As a business owner living in a digital age, it might seem needlessly complicated, cumbersome, and financially-taxing to invest any amount of time or money in offline marketing tactics.
After all, did the digital revolution not make it abundantly clear that customers and global audiences want to consume digital content primarily? And if so, why should you care about traditional marketing? Quite simply, because it’s making a comeback in a very big way.
Whether you’re launching a digital marketing agency, or if you’re kick-starting a brick-and-mortar business, you need to consider combining online and offline marketing in order to elevate your brand’s potential on all fronts.
Here are some of the best ways combining the two into a comprehensive marketing strategy can help your business thrive.
1. Use Offline Ads To Promote Your Digital CTAs
What is the primary advantage of digital CTAs over their offline counterparts? Measurability. The ability to measure the performance of your online CTAs through the monitoring of relevant KPIs and the utilization of Google Analytics, for example, gives you the power to easily recognize the ones that work, and the ones that should be scrapped. With offline CTAs, you can never be certain what exactly drove customers to your store.
With that in mind, this is your opportunity to use the CTAs that you know will deliver results in your offline ads. But don’t use them to boost foot traffic in your store, use them to drive people towards your online channels!
The offline audience is another unexploited resource of online traffic, and if you integrate your best-performing CTAs into your offline copy and ads, you can easily transform them into online visitors on your website and social media.
2. Guide Your Online Audience To Your Physical Store
On the other hand, calls to action in the online realm can be excellent tools to drive traffic to your physical office or store. Using various incentives such as social media giveaways, deals, and discounts, as well as loyalty programs for your offline shoppers can help you incentivize people to flood your store and bring new business to your doorstep as well.
What’s more, keep in mind that there are plenty of people who prefer the traditional shopping experience – the experience of shopping in a retail store or visiting the office of a future service provider.
Don’t expect them to find your offices all on their own, but instead give them the nudge they need to pay you a visit using online CTAs and other incentives to promote your offline location.
3. Integrate Digital Into Your Marketing Collateral
In the world of offline marketing, marketing collateral is one of the most powerful tools a brand has at its disposal. These materials include everything from handouts and corporate letters, to entire press kits for brands, catalogues, magazines, and much more.
Now imagine combining your entire digital presence with this type of diverse promotional printing in order to promote your online channels, content, and brand identity in the offline world.
Imagine the buzz and awareness you could create by driving the people you meet to your online channels, incentivizing them to engage with your brand in the digital realm as well.
The best part about marketing collateral that uses digital content is that it can lead customers to tailor-made landing pages that are fully optimized to convert offline audiences!
4. Use Online Channels To Promote Offline Events
Networking and events are extremely important when you’re trying to grow a new brand and get your startup off the ground. There are many types of events you can organize to raise brand awareness and generate quality leads with a realistic chance of conversion with little financial investment and minimum time waste.
But in order to achieve this, you will first need to build awareness and ensure a high attendance rate.
Many entrepreneurs and marketers use their online communication channels to spread the word of an online event, seminar, giveaway, or contest, yet they fail to recognize the power of online promotion for offline gatherings.
In the modern business world, everyone might be online, but that doesn’t mean that they prefer online conferences to physical events where they’ll at least sip on a cocktail while listening to your pitch. So, use your digital promotions to guide online audiences to your offline events and maximize your chances of conversion.
5. Complement Email With Direct Mail Marketing
Last but not least, keep in mind that we live in a world where personalization reigns supreme. Modern customers want to consume personalized content and carefully-curated product lists that were made just for them, in order to feel appreciated for putting their trust in your brand.
If you want to take personalization to a whole new level, though, you will shift your focus from email automation to direct mail.
Email is a great way to reach potential customers and guide them to your site with discounts, but direct mail is the best way to maximize customer retention and lifetime value.
Sending out letters to your customers or clients will ensure your message actually reaches their eyes and makes a positive impression. In turn, this will not only improve repeat business but drive new customers to your company through improved WOM.
In Closing
At first glance, offline marketing might seem like an unnecessary overinvestment in this digital day and age. But the reality is far different. By combining digital and traditional marketing strategies, you can maximize your brand’s potential across the board, and rise to the top of your industry faster.
Editor’s Note: The article is part of the blog series Grow Your Business brought to you by the marketing team at UniTel Voice, the virtual phone system priced and designed for startups and small business owners.
