While digital marketing dominates modern marketing conversations, there’s a certain allure to the traditional methods that have withstood the test of time. From eye-catching print ads to captivating TV commercials, traditional marketing channels have the power to captivate audiences and leave lasting impressions.
Traditional marketing has become less popular throughout the years due to its high costs and difficult-to-measure ROIs, yet they are still a mainstay of marketing practices for many Malaysian corporations. This depends on your business model and the types of customers you target.
Widespread traditional marketing, while effective in increasing your brand awareness, is only effective if your business is B2C-centric. B2B businesses utilise a completely different set of strategies to reach out to their customers. Traditional marketing is also typically only reserved for companies with the budget for it, which means smaller companies are completely left out of the game.
There are many reasons why marketing is important, with the first obvious reason being sales, sales, and more sales! Unless you’re a non-profit organisation, a for-profit company will want to remain sustainable in the long run by increasing its sales volume.
Marketing isn’t just about selling products and getting people to buy them. Another reason why you might want to aggressively invest in marketing is to increase your brand awareness. There are direct and indirect approaches to increasing your brand awareness among your stakeholders. I.e., direct methods like billboards, car wraps, banners etc., and indirect methods like corporate gifts, sponsored articles, SEM, etc.
We will delve into this topic further in this article, featuring the best traditional marketing tools in 2023 to help you determine what’s the best ones for your business.
Print Advertising
Print advertising has been a staple for traditional marketing in Malaysia for many, MANY years. With the advent of digital marketing, they have become a less popular strategy among companies, but they are still unparalleled in boosting brand awareness towards your brand.
Some of the more common types of print advertising you can find today in Malaysia are:
1) Posters And Billboards
Posters and billboards may seem like a thing of the past, but the reason you still see them everywhere you go is that they’re unbeatable in terms of increasing your brand awareness. They’re not the most cost-effective method of marketing, sometimes costing an excess of six figures for a contract period. But they’re seen by millions every day, making them one of the most effective methods of marketing to reach a general target audience.
According to a study, 71% of travellers look at messages on billboards by the roadside, and over 37% of travellers look at outdoor billboards each or most of the time they pass one. With this being said, they are highly effective if your aim is to increase brand awareness within a locality.
A catchy slogan combined with eye-catching designs and colours will make them stand out among the myriad of billboards by competitors. Remember to make sure that your messages are clear and concise to ensure that your target audiences are aware of what you’re talking about right away.
2) Newspaper Advertising
How many times have you heard someone say “But nobody reads newspapers anymore”? Well, in some sense, that statement is true. According to a study by Forbes, newspaper circulation has been on a decline since the 1990s with weekday circulations at 63.2 million and weekend circulations at 62.6 million. Those same figures are only at 24.3 million and 25.8 million in 2020.
We understand that those statistics create a bleak outlook for newspaper marketing and shouldn’t be included in this list at all, but media outlets haven’t exactly remained stagnant throughout the years. Despite a reduction in readership for their print media, they have been leveraging their reputation as deliverers of news in the digital marketing space.
For example, the Instagram account for Berita Harian alone possesses 1,167,963 followers, Sin Chew Daily with 428,406 followers, and The Star with 232,170 followers. Their success in the digital space turned them into digital marketing agencies of sorts, but the reason we’ve included them in our list is because of their roots in traditional marketing where they still possess physical copies of their newspapers in convenience stores.
(Analytics data as of May 2023)
With the inception of Asia’s first online daily news site in Malaysia, more media outlets have been jumping on the bandwagon to offer an online alternative to things. Due to their high cost for sponsored articles, they’re usually only popular among larger corporations.
3) Magazines
When we talk about magazines, we’re not talking about the run-of-the-mill enablers of tabloid journalism we used to see in convenience stores. We’re talking about your own publication or newsletters which are distributed in your stores and to your stakeholders with the ultimate goal of increasing your brand awareness.
With digital marketing being the craze these days, it’s easy to overlook how effective physical copies of magazines are in promoting your brand. In fact, many magazines have moved their operations to the online space to cater to the masses, taking printing costs out of the equation.
Because of this, as a form of traditional marketing in Malaysia, traditional magazines have adopted an entirely different business model, driving traffic to their websites for ad revenue. E.g., with a combined visit of approximately 4.4 million users for Rasa (F&B site) and Pa&Ma (parenting site) alone, who can blame them?
This doesn’t take away the feeling of having high-quality physical printed magazines in your hands, turning them into more of a novelty item for enthusiasts. Major brands the likes of Uniqlo, Ikea, and Red Bull recognizes this, and have been practising brand publishing for years.
