Featured image by Marjan Blan | @marjanblan on Unsplash
Regardless of what you might have heard, offline marketing hasn’t gone anywhere. In fact, it’s likely to become even more important as more people spend more and more time outdoors, in the real world, over summer. So start now to create a balance between offline and online marketing for profits that are off the charts.
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Digital marketing has become hugely important in recent years. Would-be consumers spend much of their free time staring at screens, and harvesting attention has become a major money-spinner for social networks. Moreover, this is important as well as for brands looking to win over new customers. This trend has only accelerated during the pandemic, with more of us spending more time with our devices than ever before.
But offline marketing hasn’t gone anywhere. In fact, it’s likely to become more important as more people spend more and more time outdoors, in the real world, over summer. Neglecting offline channels is a mistake many small businesses make. But by creating a balance between offline and online, and ensuring that everything’s joined-up properly, you can produce a marketing output that’s more than the sum of its parts.
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So, what goes into a cohesive, synergistic marketing approach that’s spread over multiple channels?
Keep Both Online and Offline Marketing Consistent
If you give your customers mixed messages, they’ll have trouble remembering your brand. That’s why so many huge multinationals are known by three-word slogans. If you hear the phrases “I’m loving it,” or “Just do it,” or “Vorsprung durch technik,” the associated brands probably pop into your head automatically.
The same principle applies to your logos and color schemes as well. Make sure to create a master style guide and base everything on that. When your website, business cards, flyers, and packaging all match, then you’re onto a winner. Modern poster printing firms like instantprint can create posters in a range of colors and sizes. This means you won’t be limited by the technology.
Use Online Marketing to Drive Offline Efforts
If you’re holding an offline marketing event, you might promote it using an online drive. For example, your small restaurant might be setting up a stand at a local food festival. In that case, you can use social media to drive up the hype. The same applies if you’re about to launch a television ad campaign. Driving the same message across multiple channels will result in a reinforcing message across all of them.
Gather Data Offline as Well as Digitally
Digital marketing allows a multitude of avenues for gathering data. If a given customer responds to a given advertisement and visits your online store, you can trace their precise journey. Then use that to inform future decisions concerning both online and offline marketing. You might also do the same thing with customers responding to your offline marketing, through the use of QR codes and unique URLs.
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Add Your Digital Platforms to Everything
Nowadays, it’s commonplace to see a major logo appended with several different usernames, each for a different social network. This encourages customers to follow your social media accounts, and, if they’re active, you’ll gain an additional means of getting your message across.