Attending trade shows is an effective old-school marketing technique that can help marketers deliver their message.

By Tamara Smith

When it comes to marketing, online channels have been receiving all the buzz recently. No wonder social media is hot; we’re connected to the web 24/7.

While online marketing has become a near obsession of many marketers, businesses can still benefit from using some of the effective old-school promotion strategies. Here are four proven ways to promote your business without using social media.

Face2face Marketing

This is probably the most undervalued marketing strategy. Face-to-face marketing can happen on consumer expos, community events, trade shows or other events, where you can show your brand, deliver your sales message and interact with a large group of people at once.

Those events are usually targeted to fit specific audiences, so you can be sure that people you meet fall into the category of your potential clients. Meeting and talking to people is crucial for building strong relationships with your audience – it also adds a human face to your business, and that’s something hard to achieve on social media.

Needless to say, events of that sort are prefect if you’re targeting other businesses – networking on conferences and trade shows will give you an opportunity to spread the word about your offer and gather some contacts that will be valuable in your B2B marketing efforts later on – just make sure to bring lots of business cards!

Marketing Merchandise

There’s no easier way to build a strong brand image than by putting its logo, URL and name on every possible object related to your operation. If your employees wear uniforms, make sure your company logo is visible and add the address of your website.

Come up with a set of promotional items – pens, mugs, key chains, t-shirts – and place your brand signatures on all of them. If your company owns vehicles, make sure to put your logo and URL on the side of the truck that delivers your products.

Donations to Local Events

One of the best ways for effective offline marketing is donating gift cards, product or services to local events. This will not only strengthen your image among the local community, but also associate your brand with charity – and you cannot get more positive than that.

Donating a branded product will serve as a powerful remainder of your services the local community might use when they need them.

This is especially important for small businesses that depend on local markets. If you run a fabulous restaurant, offer your services as a caterer for the event and make sure to leave your business cards and menus by the table so people can find you later.

Go Urban

The urban jungle offers many interesting ways to market your products. People walk the streets every day and are bound to immediately notice something out of ordinary, later sharing it with their friends and family.

From flyers and posters distributed in local cafes to chalk writing on the sidewalk, you’ll be targeting people where they least expect it. Commissioning a mural is another idea – artwork incorporating your logo on a side of a prominent building will help create brand presence and awareness.

Urban spaces offer many opportunities for unusual marketing and imaginative sponsorships, but they all require some creative thinking. Making the most from your surroundings helps businesses engage with their audiences in their immediate environment.

In an era obsessed with social media, traditional marketing methods can still deliver – from face-to-face marketing and networking with other professionals to branding your immediate surroundings and donating products to charity. Your brand can gain a lot once you take a creative step. Social media isn’t bad by any means, but sometimes old-school methods produce better results.

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tsmith