However, there is hope.
When you find yourself grasping at straws, return to the page back in time you used to kick up your marketing and advertising idea generation to a higher level.
You know, the recommended sources you created when you were a newbie, when you lacked enough information or resources to generate ideas, the basics which has served you well.
Marketing and advertising can be a very difficult occupation for most people, except maybe for the top two to three percent in this profession. The rest of us, who drink too much magic juice hoping to be like them, it’s not unusual to exaggerate the truth.
Number one, idea generation.
As you venture into your abyss of past ideas, which served you well to find your earlier marketing strategies, and creative advertising tactics, keep a wide-open mind.
People, known for testing marketing and advertising assumptions, always looking for a better response and acquisition, continually revisited their past. And, if you are not one of those people, there is no better time to start than now.
Start to check the websites of associations, such as the Direct Marketing Association, Marketing Prof’s, blogs and other marketing and advertising organizations that will pop up in your search. LinkedIn has a wide variety of groups within advertising, marketing, data and digital marketing, just naming a few.
For example, a subject line that crossed our sight, “Demand creation through advertising — acquisition advertising — remains among the most important ways that a that a company can add customer sales growth.” Even if demand creation through advertising is not your thing, you’ll get a few ideas to test. Like attraction.
Number two, attraction.
Internet advertising has played a major role in the concept of using attraction, which seeks to generate interest among your prospects who are not already customers.
However, too much of the Internet advertising method, which is disruptive, and not sustainable for the budget of a small business. However, you are looking for ideas, so test to see what works and is it a fit for your company.
According to the DMA, nearly four in five people open most of their mail. Now, that’s good attraction. Does this mean your fathers old-fashioned direct mail can also play a part in your marketing and advertising?
Plus, direct mail is the second most popular form of acquisition advertising behind television. This is not a business-2-business medium, but it will lead to ideas for better acquisition. To be sure, companies will continue to rely on search advertising, in which a company targets current customers mostly online, based on customer profiles.
Customers and prospects like yourself, consider this type of communication less intrusive than email, which often arrives in floods and never opened.
However, using email with direct mail, is a clever use of multi-channel marketing.
Multi-Channel or Multi-Medium.
By exposing customers to products and services that they might not otherwise know about is even more important. By several estimates, businesses lose 20 to 25% of their customers each year. To compensate, they need to replace them. People are more apt to open physical mail than one of the many emails they receive.
The most effective strategy for demand creation is combining direct mail with other mediums, such as internet advertising, to drive traffic to company websites and a special landing page. In addition, direct mail plus email, can build brand awareness at a reasonable cost.
More times than not, one medium or channel can help to increase the response. But always remember – TEST! Need testing ideas for better ideas and results?