Opinion: Look beyond Twitter and Facebook to traditional marketing tools

By Alistair Houghton on Jul 23, 09 08:30 AM

WE LIVE in convoluted times. I'll admit it.
There are so many facets of marketing now that are such fresh and tangible routes to growing a client's business that it's tough keeping up.
In fact, I can't see many more new developments marketing in the next few years, thankfully. We've almost had them appear in one go.

It's unprecedented times to be a marketer. Gone of course are the days when we appealed to clients with, say, advertising strategies aimed at just print mediums.
Don't get me wrong - beyond industry hype, the likes of regional newspaper advertising, certainly in Liverpool is still big business and in my book should be. As long as there is public transport, people will read newspapers and personally I love 'em.
But online shook the world, realistically, about five years ago, ie when everyone in business (almost) felt obliged to have a website.
2009 will probably become known as the year business got marketing savvy.
It had to and it's very probable that online drove them to it.
But whilst getting savvy, businesses may have been getting very confused at the same time. For marketing is now a more intense discipline than ever before. So many tools so little time.
What's certain amidst the confusion, is that firms and organisations have forgotten, amidst Facebook, Twitter, e-flyers, SMS, etc (of which we are big fans) that a good old-fashioned approach still works and should support the new tools.
And, they can be just as tangible as some of the "cooler" marketing tools.
From our research, it's worth noting that businesses appreciate and often respond better to invites for events on letterhead by post or even a phone call (!) because how many of us are locked in a daily e-mail warfare battle?
We also know from Jamm Factory's L1 festival this weekend that the food & drink tourism and retail sector businesses supporting us acknowledge that you can't beat face-to-face social engagement with a brand...perhaps something that's got lost in the digital age.

Tom Stanley is managing director of jammfactory.co.uk. The L1 Festival takes place this weekend, Friday 25th and Saturday 26th July.