A funny thing happened to me the other day.

A letter was sent to my mailbox that had international stamps on it.  It was addressed to me, delivered to my home and it was sent from Africa.  Now having family and friends literally on all corners of the globe, the idea of receiving mail from there isn’t entirely ridiculous.

On tearing it open I’m greeted with a typed letter that’s been ball point signed.

“Dear Dexter,

We are writing to inform you that your cousin Alvin has blah blah blah large sums of money blah blah blah, please provide bank details blah blah blah” and i guess you know the rest.

I’d been had.

In all the years of deleting these sorts of emails without once opening one up I suddenly get duped by a personalised, hand signed letter sent through snail mail.  You see these scammers are smart and they’re probably the best marketers around.  Their copywriting skills are exceptional, their powers of persuasion are first class, and even though their conversion rate isn’t so crash hot, their payoffs are.  More importantly, they’re dynamic and it would be safe to say that this letter could be the result of lower than expected results of their spam emails or just a switch back to the tried and tested traditional marketing channels.

So what does this have to do with your venue’s marketing?  A lot surprisingly.

In this digital age of emails, smses, social media this and social media that, its far too easy to have your message simply ignored as it gets caught up with the rest of the binary noise.  If you ever feel this to be the case, by like the Nigerian scammers and be dynamic.  If digital and online marketing isn’t getting the results, then put some emphasis on traditional marketing for a while.

Posters, flyers, sandwhich boards, and even the humble local newspaper ad, may all seem to have done their dash, but if your venue’s one of the only ones on there, you’re gonna get eyeballs.  If you’ve managed to get the postal addresses of your clients and customers, then send them something.  Your latest menu, some free passes, or even some drink cards.  Technology has almost made receiving regular mail a hassle as all we seem to get are bills and speeding fines, so something personalised and of value will be sure to stand out.

And once that traditional marketing channel becomes crowded (again) then quietly put the focus back to the digital and online space.  Never leave one for the other, and always be aware of both.

I’ve received another 3 international letters since and similarly written emails have dropped off slightly.  And it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if down the track the letters stop, and the spam emails start to come on strong.

Online marketing is a must for your venue, but don’t forget where it all started from.