditional marketing techniques. Digital and traditional strategies can work well together. Let’s discuss some of the old-school techniques which continue to bring in business.
5 Traditional Marketing Techniques That Still Work:
1. Neon Signs:
Signage is still an excellent form of promotion and neon signs are still impactful. They are vibrant and highly visible even from a distance, yet inexpensive. This is especially helpful for small or new businesses that need lots of exposure but don’t have a huge marketing budget. Neon signs can be made in almost any shape and size so they can be used for logos, words, or anything else you may have in mind. These signs are easy to set up and they last a long time. They are great for bars, gaming lounges, tattoo parlors, and other fun, edgy businesses.
2. Billboards:
Billboards are another convenient way to get your message across using visuals. The 2017 Nielsen Poster Advertising Study provides evidence that customers still respond to this traditional marketing technique. They are perfect for communicating evergreen content to large numbers of potential customers over an extended period of time. People driving along the highway or other busy streets can’t help but notice a large compelling image or carefully crafted word. Since many people take the same route every day, they will see your message frequently. If you have a product with mass appeal, billboards should be used in conjunction with your digital marketing efforts.
3. Direct Mail:
Email marketing is a key part of many digital marketing strategies but you shouldn’t neglect traditional direct mail. In fact, it’s making a comeback, so you may want to prepare hard copies of your catalogs. Emails often end up in the spam folder or get ignored or deleted because people get so many of them. Direct mail is on the decline so recipients are more likely to open an envelope that comes to their home. It also seems more personal than email and is more likely to get a response. Direct Mailing Services may also bring a greater return on investment. If you’re interested in direct mailing, you should take a look at this EDDM guide.
5. Flyers and Brochures:
If you have a brick-and-mortar business like a store or a restaurant, don’t underestimate the power of handing out flyers and brochures. Brochures help you to share lots of information about your products or services in a tangible form. Flyers, on the other hand, are an excellent way to notify people about sales or offer special discounts. These handouts also allow representatives of your business to interact with potential customers and answer their questions.
6. Telemarketing:
Don’t dismiss the idea of cold-calling in the 21st century. Research suggests calls have conversion rates of between 30 to 50%, making them one of the most effective marketing solutions. Calls were found to last almost 16 times longer than a website interaction so this traditional marketing technique should not be dismissed. Telemarketing is especially helpful in the B2B sector where you can properly segment your markets. It’s also great if you’re looking to upsell current customers or clients. Random calls will not have high conversion rates so you need to do your research and have a strategy before you pick up the phone.
It’s easy to think that you should focus solely on digital marketing. However, some of the best promotion strategies involve both modern and traditional marketing efforts. Neon signs, billboards, direct mail, flyers and brochures, and telemarketing can all work well depending on your locale and target market.
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As the owner of a translation business, you know firsthand just how much a good marketing strategy can make or break you.
However, your current advertising strategy often makes you feel like your company is getting, well, lost in translation. You need to make a change as soon as possible.
But you're just not sure where you should start when it comes to updating your marketing plan.
In this post, we're sharing both print and digital advertising tips that you can't afford to miss out on.
When you're ready to dominate your target market and outrank your competition in the search engine results, keep on reading.
Start with Your Website
Especially when you're running an international business, you need advertising tips that can reach everyone on the globe -- at the same time.
In short, while a strong website is important for every company, it becomes even more essential for brands who need to reach people in different time zones and across different languages.
In other words? Even though you're running a translation business, it doesn't change the fact that nearly 3/4 of consumers say they prefer to read content in their first language.
Start by looking for the right tools and plugins that will automatically change your site's language to the language of the user.
But don't stop there.
Having an intuitive and branded web design are also key digital marketing tips. This matters because people will stay on a site they find easy to use for much longer than average.
Pop-ups, autoplay features, or just sites that take forever to load won't cause them to click away after three seconds. This helps you rise in search engine rankings.
First of all, ensure your site loads quickly and completely on desktop and mobile devices. Use menu options at the top of your page to help users find exactly what they're looking for as fast as possible. If you're blogging (more on that in a minute) make sure you've taken the time to properly categorize your past posts.
Above all, keep your homepage engaging and organized, like on this website.
Finally, don't forget to include your company's contact information on not just the homepage, but every page of your internal website.
Remember that consumers won't always come to the homepage first. Don't make them hunt around on your site to find out how to get answers to their questions or sign up for your services.
Blogging and Guest Posting
Now that we've covered how your website will drive more customers to your translation business, let's talk about how blogging can increase your site visitors by around 300%.