Why do they do this though? As opposed to visiting a website and clicking a few links, magazines stick around even when you’ve stopped reading them. They’re left on your bedside, on your book racks for years, and sometimes in your old newspaper pile (you know what we’re talking about).
Our point is, while these magazines may have reached the end of their life cycle, brands are still being prominently displayed on their front page, creating a subliminal imprint of sorts in your mind, making them instantly recognisable throughout the years, so you might want to consider this for your next business case.
Tradeshows
How many times have you participated in tradeshows with 0% ROI to show for it? In terms of traditional marketing, they’re not that effective and they cost a lot of money, but if you’re joining a tradeshow to increase your sales figures, you’re doing it wrong. They can, however, be a powerful tool when implemented correctly into your annual initiatives.
Before we begin citing generic marketing terms to increase the word count of this article (jk), there are a few key points for you to look at before enthusiastically packing up your marketing collaterals to head to your next tradeshow, they are:
- Who are your intended target audiences? Are they B2C or B2B stakeholders?
- Which departments within your company will benefit the most from this?
- What do you want to talk about at the tradeshow?
1) Who Are Your Target Audiences?
If your target audiences are B2C stakeholders, we would suggest that you skip this, because a majority of tradeshows are meant for industry experts and professionals like IGEM and MIMF. But if your intended target audiences are B2B stakeholders, pack up your things and head to the next one right away!
These tradeshows are designed in a way to foster B2B relationships, opening doors to endless cooperation opportunities while allowing you to conduct a competitor analysis by pretending to be a customer (yes). It’s your chance to check out facilitating products which can help you support your business and to see what your competitors are offering at the same time.
2) Which Departments From Your Company Would Benefit Most From This?
Typically, the business development department would benefit the most from tradeshows as they’re usually tasked with building relationships with contractors and closing new deals. Their stacks of name cards and exceptional stamina allow them to build connections and foster relationships.
3) What Will You Be Talking About At A Tradeshow?
This is your chance to hone your public speaking skills! Tradeshow exhibitors are usually given talking slots. Depending on the subject of conversation, your talking points will usually be filled with an innovative new product or your company’s sustainable practices, presenting you with an opportunity to sell yourself to trade partners within the same industry. Remember, if all else fails, at least there’s the buffet line.
Telemarketing
While only relevant to some industries, the age-old practice of cold calling your customers still holds water today. It has been modernised in a sense with the introduction of Salesforce and cloud-based systems, but at its core, it’s still the basic practice of calling potential customers to close sales.
With a conversion rate of anywhere between 3% – 5%, it doesn’t seem like it’s effective at all, but as we said before this, it depends on the nature of your product. For sectors like universities, a conversion rate of 3% from a thousand leads would translate to about 30 sales. With an average course price of anywhere between RM50 thousand to RM320 thousand, that adds up to RM5.55 million in sales!
Telemarketing has seen success in industries like the banking sector, fintech, software as a service, business consulting, legal services and education. Why? It’s because cold calls are highly targeted, and they’re usually targeted at existing customers or potential customers who are highly engaged with that target sector.
Direct Mail
Direct mail involves sending promotional materials such as postcards, flyers, or catalogues to specific audiences through the mail. While direct mail may seem outdated, in a world overly saturated with digital stimulants, a physical touch allows you to reach your audiences in a personal manner.
With a median ROI of 29%, direct mail is far from dead. With this being said, it is best to use a combination of direct mail and digital strategies to reach out to your customers like what is being practised by the banking sector. The reason direct mail is still relevant is because it’s attention-grabbing, and it creates a sense of nostalgia among your customers.
Corporate Gifts
According to a study on the effects of gifting on business outcomes, corporate gifting creates the Endowment effect which causes individuals to value an owned object higher than its market value. In fact, customers are more likely to conduct business with a company that creates personalised experiences.
Depending on your target audiences, the types of corporate gifts that you gift your stakeholders vary. From ones that are more utilitarian like canvas bags, mugs etc., to some that are more ornamental like plaques, paperweights, photo frames etc.
In essence, traditional marketing in Malaysia relies heavily on corporate gifting, but this depends on the types of engagement activities you’re most familiar with. If you’re a type of business which receives many visitors, you would want more expensive premium items in your inventory, and if events are your thing, you would want a large quantity of dispensable low-cost items in your inventory.
Conclusion
While the marketing landscape in Malaysia has undoubtedly transformed with the rise of digital platforms, traditional marketing still holds relevance in reaching and engaging target audiences. The key lies in striking the right balance between traditional and digital marketing strategies, leveraging the strengths of each to create a comprehensive and effective marketing approach.