How to Be a Marketing Necromancer in the Digital Age

Everyone wants to be the marketer who takes a down on its luck business and turns it around, restoring faith from the clientele and profits to the company. However, for most people this is a kind of magic that’s out of reach thanks in large part to a phrase that’s often quoted and even more often misunderstood: “Out with the old, in with the new.”

It’s become a sort of rule in the marketing scene to lay down the methods of the past and focus on the now, with leading groups like Business2Community stating outright that you should be focusing on digital marketing and should never treat it like so-called “traditional” marketing.

However, if you want to be a marketing wizard—or a witch, for that matter—you need to be ready to break a few rules. It’s time to look into bringing your old marketing techniques back from the dead.

Traditional marketing is separated into four basic subcategories:

• Print (newspapers, magazine ads, etc)
• Direct mail (catalogues, newsletters, etc)
• Broadcast (TV commercials, radio, etc)
• Telemarketing (cold calling, lead following, etc)

There’s also the ever-present fifth category, word of mouth advertising, which is the first and last line of defense against industry obsolescence and marketing failure.

Now, some traditional marketing techniques have worked wonders for centuries, and it still do, while others have fallen out of favor in recent years. The big secret is that the most effective digital marketing techniques are actually extremely similar to old traditional marketing techniques, leading to what the Guardian and marketing professionals the world over are calling “post-digital marketing.”

Instead of focusing entirely on web presence and getting noticed, return your focus to building up the brand. Offer great services, great products and craft strong relationships with your customers. Build a healthy rapport with both critics and supporters, and above all else be present. Stop hiding behind a computer and put your company out there! The common present day belief is that a strong web presence is all you need to have a successful business, but post-digital marketing proves that it’s time to dig up the skeleton of your old methods and let it join in the fun again.

Here are those four subcategories again, only now you can see how they apply to today’s marketing world:

• Print: banner ads, sticky content on social media, affiliate blogs
• Direct mail: email marketing, some social media (Facebook)
• Broadcast: digital video (YouTube), online radio (Pandora, Spotify)
• Telemarketing: affiliate marketing, targeted social media ads

Stop looking at digital marketing as a strange new beast that you have to tame—it’s the same animal, groomed up and taught a few new and highly effective tricks. Instead of trying to re-educate yourself on everything there is about marketing in an attempt to tackle what seemed like an insurmountable challenge 15 years ago, why not just take it like it is?

If you know marketing, you already know what you’re doing. Dust off the coffin and give it a whirl.

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