It’s no secret that online marketing is one of the easiest ways to reach a large number of potential customers. Any business that doesn’t have a good online marketing strategy in place is really going to struggle, regardless of what industry they’re in. But a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that online marketing is a replacement for offline marketing. It isn’t, it’s just another tool that you have at your disposal and it should be used alongside offline marketing strategies if you’re going to create a comprehensive marketing campaign. Even though most people use the internet regularly, not everybody uses social media and they might not be visiting the right sites to see your pay per click ads. Some people might not go online that much at all. If you’re only focusing on social media marketing, for example, you’ll reach a lot of people but you’re still neglecting a big chunk of your potential customer base. The other thing you need to consider is the level of competition online. People on social media view thousands and thousands of posts a day and sometimes, yours won’t cut through the noise. But a lot of offline techniques are more direct and are more likely to connect.
If you’re putting all of your resources into online marketing and neglecting offline strategies, you need to have a rethink. These are some of the best offline marketing tools that you have at your disposal.
Print Materials
Most people are already using business cards but their print materials stop there. Business cards are great for networking but they’re not that useful for direct marketing to customers. But other print materials like flyers, brochures and catalogs are more effective than people realize. Flyers, in particular, are great. You might be using email marketing because it’s a great way to deliver information direct to the customer. But that email can easily get lost in amongst all of the other spam emails they’re getting every single day. A flyer posted through the door, however, is far more likely to catch their attention. Of course, a lot of people will throw them away but they’ll at least look at them before they do. It’s very cheap to print out flyers and post them around the local area so it’s a great cost effective way to market direct to customers.
Merchandise
Building a brand is such an important part of marketing. Creating a social media account that resonates with your target market and has a bit of personality is a very important part of that, but you can use merchandise to accent that and improve brand recognition as well. Get yourself some promotional items like lanyards, flash drives or pens printed up with your logo and distribute them. These are things that people will use every day and whenever they use them, they’ll be looking right at your logo. Next time they need a product that you sell, they’re more likely to think of you than your competitors. Tote bags and drinks bottles are particularly good options at the moment because reducing plastic consumption is a big thing, so people will definitely use them.
Event Marketing
Getting face to face with your customers is a great way to market yourself. People like a personal experience which is important to remember when you’re running your social media pages, but nothing beats meeting them in person. That’s why you should consider event marketing as part of your strategy. There are all sorts of different events you could hold to market your products or services. Launch parties for new products are a great way to get people excited about them. Sponsoring other people’s events is another great cost-effective way to use event marketing because you don’t have to spend the money or time setting up a whole event but you’re still getting your name out there.
Advertise In Print Media
People often think that print media is dead and it’s all about the online world but that isn’t true. While print media has seen a downfall, the readership for magazines and newspapers is still high enough to make it worthwhile advertising in there. It’s also a great way to reach a specific demographic because the readership of a specific magazine or paper is going to be largely made up of a specific group. Paying for print ads is quite cheap as well so it’s a very good way to achieve well targeted marketing without breaking the bank.
Free Giveaways
Everybody loves something for free so this is a great way to get people interested in your company. People might not be willing to part with their money for a product that they aren’t sure about. But giving them a free sample to show them what you have on offer might inspire them to buy more from you. The other major benefit is that you get free marketing off the back of it. If people like a product, they’ll tell their friends and family about it. People tend to rely on recommendations these days, especially as online reviews are so readily available. That means that word of mouth marketing is such a great tool. By giving out some free samples of your products you can encourage people to tell their friends and family how amazing they are and hopefully drum up some more sales. This is also a great way to boost your online marketing efforts; if you enter people that follow you on social media into a prize draw with one of your products as the prize, you’ll get a big boost in following in a relatively short time.
Sponsor A Charity
Corporate social responsibility is very important these days. People make their purchasing decisions based on a range of things, not just the product. For a lot of people, it’s important that the companies they buy from are responsible in the way that they manufacture products and interact with the local community. That’s why sponsoring a charity is such a great way to market yourself.
Online marketing is important and you do need to dedicate a lot of resources to it, but these offline strategies are a great way to support those efforts.