We understand that blogging is a lot of work -- and, if you have to hire professional content services to write your posts for you, it can also be expensive. So, why is it worth it?
First of all, it helps to increase your authority and brand recognition within your target market. By providing information-based (as opposed to sales-driven) blog posts, you strengthen consumer trust in your brand.
Plus, blogging also tells Google and other search engines that you update your entire website more often than companies who just have a static site.
This means that you'll be able to outrank your competitors in the search engine results. Plus, you'll also have more indexed pages (AKA, pages that have been read and categorized by Google.) This also helps you get higher up in the search engine result pages.
Blogging also gives you an amazing opportunity to connect with your target market and shorten your overall sales cycle through the use of keywords.
By naturally including keywords (what people type into search engines when they need a translation business) in your content, your website will show up in front of people who are ready to buy exactly what you're selling.
But blogging alone isn't enough. You also need to get into guest posting. This is one of the best online advertising tips because it gives you the chance to broaden your market and increase your brand awareness at the same time.
Write articles and blog posts for popular online journals, websites, and even forums that are relevant to the translation industry.
Other Key Digital Advertising Ideas
Of course, your digital marketing strategy shouldn't begin and end with site design, blogging, and guest posting alone.
There are a few other digital marketing tips you should take into consideration, too.
Make sure that you claim your third-party listings on platforms like Google My Business, and fill out your profiles as completely as is possible. This is especially helpful when it comes to connecting you to your target market.
Those third-party listings are also important because they allow your customers the chance to leave online reviews for your business. While having a testimonials section on your website is a good idea, most consumers feel that third-party site reviews are less biased.
Make sure you frequently read and respond to these reviews -- yes, even the bad ones. You want to prove to potential and current clients that you take their input seriously.
Social media is also essential in the online marketing world.
However, especially since you're a smaller business, we suggest that you conduct some market research to find out which platform your customers spend most of their time on.
Focus your efforts there first, and then expand to other platforms. If possible, aim to post three times a day: morning, noon, and night.
Finally, never underestimate the power of an e-newsletter. Not only will this allow you to let your leads and current customers know about new product offerings and flash sales.
E-newsletters can also help to build up a personal connection between you and your market. You can feature employees of the month, tell customer stories, and even ask for feedback in survey form.
Offline Advertising Tips for Your Translation Business
Yes, having a strong digital marketing strategy is incredibly important for your translation business. However, it doesn't mean that you can completely ignore print marketing or offline marketing in general.
Now, let's take a look at some seriously effective marketing ideas that don't require an Internet connection.
Host an Event
One of the best ways to get your name out there is by hosting an event in your local market.
You don't have to spend a lot of money in order to increase your brand recognition -- you just have to focus on inviting the right people. Invite other local businesses to a dinner at an international restaurant in your area, or host a "language night" at a local school.
Focus on event spaces that have a global feel -- even having a "movie night" where you show a popular international film could work.
We suggest handing out promotional products at these events. This way, even if attendees don't need translations services now, they'll know who to call when they do in the future.
Don't Underestimate Mailings
Relying on the cousin of the e-newsletter, paper mailings, to get the word out about your business is still an effective marketing idea.
People love getting "snail mail," especially as it becomes rarer and rarer. Whenever possible, hand-address your envelopes to increase their open rate.
When you send out mailings, think outside the holiday card or business pamphlet alone. Instead, consider including things like a magnetic calendar, so that customers can have your company in their heads all year long.
You could also include a paper card with a discount code.
The same goes for simply including a physical coupon offering them a percentage off of your services.
Also, slip in a few of your business cards, and handwrite a note on the back of them. You may also want to create a branded letterhead or stationary, in order to increase your brand recognition.
It's all about building a personal connection between you and your leads.
Grow Your Translation Business with These Tips
We hope that this post has helped you to better understand how to market your translation business both on and offline.
Remember that conducting thorough market research -- and knowing when to ask for the help of a professional marketing team -- will take you a long way.
Looking for additional advice about how to build your brand? Want to ensure you're creating evergreen content that your market will love sharing on social media?
Want to understand how good web design increases your conversions and grow your traffic?
Our blog can help you to learn all of that and more, so keep coming back to us for more advertising advice.
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In advertising and publicizing your business brand and product, you should follow a specific process. This will ensure that you increase your business revenue but most importantly you will be able to provide your users with a positive and everlasting experience.
