The digital era is a great harbinger of opportunity. It has enabled ordinary men and women from all walks of life to form businesses of their very own. It has allowed them to buy and sell, trade and grow and maintain a close relationship with their clientele that previous generations of entrepreneurs could only dream of. Through the digital realm virtually anyone with a great idea can set up their own business with a sleek, professional looking website and the opportunities to take their products and services directly to their target market by leveraging social media platforms. Through content marketing tools like blogs, vlogs, podcasts, tutorials and infographics they can give their business and their brand a voice while also establishing themselves as knowledgeable, trustworthy and leaders in their chosen field.

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While digital marketing is an invaluable tool to online business, that doesn’t necessarily mean that traditional advertising is dead. Even digital businesses need to keep it analog sometimes! After all, you don’t spend all of your time in digital realms and neither do your clientele. Here are some analog marketing solutions that even the digital purist should consider…

Radio

The Buggles were wrong, video did not kill the radio star! Radio is alive and well and radio advertising is still a worthy place to invest some of your marketing budget. With the aid of a radio advertising agency you can reach parts of your target market which can be harder to reach on social media. After all, radio today still reaches 90% of the people in the US on a weekly basis. Whether you want to boost your local SEO by appearing on local radio, showcase your skills and products on an international level through digital radio or obtain lucrative endorsements with on-the-air personalities, radio can be a useful tool in cracking your target market.

Billboards

Popup ads and Pay Per Click campaigns are the bread and butter of digital marketing but that doesn’t mean that people no longer look at billboards. There are a number of perfectly valid reasons why billboard marketing still works. It’s a cost effective way to reach a captive market. Plus, while popups can be invasive and irritating, a billboard can be easy on the eyes and a welcome addition to an otherwise bland vista. There’s also a level of prestige that comes with billboard advertising as billboards are mostly owned by reputable and well established companies.

Branded products and freebies

No matter what your digital enterprise does, it can likely benefit from some promotion in the physical world. This is why you’ll still see online businesses with physical presences at business events and trade shows. It’s not only a great networking opportunity, it’s a great way to showcase your business and products.

Many entrepreneurs like to make a big impression at such events by offering branded products and freebies bearing their logo, URL or other elements of their branding. If you choose this path, be sure to use products that will be of value to your target market. T-shirts, mugs and baseball caps are all well and good, but are they of practical use to the kinds of people you want to target? Consider instead opting for products like USB memory sticks, inflatable office furniture or kitchenware. When your brand has a presence inside someone’s home, they are exposed to it each and every day.

Keep it real, keep it analog… At least from time to time!