Looking around the web right now you would think that in the last few years marketing had been reinvented. While with all the buzz about “social media” you would be forgiven for thinking the old rules had gone out the window to make way for the “new skool”.

In fact the best marketing campaigns of today are based on 100 year old ideas, while embracing the new channels. A multi-faceted strategy using the best of all worlds has terrific potential to succeed:

1. Direct Mail – With RSS we now have a new route to permission marketing but don’t let the RSS-fans fool you, email still works. Yes, people are ever-more sensitive to spam, so you do have to be careful. Make it opt-in, and make it useful. Adopt the best copywriting education you can access. Carefully select your target and tailor your message to them. No me-me-me, make it all about the benefits and make it newsworthy.
2. Word of mouth - “Viral” wasn’t invented, it was discovered, and people have gossiped and spread news … well, since there were people. The key is to give them something good to talk about, rather than how your locks can be picked using a pen. Check out Khalid’s guide starting here. Social Media gives us new channels to spread our message but the basic themes remain the same.
3. Customer Conversations – Prospects and customers talk. The best marketers realized this way before the Cluetrain came to town. How do you know what they are thinking? Try asking them! Surveys, picking up the phone, email, forums, blogs, search, it is up to you to find out what is working and what is not, and act on it.
4. Brand and Reputation – Growing your brand and managing your reputation is now not just a case of throwing money at PR and media, your customers can get a positive or negative impression of you at light speed. Good solid SEO techniques can work well but the most vital thing is to work hard to create the right experience in every interaction with customers and prospects. Every single part of your process influences your brand, from how and
   where they find you through to service or product delivery.
5. Personalization and Privacy – Customer
   relationships have come full circle where now everybody expects top
   class personal service. We have unprecedented capacity for identifying and catering our marketing for our audience, the companies that get this right have an advantage. The key is to use the information in a way that benefits the customer, rather than abuses the privilege and treating customers simply as a source of data as companies such as Facebook have been accused of.

The tools at our disposal as marketers are more powerful and more accessible than ever before, but just like any power tool, use them incorrectly and someone will get hurt!