Are traditional or digital marketing methods best for your business?

Business owners can be spoilt for choice when it comes to marketing methods. It can be tough to pick the right marketing strategy for them. The real question is: are there types of marketing that suit different industries better than other?

solus leaflet distribution specialist Direct Letterbox Marketing has compiled some data on the best marketing methods for different industries. Where does your business sit? Find out below…

Direct marketing
Target Marketing Magazine recently analysed some of the most successful companies’ direct mail campaigns of that year. In the top 10 results – the following industries appeared:

Financial
Telecom/Cable
Clubs/Associations
Insurance

In addition to this, Startups analysed brands that used effective door drop marketing campaigns:

Domino’s – They target their door drops with specific interest. They are chosen by time of the week (in relation to paydays) and by an area and its affluence. Generally, they spend £10m on door drop marketing a year, and the reason why? It is their second most effective marketing method after TV advertising.

Freeview HD – Freeview got their audience to sign up to Freeview HD with direct mail by producing a pink feather door-drop promoting the quality of high-definition.

Wyevale Garden Centres – They acquired up-to-date data of their current customer through a membership scheme. They utilised the data to target doors with common interests and give them updates and messages through door drop marketing.

From that, we can also add the following to the list of businesses that benefit from door drop marketing:

Takeaway/food and restaurants
Retail/specialist stores

Email marketing
According to the 2016 Email Industry Census – Key Sector Report, email ROI was up to 73% in 2016, proving there is still a place for email marketing strategies.

The census identified the top six sectors in the survey for using email marketing:

Charities, Government and Not-For-Profit organisations. 84% of respondents from this industry rated email ROI as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. 65% of respondents rated the performance of their company email campaigns as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’.
Travel & Hospitality. 83% of respondents from this industry rated email ROI as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. 63% of respondents rated the performance of their company email campaigns as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’.
Retail/Mail Order. 82% of respondents from this industry rated email ROI as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. 57% of respondents rated the performance of their company email campaigns as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’.
Print/Publishing & Media. 77% of respondents from this industry rated email ROI as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. 73% of respondents rated the performance of their company email campaigns as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’.
Financial Services & Insurance. 67% of respondents from this industry rated email ROI as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. 56% of respondents rated the performance of their company email campaigns as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’.
Technology & Telecoms. 66% of respondents from this industry rated email ROI as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. 51% of respondents rated the performance of their company email campaigns as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’.

Social media marketing:
Some companies seem to be more successful with social media campaigns than others, according to Social Media Today. The top performers include:

Retail: Social media is a way for retailers to marketing their news and products directly to their customers – it is a way for their customers to interact and act upon offers and promotions.

Food and drink: With 8 out of 10 restaurant operators already using social media, or are planning to use it in the next two years, this strategy is proving to be successful. Food can provide visually attractive imagery that people want to take and share on their social accounts.

Fashion: Fashion is moving and developing, and there’s always something new coming to the market. Fashion brands create visually-interesting posts on social media that their audience enjoy looking at – and sharing. You can also click through to their online e-commerce. Fashion influencers and bloggers are also very active on social media enhancing their online presence.

Entertainment: Written content is particularly effective for social media marketing in the entertainment sector, as 79.3% of the posts shared in this industry is informative, written content. Content about the entertainment industry is extremely sharable, so social media performance naturally does well.

Real Estate: Social media provides a great platform for selling properties and putting them in front of those looking to buy them. It becomes another platform for real estate to advertise their properties. Instagram and Facebook have been proven to be effective in selling and leasing properties.

Marketing: It goes without saying that social media marketing will be utilised by marketers – 96% of marketers use it as a marketing tool. What type of content is the most effective? Video is one of the highest performing medias last year, with 57% of marketers currently using it.

Education. In recent years, universities and colleges have had to drive forward their marketing efforts in order to recruit students. Now living in a digital age, these platforms, Facebook in particular, are a great place to encourage visits to open days and engage with students.

Sources