In this modern business world, there is a strong competition exists and if you consider it from the conceptual point of view it is a very complicated task to have memorable and effective publicity.
You may find some strategies are useful and are very much in practice but in order to reach out to a wider audience and create a greater media impact you will have to think out of the box and look over and beyond the traditional marketing policies.
The best way to proceed is to have a useful, effective, appealing and easy to navigate web application or web app as these are popularly called in addition to your well-designed website. This will help you to reach out to a larger audience and create a more distinct appeal.
Having a dedicated web app is the most commonly followed digital strategy by most of the businesses. It helps their services and products to reach out to their targeted audiences anywhere and anytime even when they are on the go.
However, creating a web app that is useful and effective is not easy as you will need to stick to the cultural values of your business as well as your audience. In addition to that, you must ensure that:
Is good
Creates a positive impression
Impacts the users’ minds with a clear image of your company and product
Is useful for the industry
Is easy to access from mobile devices and
Is easy to navigate and self-intuitive.
It must also vary with different tastes and requirements of the users and all should be available in one place. You must make sure that a single app is useful enough for all types of audiences irrespective of their demographics, location, and even disabilities.
Therefore, be wise to invest in a professional web app development company to include all of the useful and idiosyncratic features in the web app.
Things to consider
While you design a website you may focus on telling a story through the images and graphics, more information through the text and other aspects but when you design a web application it should be high and only informative. The elements and pictures should be useful and only the necessary ones should be included or else it will be cluttered and less appreciated by the users.
A large part of the success of your web app will depend on the quality and efficiency of it. It should be in accordance to the need and requirements of your clients and of course the market.
You must focus on delivering the desired results as per the wish of your users. This is an important factor to consider because users will have different needs and demands for different businesses and therefore your app should be unique for your type of business and the product or services that you have to offer to your customers.
Besides your app design, you should also focus on the type of company to select for designing your app. This is another important factor to consider as there are several such agencies out there but all may not be able to deliver you with exactly what you need. Therefore, make sure that you choose a web app development company based on the level of competence, expertise, and efficiency. This will prevent you from selecting a company that is above the average
Consider your goals
The primary objective of creating a web application for any particular business is to consider and implement the features that will enable the business to achieve its goals. This will make your investment fruitful and protect your hard earned and valuable money.
For this matter, you must include only those options in your web app that are necessary for the user to make a buying decision. Incorporating others in the app may confuse the user resulting in leaving it soon.
You must deliver your user what they want along with your vision as well. You will need to be more creative in designing your app to make a better appeal and stay in the business as well as follow your innovative and unique marketing strategies.
Apart from designing a really good app that will deliver your vision, it is also necessary to ensure that it is scalable enough to assure the best and most effective results. This will ensure that you offer your users with more dynamic and useful solutions to their queries and issues.
In order to reach out to a more targeted audience, you should customize the ideas, needs, and features that are specific to your specific industry.
In addition to that, you must also keep in mind that you need to establish a relationship with your users when they use your web app.
The users must be comfortable to use and work with your app which is why you should use more than the tried and tested features in your app to be truly useful.
You may experiment more with the approaches, features, and ideas to implement but in the end, you must make sure that till it provides the best solution to the users. This will not only ensure that you achieve the best results for your business but it will also allow you to measure the success level of your app and how much it is able to contribute to your revenue generation.
Ideally, the use of a web app is not only to get more business but also to create the best brand recognition with your expert marketing strategies.
Wrapping it up
If you find all these are too tall ask for you hire a professional agency. They will ensure better networking and that the best features are included in your app to help the users in better decision making and at the same time you can follow your business objective.
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It is just a simple concept of making all kinds of communication and messages linked together. This is just to ensure that there is no lack of information. This lack of information can have a negative result on the work. Do you know what is integrated marketing communication?
At the basic level of IMC i.e., Integrated Marketing Communication, all the promoting tools are linked together for smooth communication. You surely must have heard of the marketing mix. Yes, that 4Ps of the marketing mix. This promotion is one of that marketing mixes
To make all the tools work smoothly, all the tools must work together in harmony. This can be advanced when regular communication is integrated into several levels, such as Horizontal, Vertical, Internal, External, and Data integration.
Let’s go through various components of IMC:
1. The Foundation:
In this, a detailed analysis of the product and the target market is required. For the marketers it is essential to understand the nature of the brand, what are its USP (unique selling proposition) and the requirements of the end-user. It is important to have a close eye on your competitor’s behaviors. Every need of the customers is of the utmost importance.
