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We appreciate comments from Taylor Greenwood, Ken Meyer, and John Chvatal last week - you gents make the conversation much more interesting!

John has a power drill with screwdriver bits. So why would he need his plain old, ordinary, non-techy screwdrivers? Why can't we throw them all out?

Because, as any aircraft mechanic worth his salt knows, you never get rid of a good tool. There are always specific jobs that work better with very specific tools.

So, we thought it was worth giving a few examples of "outdated" aviation marketing tools that still work.

Three in particular for marketing in aviation:

1) Postcards

As technology increases, the volume of junk in our physical mailboxes decreases. This means every bit of mail becomes that much more effective. We like postcards because they are easy, simple, visually attractive, and the recipient doesn't even need to open an envelope to get the gist of your message.

We've gotten CDs from Google (advertising Digital Advertising services, ironically) and #Slack, the workflow software. Very tech savvy folks. You'd think they would advertise digitally, right?

2) CDs

Strangely, these flat plastic discs have a high perceived value, even though few people have the means to even play them anymore.

In fact a group we know of with a subscription service had their membership drop by 50% when they stopped using CDs. Their rationale was sound- they'd completed a survey of their membership asking who used the CDs, and who even had devices to play them. The results of the survey made them conclude that they could stop providing CDs and instead simply link to online content.

The problem was that the perceived value of the subscription dropped when people received only paper in the mail.

Logical? Not really. Effective? Absolutely!

This reminded us of a quote from a marketing mastermind group we attend - "Do you want to spend time figuring out WHY, or do you just want to focus on what WORKS and how to USE it?"

3) Printed Newsletters

Printed Newsletters have decreased a lot in recent years. Why spend paper, postage and time formatting, printing and sending a printed newsletter when the same information (and even more ) can just be published on the web?

Here's why.

The Internet is awash with information. People get articles, advice and other potentially valuable information in their email, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other places anytime they're online. But it's hard to tell what's worth their time.

When an aviation industry decision maker receives something in the snail mail, addressed specifically to him, he knows that someone spent time and money to specifically ensure it got into his hands.

And most people have a different work process for reading mail versus reading online, as well as better retention reading on paper versus reading online materials.

To sum up - use what works, not what's new or in fashion!