3 Surprising Marketing Channels Startups Should Never Ignore

While digital ads face saturation, the smartest early-stage marketing leaders are revisiting “classic” channels like direct mail, billboards, and TV

The average person sees 5,000 to 6,000 digital ads a day. Every. Single. Day.?

Those numbers are only trending up, and eyeballs are getting more expensive. The three digital advertising leaders in the U.S.—Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon—all reported robust growth in 2023. This year, ad impressions have increased 20% YoY, and the average price per ad also increased by 6% YoY, as noted by Meta in its Q1 investor report.?

I’m here to say, if you’re an early-stage startup and you’re exclusively thinking about digital channels for customer acquisition, you’re making a big mistake.???

My companies that have seen true breakout success don’t just rely on digital; they blend in "old-school" physical tactics and creative strategies that also give them helpful customer insights to incorporate back into the product as they build. At Canvas Ventures, we recently hosted a panel of marketing experts to discuss the most effective strategies for 2024, and here are three surprising channels that are making a comeback: direct mail, billboards, and TV.

DIRECT MAIL

Yes, mailers. And yes, they work. First off, mail generally sits on people’s counters for an average of 17 days. Compare that “consideration” period to a few seconds for a digital ad (or 24 hours for an easily deletable email). Additionally, it’s hard (if not impossible) to unsubscribe from your postal mail, which makes direct mail a secret weapon for brands trying to win back customers who’ve opted out of SMS or email. According to a survey by direct mail company Lob, 84% of marketers reported that direct mail provides the highest ROI among the channels they use. At LendingClub, we certainly saw the impact. After leading the Series B round in 2009, we discovered that direct mail was instrumental in achieving rapid growth and played a key role in the company's 2014 IPO, the largest U.S. tech IPO of that year.?

Worth giving it a shot if:

• You understand your customer base
• You have experienced churn
• You have a few messages proven to convert

Tips and tricks:

• Make it hyper-personal: Use data-driven approaches to personalize mail. Canvas portfolio company Possible Finance is experimenting with this channel, leveraging sophisticated targeting and measurement capabilities. Their last send delivered triple digit improvements in conversion and the team now has confidence it can become a scalable always-on channel.?
• Marry digital with physical: Incorporate digital features like QR codes to better attribute and measure the success of direct mail campaigns.
• Be patient: Direct mail is not a quick win. Plan for a campaign to run for 45-60 days to gather valuable data.

BILLBOARDS

Billboards are expensive and difficult to measure, but they can also be a powerful tool for early-stage startups. Done well, they create an illusion of size, making your startup appear larger than it is.?

Worth giving it a shot if:

• You have geographic concentration in your market or have a very localized target
• You have C-suite commitment to promote the billboard on LinkedIn

Tips and tricks:

• Zone right in: Canvas portfolio company Marvin, which provides telehealth mental health care for hospital workers, experimented with placing ads on bus shelters and billboards right outside of specific hospitals in Philadelphia and SF where they had signed contracts. A campaign at UCSF last May (pictured above) resulted in a tripling of relevant traffic, as noted by MediaPost.
• Go clear over clever: Keep your message simple and clear, as viewers typically have only a few seconds to read billboards. Marvin’s campaign was very straightforward with two key messages: “Thousands of healthcare workers have tried talking to someone. Maybe you could too” and “Teletherapy that is 100% private and confidential.”
• Embrace a multi-channel strategy: There’s no doubt that tracking ROI is more challenging with OOH than in digital. QR codes can help, but they’re not a silver bullet (and are only recommended for ads targeting people on foot). One solution to capturing and quantifying the “buzz” is to have the C-suite post about the billboards on social channels; then you can create hubs for the conversation.

TV

While Superbowl ads grab headlines, other TV ads can significantly impact the bottom line, and the barrier to entry is lower than you might think. At Canvas portfolio company Gabi, a simple, low-fi 30-second spot featuring CEO Hanno Fichtner as an "insurance angel" outperformed slick, expensive creative, leading to Gabi's acquisition by Experian for $320M in 2021.

Worth giving it a shot if:

• You’ve squeezed all you can out of social spend. At Gabi, we worked with the agency Tatari. CEO Philip Inghelbrecht notes that if you’re spending $250k/month or more across social channels, you can acquire customers cheaper or at the same level through TV.?

Tips and tricks:

• Start small. Many brands effectively leverage existing assets when they first get started. Focus on :15s & :30s and a clear call-to-action.?
• Take a cost-effective approach to testing. You don't need to start with a big budget and you certainly don't need to pay high CPMs for certain audiences or programming. Canvas portfolio company PipeDreams spent under $10k to produce a timely promotional spot in Tucson, Arizona that converted several customers to its local plumbing shop as it aired – generating a positive return on just those appointments.?
• Keep it authentic. As Gabi found, UGC and low-production creative using internal brand ambassadors can work well. The local general manager noted that when he wore his branded jacket around town, he'd hear people humming the tune in the commercial as they'd walk by him. Talk about recall!?

Thank you to Euphonia X. , Camille Ricketts , Peter Walker and the teams at Lob and Tatari for sharing their advice for this piece.

What channels have you seen work especially well for early-stage startups? Curious to learn from others’ successes!