If you’re the kind of business leader who believes that offline marketing fails in comparison to the long-term rewards that digital marketing brings to the table, don’t worry, you’re not alone. What’s more, nobody could blame you, because digital marketing truly tends to be more cost-effective than its offline counterpart.
With that said, how come that traditional marketing is still so powerful and popular among experienced entrepreneurs? From the inherent power of networking, all the way to direct mail and offline advertisements, experienced business leaders make sure to use it all in order to develop a competitive advantage for their businesses.
That doesn’t mean that you should forgo your SEO strategy, or that you shouldn’t advertise on search engines and social media; it simply means that you need to cover all of your marketing bases, both online and offline. Here are some effective ways to build an omnichannel marketing strategy.
Optimize your digital presence
There is no use in boasting the benefits of traditional marketing without first acknowledging the fact that digital marketing should be your priority. The simple reality is that digital marketing has the reach and the influence needed to affect the lives of a global audience, something that traditional marketing can only achieve if combined with online marketing methods. Plus, it tends to be way more affordable.
With that in mind, your first priority is to optimize your digital presence in order to complement your online strategy with your offline tactics later on in the game. Focus on SEO and web design, as well as social media management in order to engage with your audience and drive traffic to your website. Later, you can use these assets and the loyalty of your customers to fuel your offline strategy and drive traffic to your physical store or office as well.
Fuel digital marketing with offline ads
All of your online marketing efforts should serve a number of key goals:
- Building brand awareness.
- Driving traffic to your website and its landing pages.
- Building brand reputation and authority to fuel inbound marketing.
- Feed the SEO machine and boost your rankings in the SERPs.
- Conversions, of course.
- Developing loyal brand followers and ambassadors.
Achieving these goals will cover all of your marketing bases and help you create sustainable customer acquisition and retention strategies. But what if you could use your offline efforts to further fuel these digital methods and increase their effectiveness while reducing the time it takes to reach these goals? Here’s what you can do.
Use your online CTAs in your offline copy. One of the beautiful things about digital marketing is that it’s measurable. You can identify the best-performing CTAs easily and establish exactly what drove the customer to your site. Simply eliminate the guesswork of offline CTAs and integrate what does work into your billboards and other printed advertisement copy.
Network strategically in the offline realm
One of the most powerful offline marketing methods is networking. The art and science of effective networking will never lose its power in the business world, simply because modern business is a very personal thing, built on the foundation of trust, communication, transparency, and a firm handshake.
When you’re networking at corporate events, seminars, and speaking engagements, your business cards are the most powerful weapon in your arsenal, as a well-branded business card that carries a meaningful message has the potential to drive business to your online and offline doorstep.
There are numerous ways you can make your business cards drive the lead generation process for you, and there is a number of ways you can use them to achieve a certain goal. With the right branding, design, and copy, your business cards can inspire future clients and customers to visit your website or to give you a call, or do any number of other actions that will transform them into quality leads. Check out places like Vistaprint or Snap to get started.
Adapt both strategies with customer feedback and research
Of course, in order for any marketing strategy to bear the right fruit, you need to collect and collate the relevant data and customer feedback. You need to find out exactly what your audience likes and dislikes, and how your marketing efforts are faring online and offline, in order to generate actionable insights and make calculated decisions in the future.
Luckily, digital marketing is easily measurable, so just go ahead and monitor your most relevant KPIs over time until you have enough data to create a comprehensive report. When it comes to offline marketing, though, it’s best to conduct surveys and focus groups in order to find out how your efforts are performing. Combined, these results will help you optimize online and offline marketing, and find new ways to fuse them together for maximum ROI.
Let online and offline promotions complement each other
Speaking of fusing them together, another great way to create an omnichannel marketing approach is to let your offline and online promotions complement each other. You can achieve this in a number of ways and through a number of different online and offline platforms. Try the following:
- Use a radio ad to drive people to your social media. Once there, incentivize them to interact with our posts in some way for a chance to win valuable prizes.
- On the flip side, use your online influence to promote your in-store products. For a limited time, offer discounts to anyone who comes to your store after interacting with your social media posts.
Wrapping up
Nowadays, as every industry in the world is becoming increasingly competitive, it’s more important than ever for businesses to create an omnichannel marketing strategy in order to retain their competitive advantage. Use these tips to capitalize on the potential of offline and online marketing and propel your brand forward.
Featured image credit: Pixabay.com
My name is Raul, editor in chief at Technivorz blog. I have a lot to say about innovations in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing. You can reach me out on Twitter.
