Integrating offline and online marketing serves as an advantage to both businesses and customers alike. It is a sure way to get the word out about a product or service, but the question is how do you do it?
Adding a businesses’ website on pamphlets is one way to integrate offline and online marketing. Putting a company’s website URL on a storefront sign is another simple way. Mixing offline and online marketing strategies will help increase brand awareness, but it’s important to remain consistent in order to avoid confusion.
Be Sure to Integrate Offline and Online Marketing
Connecting offline and online marketing strategies work best when both advertising methods are consistent in order to avoid confusion. When a customer reads about a sale on the business’s website, it should coincide with the sales information on their pamphlet for example. Leading MarTech solution Oppizi says, “To increase your brand reach, you need a mixture of online and offline marketing tactics. The more channels you market your brand through, the more audience members you can get your product in front of. A holistic approach is the best approach to gain quality traction when looking at the growth of a business.”
Integration of online to offline marketing increases customer awareness. It helps to build a brand. With so many ways to integrate marketing methods, customers have advantages that they have never before had.
The Pros and Cons of Offline Marketing
The Pros of Offline Marketing:
The first and foremost benefit of offline marketing is that you have something tangible to produce to the customers.If you go for print advertising like flyers, people can hold it and feel more associated with your brand. You can also boost the engagement by adding scratch cards or discount coupons in the flyers.
People love to go to the store to shop, especially during holiday time. When a store promotes its product in a sales flyer, a customer will do all they can to be there when the store opens (either online or offline). Sales flyers work very well, as does word of mouth. Talking across the fence is what neighbors do. Be sure to add your physical address, your website’s URL, and the time the store opens and closes on your sales flyer.
Building a brand by use of television advertisements is a tried and true method that has worked for many years. You can also consider promoting your product on the radio. What’s the first thing people do when they get settled in their car? They turn on the radio. You may find an increase in sales when using the radio as a way of offline marketing.
Online space is getting so crowded by each passing day that it may get very difficult for brands to get noticed. When you opt for offline marketing strategies like flyer and leaflet distribution or open a temporary exhibition stand to showcase your products, people may actually notice them, ask for a live demo and take the time to inquire about it more.
The Cons of Offline Marketing:
Newspaper ads, leaflets, and sales flyers should line up with online advertisements in order to avoid confusing the customer. When a flyer says that a sale is beginning and ending on a certain day, it should be consistent on your company website.
With offline advertising, it is always a time-consuming process. When you initially design a flyer or a leaflet and notice that people are not quite impressed with it, you may have to think about redesigning the items and then redistribute them for better visibility. The entire process of reworking on offline marketing channels, be it newspapers, magazines or flyers and leaflets can take a considerable amount of time, which is not the case with online marketing.
It’s difficult to know which form of advertising is driving up your sales unless you effectively track the metrics. Placing flyers in store windows may go unnoticed, they get thrown in the garbage without being read, and newsletters sit on the counter for days. By the time a consumer gets around to reading the flyer, the sale may be over with.
The Pros and Cons of Online Marketing
The Pros of Online Marketing:
Get the word out with a thorough description of the product, whether it is on your website, blog, or social media website. Using social media sites works very well when promoting a particular brand. Brand-building needs to be personal, it must be engaging, and it must be creative. Creating an engaging advertisement on social media will draw attention to a product.
Also, with online marketing it is much easier to find your target audience and grab their attention. You can also customize your online marketing content as per the search trend and do multiple edits as per the conversions.Online marketing also allows your target specific age groups or gender using advanced tools. This is very beneficial when your product or service caters to a selected audience.
The Cons of Online Marketing:
Product advertisements can easily get lost in the cloud. Building a brand successfully means including keywords within the body of a sentence so it will show up on the first page when customers are searching for a particular product. If it doesn’t, then chances are no one will ever go to your website. A poor product description may be another reason customers aren’t purchasing it. Be sure to give a clear description of your product.
Sometimes even if your online marketing tactics are on point, your customers may step back the final step of conversion due to a slow-loading website or unsafe payment gateway. You should also keep in mind that there is a part of the popular who don’t have access to the internet or don’t know how to access the internet, which can be a negative aspect of online marketing.
How to Integrate Offline Online Marketing
- Creativity goes a long way, especially when designing a website for your business.
- Use colorful logos and designs to grab the viewer’s attention.
- Appropriate keywords and links on a website’s landing page will also draw a viewer’s attention.
- Newsletters, flyers, signs in store windows, and online advertisements must line up.
- Integrate offline and online marketing when brand building using a combination of physical ads and the internet, whether it be a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer.
Taking User Generated Content Offline
Product reviews and customer reviews can create a strong product brand. When including positive customer reviews on a blog or website, a product brand is promoted. With a website’s permission, download and use their images in newspaper ads or store pamphlets. Offline brand-building works well with images that promote a product.
Sharing QR Codes on Mobile Phones
The creation of QR codes works well to help a customer save money. They can scan an in-store product to see if a product is on sale, and they can also check the store’s physical address and telephone number as well.
Your Online Content can be Repurposed
Take the best, leave the rest is a good motto to remember when integrating online and offline marketing. To create a strong brand image, use your best content to educate a customer about a product or event. Include your positive customer reviews in flyers, newsletters, and pamphlets. Bond with your customers and they’ll return to your website or store again and again.
Encourage Cross Promotion
Try combining offline and online strategies at the same time. For example, while you run billboard ads for your product or service on the highways, you can also run a similar online campaign on social media to push the same product/service. Doing this can help establish strong brand awareness of the product/service.
Customer Emails and Physical Mailboxes
Ask customers for their email addresses when they visit your store or website, then follow up with a personal email. When mailing brochures, include your store’s location, telephone number, and website address, then send the customer a personal note to further promote your product.
Radio, Television, and Internet Marketing
Podcasts and online videos are an excellent way to promote a brand or an event, although television and radio advertisements have been used in the marketing world for years. According to research, more than 80% of younger people watch videos and podcasts, and nearly 60% of people who love to listen to music, do so on the radio and streaming services such as Spotify.
They stream on airplanes and trains while traveling, and in their vehicles when they are driving to and from work. Even the internet radio isn’t used as much as traditional radio.
To Sum It Up
The combination of offline and online marketing can do wonders when it comes to building a better brand. It’s recommended to maintain consistency with both advertising methods to gain the best results. Remember, with more channels to market through, you have a higher chance of gaining a larger audience for your product or service. Improve customer awareness and integrate online and offline marketing to make a more holistic strategy for your business.
