Old school marketing tactics still work their magic

Innovation. Experiment. Out-of-the-box - These are some of the common terms usually associated with marketing. No one can argue that these are a must if you want to succeed in marketing. But, there are some basics in every game that you need to master in order to succeed, and marketing is no different.

Today, I will share a few of those marketing basics that have been around for quite some time, but still hold great value.

For someone to master the art of marketing, or to succeed with their marketing endeavours in the coming year, these old school marketing tricks can work wonders. I have compiled the list of tactics that have benefited marketers for all these years. Give them a try, whether you are a beginner in the field, or an experienced professional. And, see how things pan out from there.

Brand building should be the first step, not selling

You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything. For your marketing efforts to succeed, you need to build a community first. Building community is imperative to brand building because you will have a certain set of people who will recognise what you are offering.

Trying to sell your services / products without having a community is like arranging a music concert without an audience. You are not going to get the applause you deserve.

Know thyself before you know thy competition

“Know your opponent and you will never lose. Know yourself and you will always win.” - Sun Tzu’s Art of War

It is evident that both these aspects are important to win at the game of marketing. However, before you know your competition, you need to know your strengths and weaknesses. You need to know what are you trying to achieve, rather than just doing what your competition is doing.

You have to risk it to get the biscuit

Risk-taking is a strategy that never gets old in business. The same goes with marketing. You have to be innovative in your thoughts in order to give your business an edge over the competition. That’s where risk taking comes into the picture.

Out-of-the-box thinking, playing with new ideas, and trying to do what has never been done before - these are vital factors in marketing, and they all involve risk.

You need to take this risk - because in marketing you never know what might click. So, you have to keep trying new ideas and be patient.

Content was is and will always be the King

Content is King - this adage has been going on for quite a while now. And, it will continue to dominate the marketing world in the years to come.

The only thing is the format - from only written form, content has taken more visual shape.

It is time for video and graphics. Video marketing has become the next big thing and will dominate the trends in 2018. The year 2017 saw a rise in popularity of video content, which was dominated by live video streaming. So, you need to focus on creating not just written form of content, but also shift your focus to video format as well.

It’s not about you, it’s about your customer

Like I said at the beginning of this post, you must know your business and your competitors to create successful marketing. That’s not it - you must know your customer as well. Your customer should be the axis around which your entire marketing strategy will revolve.

You must not forget they are the ones who will pay for your products or services. Make your content, and marketing strategies in accordance to what the customers want to see, read and listen to.

This sums up my list of tactics that can help you make the most of your marketing efforts. All it requires is sincere effort and dedication. Like they say, there is no supplement to hard work, you need to create a marketing strategy by putting efforts on these factors and leave the rest in the hand of your users.

So, are you ready to try the old-school way to market in 2018?

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)