Over the decades, businesses and brands have had to constantly re-invent themselves and appeal to new audiences. Such is life in a world that’s constantly changing: what might work today isn’t guaranteed to work tomorrow. Perhaps no more is this true than in the world of marketing, where tactics and strategies inevitably work well, become standard, and ultimately fade in potency.

Despite this applying to most aspects of marketing, there are some strategies that continue to deliver results – and likely always will. Today, we’ll examine which marketing efforts continue to produce dividends for brands in the present and will keep doing so in the future.

Earned Media

The timelessness of media shout-outs will never go away. While many brands and businesses now rely exclusively on paid media campaigns to generate buzz and interest, a sliver of entities know the power that exists – and will always exist – in earned media.

In short, earned media is organic (at least on the surface). There are many ways for businesses to earn free media coverage, ranging from controversial to charitable. By pinging users and readers with even a small blurb, news outlets can inundate local businesses  with a flood of traffic. If you’re interested in how to utilize earned media proactively, then stay tuned: we’ll be publishing a piece in the next couple of weeks about how you can generate earned media!

Multimedia

People respond well to high-definition content. While the nature of how this content is created and displayed, one thing is for sure: multimedia will never be an ineffective marketing tactic.

Through the use of videos, podcasts, infographics and interactive elements, you can connect more effectively with audiences and deliver content that is more likely to generate clicks and shares. Conversion rates for this form of content has been shown to be two to three times higher than traditional, text-based pitches. While the podcast or social media video may not always be the exact form of multimedia used, you can bet on these broader forms of content remaining an effective strategy.

Email Marketing

Reaching people directly in one form or another has always been effective marketing; in the internet age, there may be no form of content marketing more direct than email marketing. Low-cost (often free) and relevant to the consumer, brands that collect email information and use it to market products and services have very good returns on investment. While we cannot see where the state of personal communication is headed exactly, email – or some form of communication like it – is likely to be a permanent fixture in daily life. As such, you can never go wrong with an email strategy.

Whether you’re reaching people via search engines, email or some other form entirely, analyzing the long-term value of a marketing strategy lies in the broader rather than the specific. In other words, what is the nature of the communication, in what style does it come and how does it make somebody feel? If you’re pinging users with a strategy that embodies time-tested values, your campaign is bound to be successful both now and into the future.