2. The corporate culture:
There must need to be relevant in the product and the producing company. Every organization has its own vision, so while planning marketers need that to keep in mind.
For example, there is an organization whose vision is to train teenagers in the field of their interest. If they start training the middle-aged man they are deviating from the vision.
3. Brand focus:
Every organization is known by the brand they are producing or facilitating. So, it’s important to have plans which are always focused on the brand. Making their brand the center of attention.
4. Consumer experiences:
You must not forget about the consumer and how they feel about the product. Nowadays customers are more attracted to the product which looks good, has good packing, and of course, the product itself needs to be one of the best.
5. Communication tools:
It is a way via which the brand communicates with the customers. The ways can be direct selling, advertising, social media, advertisements, etc.
6. Integration tools:
Selling the product is one part of communication but also getting feedback from the customer is also part communication.
Plans for Integrated marketing communication
It integrates all aspects of the marketing mix to promote the products and services to the customers at the right place and at the right time. It is a proven fact that if you use different IMC tools at the same time it can improve the customer experience of the product.
If done correctly. IMC can improve the visibility of the brand. Whenever a customer goes to the market for shopping, they will be reminded of your brand. The impact of integrated marketing communication increases if the end-user sees the brand simultaneously multiple numbers of times.
A marketer should be well versed in time management. Because doing many things like budgeting, allocating the right resources at the right for the promotion of the product is of utmost importance.
Gathering information about your company and its product and the audience who buy this product is very important for planning.
While planning some points are needed to keep in mind:
A detailed summary needs to be made on the brand is going to reach its targeted audience.
Everything about the organization needs to be crystal clear.
Good knowledge of the product is required.
Choosing the right market is very important, and hoe you are going to promote it into the market needs to be mentioned clearly.
Competitors’ analysis is very important. And how the competitors are active in the target market.
Knowing your brand weakness as well as your strong points can be a good start to promote your brands.
Implementing integrated marketing communication
Integrated marketing communication is a way of promoting the brand through various methods like advertising, social media awareness, direct selling, public relation, etc. It focuses on using all the available ideas together to get the most desired result. Instead of using one integrated tool at a time, it brings all the possible tool under one umbrella and uses any viable option which is used in an effective way.
The success of integrating marketing communication relies totally on understanding the customers, their needs and expectations. Just remember one thing the customer will be loyal towards you only when you outperform their expectations. And to do so you need to be well versed in the marketing mix and need to apply that knowledge in the fields.
Just promoting your product once or twice does not make you gainer. You need to keep doing that. So that whenever they think of buying a product, your brand needs to be the first to come in their mind. This can be done only after promoting the same product several times a day to the same audience. This makes their subconscious mind active and your product makes space in their second mind.
Let’s take Colgate for example, no matter where you are, whenever you think about a toothpaste product the first name that comes into mind is “Colgate”. Why? Because it was their integrated marketing communication skills that have made you think this way. This what an integrated marketing communication does if done correctly.
What are the components of successful integrated marketing communication?
It is essential for organizations to have a well-integrated marketing communication team, who can work hard for the organization. And make the customer satisfied so that the customer can invest in the product. This can only happen if the brand can provide services that can make the customer loyal to the brand.
This can be done only by using the components effectively:
Customer focus
No matter how good your product is, no matter how good is your service is, until and unless you make a customer happy all is worthless.
Do you believe in God?
No, then start believing in the god named “Customers”. If you are a marketer then you need to have faith in this god. Only this god has the power to make your brand, organization what you hope for.
So, if you think ignoring their needs and doing and coming up with the best plan will work for you then you need to go back a little bit and have a fresh start.
Everything about the customer is very important. Their appraisal, as well as their, complains both hold the same value. But for me complain matters the most. That shows where we are lacking and where we need to improve ourselves.
Make sure whatever you are planning customer needs to be at the center of that.
Co operation
Cooperation among the marketing team is important, but it is essential that every member of the organization work as a whole, to promote the product.
Other members who are outside of the department are needed to be allowed to give their thoughts on the matter. This can help in unboxing new ideas, which can really accelerate the promotion.
Database communication
The sharing of information is one of the important aspects of good planning. This helps in formulating the best course of action. Every employee needed to be filled in on every relevant detail that they need to do their job.
Leverage
Analyze every channel on which the promotion is done. Calculate their cost estimation. See that if the ROI on that cost is relevant or not. This helps your brand’s promoting efficiency.
Profitability
At the end of the day, we have to gain revenue. So, making a plan, formulating the strategies are only helpful when they can bring in profits.
