4 Traditional Marketing Methods Your Business Needs

Julie Starr • August 31, 2024

The modern era has undeniably removed the need for many "old-fashioned" or analog activities and materials. This can be seen in many areas, including business marketing. The rise of the digital way has revolutionized how businesses reach people, allowing for a more targeted, cost-effective approach to marketing techniques for better results. And honestly, this is only a good thing.


However, does this mean you need to discount all traditional marketing methods and embrace a fully modern and digital approach to marketing your business? Absolutely not. In fact, that is the last thing you should be doing. These days, companies can reap a myriad of benefits from marrying the old with the new and utilizing virtual techniques and approaches for maximum impact.


Interested? This post will explore some of the more old-school marketing techniques and materials that your business can benefit from in 2024 and beyond.


Banners

An eye-catching banner can be extremely beneficial in marketing. Whether you're setting up a stall at a trade fair, advertising in a local area, or simply wanting to draw attention to something in a store, a banner can be a powerful tool that you can use repeatedly as long as you care for it correctly. This longevity provides a sense of security in your marketing efforts.


From banners that can be hung over doors to retractable banner printing for banners that can be moved and put away as required, the versatility of banners empowers you to use them in various settings. For instance, a banner for a therapist can be erected in a doctor's office, guiding those in need of mental health support to your services. This adaptability gives you the power to reach your audience wherever they are.


Direct Mail

Direct mail isn't dead and buried just yet. In fact, it can be more effective than email. One study found that direct mail has a response rate of 3.7% compared to the 1% delivered by email (source: Impact Group Marketing). This reassures you that direct mail can still be a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal.


The key to effective direct mail is to know your customers and send out communications that are relevant to them, their needs, and their connection to your business. General mailers might not achieve that 3.7% response rate, but segmenting ordnance like you owls for email, making it personal, and delivering direct, relevant information can secure the results you need from your direct mail outreach.


Flyers

We've all had unsolicited flyers posted through the door or handed to us on the streets we don't necessarily want. However, contrary to popular belief, flyers can still be effective marketing tools. Take Domino's in the UK. Each year, they deliver over £10 million in flyers. That sizable investment would be something they do if it didn't work for them.


The key to effective flyer distribution is strategy. Only distribute them when it can benefit the customer. Do you have a promotion or special time-limited offer going on? Get it on a leaflet and hand it out. Want to run a coupon promotion? Giving out flyers can be a great way to do this and ensure people retain your flyer and use them. It's not simply a case of printing a flyer for no reason. Use them strategically and they can be invaluable.


Promotional Merch

Lastly, promotional merch is still a good investment. However, like all of the above, you need to be intentional about it. You should not just print anything and everything with your logo on and throw it to an uninterested audience.


You can start with things like a printed bag for customers in your store, adapt branded uniforms for employees, sell clothing with your logo on it, or give out branded beanies for useful items that people want. All you have to do is look at big brands like Nike or Adidas and countless others to see how well their branded merch/clothing lines sell and promote the brands.


If you're a B2B business, braiding items those in your industry use is a good idea. Sell fitness equipment? Branded water bottles, protein shakers, or towels can be a great idea. If you're dealing with corporate businesses, then USB sticks, pens, pads, sticky notes, laptop bags, etc., might be a better decision for you. Know your audience, select your branded merch wisely, and let them work for you.


Traditional marketing methods shouldn't be brushed aside in favor of more targeted digital outreach options. Instead, they need to form part of your effective marketing strategy and be cleverly utilized alongside other options to yield the best results.

