Once upon a time, marketing simply referred to anything you did to introduce your company to new customers. From newsletters to seminars and print advertisements, it was a big basket under which a lot of different activities and disciplines seem to fit nicely.
With the advent of the internet, however, online marketing has taken center stage. Along the way, it's brought a bunch of new terms and ideas, like search engine optimization and social networking, into mainstream business conversations. But does that mean that off-line marketing is dead?
Not if you ask any one of the millions of companies that still successfully, and efficiently, brings in business outside of the Internet. In fact, the question shouldn't be whether you need to be doing online or off-line marketing, but the best ways to put them together profitably.
Accomplishing that probably isn't as hard as you would think. Here are four tips to help you get started:
Begin with one goal – and one specific kind of customer – in mind. When you know what you're actually trying to accomplish, in terms of new sales, such as the launch of a specific product or promotion, or more leads on your mailing list, for example, you can start to figure out which avenues are best for reaching buyers.
Maintain a consistent message. Your online marketing messages shouldn't portray you as one kind of company, and your off-line communications another. Take the time to develop a single strategy and message that you want your perfect customer to read. Then all you have to do is maintain it through all of your marketing channels.
Send customers back and forth to your website and off-line locations. Not every person who visits your retail store is going to buy from you on the spot. Why not print your website information on the receipt or flyer? The same goes for your website; use it to drive buyers to your physical locations, and you'll have a much higher percentage of visitors who eventually turn into customers.
Track the ROI of each marketing activity. Ultimately, the point isn't just to blend your online and off-line marketing techniques, but to get the highest possible return from each of them. In order to do that, you have to track the time and money invested into each activity, along with the marketing return on investment associated with each one. Over time, you'll get a great sense of where your new customers are coming from, and which means have been most effective in reaching them.
The question is never whether you should be using online or offline marketing, just how to put them together to achieve the best return on your investment.