So, we have to market in such a way that it really brings in the audience to invest in our brand and stay loyal to the brand. This will help to bring in higher revenue.
Importance of integrated marketing communication
Nobody can deny the fact that integrated marketing communication is an important aspect of the promotion of the brand.
Let’s go much deeper:
It acts as a messenger between the brand and the audience
It recognizes the need of the customers, it gets the data of the competitors, locate an important place for marketing the brand and send this back to the organization for the analysis.
Brand awareness at a low cost
It is a long-term process where you gain audience trust, and convince them to invest in your brand. Integrated marketing communication is the best way to promote your values.
Think like this, if brand A is already communicating with you properly, and delivering its USP on a regular basis. Why would you go for the brand B. you will subconsciously choose brand A
Integrating marketing communication over traditional ways
IMC is taking over traditional ways because it not only focuses on getting new customers but also tries to retain the older on as well. Gaining a new customer does not mean that you forget about the older customer who has already avail of your services. Gaining new customers is very good but losing the older one is not accepted. Because once the trust is broken, it cannot be restored. The customer will never trust you again. So, doing both is of utmost importance.
It reduces the time required for the planning
If not for this IMC, strategizing the plan would take lots of time. It is due to the IMC that the time is reduced to none.
IMC tools
It is essential for organizations to have a well-integrated marketing communication team, who can work hard for the organization. And make the customer satisfied so that the customer can invest in the product. This can only happen if the brand can provide services that can make the customer loyal to the brand.
Let us go through the tools which are used in IMC:
Advertising
It is the best way of promoting the brand. It can reach a huge amount of audience in the shortest time frame. Advertisements on the television, newspaper, radio can reach many audiences in a small frame of time. This also increases the authenticity of the brand. Now it is the marketer’s job to make sure that the right messages are sent to the audience.
Self-promotion
The promotion which the brands do with the promotional code, discounts, attractive offers, etc. brands itself can pay for advertisements to the newspaper, distribute leaflets for the promotions.
Direct selling
There are various tools like mailing, text messages, brochures, which the brands use to promote themselves.
Personal selling
Personal selling here is referred to the selling of the products from their showrooms, via their agents and making sales call.
Public relation activities
Well, have you seen brands presenting themselves in the community meetup, in fairs, in public events? If yes, then you can understand what public relations mean.
It’s all about communication with the public by going in between them. This makes them feel closure to you. This creates a friendship bond with potential customers. Even if they had never thought of investing in your brand, but due to your public appearance. They may think at least once of buying your services.
Managing IMC
It is essential for organizations to have a well-integrated marketing communication team, who can work hard for the organization. And make the customer satisfied so that the customer can invest in the product. This can only happen if the brand can provide services that can make the customer loyal to the brand.
Just making the strategies and implementing those can be said that only half work is done. The rest half is managing and maintain those plans.
There are different modes of communication, so it needs to be managed effectively so that all work in the same synchronization to deliver the same message to all the audience. This can be done with the help of proper managing plans.
The first step is to identify the right audience
Finding the right audience is the best way to make your promotion fruitful. You need to understand who is your audience. what can be done to find the relevant audience for providing services, and who are willing to invest in you. After you find out the answer to these questions, only then you can move on with the second phase of the IMC.
The second step is to think of what to communicate
The kind of message you send to the customer is very crucial for gaining their trust. You need to have a proper crystal-clear message for audiences. This makes your brand much more authentic.
The third step is to plan your message in a way that convinces them
Having clear messages will not do, you need to present them in such a way that the audience likes it and get the meaning of it.
Make sure that your messages are all properly formatted.
The fourth step is to identify the various channel via which you can communicate with them
Choosing the best course of action is very helpful in making a promotional platform. It needs to be efficient that it reaches the right person at the right time.
The fifth step is to allocate the right source at the right time
Investment is needed to be done properly so that ROI gains a profit rather than a loss. So investment needs to be done after analyzing ever aspects of the promotional platforms.
Lastly, it’s important to measure the reach of Integrated marketing communication
You need to monitor constantly that the promotion is reaching the people or not, doing a blind job is just like walking on the edge of the mountain blindfolded.
Conclusion
As a whole, integrated marketing communication lays down a bridge between the organization and the audience. Without the IMC informational gap is created which can lead to malfunctioning of the whole organization.
There are many strategies that can be implemented to overcome any possible crisis faced by the organization.
Each and every detail on integrated marketing communication is given in this article.
Image source
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