Smart Sensors, Smarter Supply Chains: Enhancing Traceability in Food & Beverage

By Julie Starr • June 20, 2025
In today’s competitive food and beverage (F&B) landscape, traceability is no longer a compliance checkbox—it’s a differentiator. The ability to track every step of a product’s journey, from origin to shelf, is vital for regulatory accuracy and to ensure brand integrity, supply chain agility, and consumer trust. Add smart sensors to the mix: the quiet, tireless observers revolutionizing supply chain intelligence. Traceability Has a Data Problem Despite digitization across many F&B operations, most traceability systems still rely on fragmented or manual data inputs. Batch numbers, barcodes, and handwritten logs often stand between a supplier and clarity when things go wrong. This approach struggles with latency and scale. When contamination or delays occur, root cause analysis is slow, costly, and damaging. Smart sensors shift this paradigm by embedding real-time, contextual intelligence into every stage of the supply chain . Whether monitoring humidity in transit or recording fill-level precision in bottling plants, they remove the guesswork by turning physical conditions into structured, time-stamped data. From Passive Monitoring to Active Optimization Sensors used to be reactive tools, alerting operators to anomalies. But smart sensors now play a proactive role in process control. They measure, and they interpret. For example, temperature sensors embedded in cold chain logistics can dynamically adjust cooling systems or flag threshold breaches before spoilage occurs. These advancements reduce waste and loss at a systemic level. In a production facility, smart sensors integrated with PLCs can enforce recipe compliance, verify clean-in-place processes, and detect micro-stoppages in real-time. This enables operations to pivot faster and isolate inefficiencies before they cascade downstream. Trust is Built on Transparency Consumers are paying more attention to what they eat and drink. They’re looking beyond labels, expecting visibility into how ingredients are sourced, processed, and handled. Smart sensors make this level of transparency achievable —without burdening manufacturers with excessive manual oversight. By capturing metadata throughout production and distribution, these sensors create a digital footprint that’s tamper-resistant and instantly accessible. When this data is integrated with a central platform, brands can respond confidently to audits, recalls, and quality assurance challenges with a level of precision that would be impossible through legacy systems. Intelligence Without Infrastructure Overhaul One common misconception is that adding smart sensors requires a top-down reinvention of supply chain infrastructure. In reality, companies can deploy edge sensors in a modular, scalable way. Many modern solutions offer plug-and-play functionality, allowing for fast integration with existing machinery and MES systems. This is where suppliers like alps-machine.com are reshaping expectations. Rather than pushing proprietary ecosystems, they design sensor-ready equipment with interoperability in mind. This future-proofs investment and keeps businesses nimble in the face of regulatory or market shifts. Designing for Data Longevity Sensors are only as powerful as the context they capture. A smart implementation ensures the data collected can be standardized, stored securely, and accessed meaningfully across departments. This means moving beyond local dashboards toward centralized, queryable datasets that inform everything from supplier contracts to marketing claims. As AI and predictive analytics become more accessible, these data-rich environments will unlock new capabilities—such as predicting demand spikes based on real-time freshness indicators or adjusting production schedules dynamically based on in-transit sensor feedback. Final Thoughts: Smarter Isn’t Optional Traceability isn’t solved by more paperwork—it’s solved by embedded intelligence. Smart sensors don’t just help businesses know what happened; they help prevent the wrong things from happening at all. For companies in the food and beverage sector, adopting smart sensors is less about chasing innovation and more about enabling resilience, speed, and confidence in every decision.

Eco-Friendly Garden Prep: Summer Tips for a Greener Business Space

By Julie Starr • June 5, 2025
If you're lucky enough to have a garden as part of your business, taking some time to set it up for summer is a great investment of your energy. Not only will it be ready for your customers to spend time in, but you can also incorporate some eco-friendly elements into it. Many people just think about the property and what eco-friendly updates they can make , but there are plenty that you can implement in your garden. This gives you the best of both worlds. You own a sacred and beautiful place for your customers to spend their summer, and at the same time, you can do your part for a better planet. If this is the route you want to take, then you also need to consider how to do this with the different seasons. To help you on your journey, here are some top tips for preparing your garden for summer. Plant trees and flowers Planting trees and flowers in your garden is a must. It will make a beautiful scene of nature for everyone to enjoy. Trees will provide people and animals with shade, as well as provide a habitat for wildlife. More trees are needed in the world because they purify the air that we breathe. Flowers, especially if you plant with pollinators in mind, can be an excellent way to attract bees and butterflies, which contribute largely to the earth. Use natural pest control When preparing your garden for summer, you can do this more sustainably and kindly by using natural pest control. Simply by planting trees and flowers, you are likely to attract lots of different wildlife, some of which may destroy your efforts. While all wildlife should be considered, you may need to take measures. Some better and more eco-friendly ways you can do this, as opposed to spraying toxic chemicals onto your plants and into the air, you can implement companion planting, using protective nets over your crops, choosing resilient plants, using natural repellents, and encouraging natural predators so nature can do its thing. Maintain your garden Maintaining your garden in itself can make it more eco-friendly. Composting your garden waste regularly, and kitchen waste can help you to reduce overall waste and create nutrient-rich soil. This is a great cycle of sustainability. You can also keep on top of things that need cleaning and replacing, so you can recycle the materials for other garden structures and projects, and repurpose things around your garden before they become waste. If you have features in your garden like a swimming pool, then a regular pool maintenance service is going to be vital in keeping your water consumption to a minimum, as when it is cleaned and maintained, it will need to be drained and refilled less as well as using less energy. You could also consider how you can use natural purification methods to reduce chemical usage and support biodiversity right in your backyard. Your garden is just an eco-friendly project waiting to be built. Use these top tips to help you get started.