Digital marketing has certainly changed the norm for marketing techniques, but that doesn’t mean your business should lose sight of your offline marketing tactics. Instead of taking two separate approaches for your marketing, it’s best to integrate them together.
Why is it important to sync these efforts? Although many businesses have substantially decreased their marketing budget toward offline marketing, it doesn’t mean it’s not important. Take local newspapers as an example; this is still a trusted medium for certain audiences to learn about promotions and upcoming events. In fact, many businesses rely on local newspapers for their promotions. If these print ads could be integrated with a business’s digital marketing, their reach would not only be broad, but effective to a wide range of audiences.
By the end of this post, you should have a clear understanding on how to best integrate your business’s online and offline marketing strategies.
Take Note on Your Business’s Engagement
First, it’s best to document an average day at your business. Take note of how you start your day; do you check your email or post something on your business’s social media pages? Do you make phone calls to your vendors in the morning or after lunch? How many customers typically come into your store a day? Essentially, you want to document any form of engagement; these notes will show you where and how your business uses online and offline interaction.
Your Customer’s Journey
Your next step is to map out your customer’s buying journey, which are the steps a prospect will take to becoming one of your customers. Here’s how to do it:
- Create different segments of your audience. This will vary depending on your business/industry, but make sure there are key differentiators for each.
- Put yourself in the head of your customers; think about when they would need your products/services the most. Follow up by asking yourself, “How can I put myself within arm’s reach of them?”
- List out the customer’s touch points, which is where they may need to be reminded of your products/services. For example, a clothing store may hand out coupons a week before Black Friday. Also, figure our what information the customer needs to know for each touch point (time of event, promo code, etc.).
- This step is the most important of them all: Determine if your business has “irresistible” offers. If your website is not getting good traffic, this is a sign that you don’t have an offer that’s worth while for your audience. If you don’t have strong offers, create at least one that could help boost your website’s traffic.
Start Integrating
Keep these integrating tips in mind to build a stronger brand and make your marketing more effective:
- Keep everything consistent. This goes for the messaging, design, offer, EVERYTHING. You certainly don’t want confuse your customers by having separate, or even conflicting, messages online and offline. Plus, they may only see one of your strategies, so it’s wise to give them the same look, feel and experience no matter where they see your message.
- Your contact information needs to be included and easy to find.We’re not just talking about a phone number and URL (which should also be visible); more and more people are interacting on social media, so your business should establish a social media presence. Once you’ve created your pages, you should include those links on your digital pages. For your print/offline pieces, include the social media icons somewhere at the bottom of the ad or at the end of your TV spot so they know they can search you online.
- Create a path for converting prospects to customers.After you’ve mapped out your customer’s journey, create a marketing funnel. Find pieces of content you’ve created that will offer some sort of benefit to your audience and link it to your offline efforts or social media accounts. Once your prospects read this content, give them a chance to opt-in for another piece of content in which they give you their email address first to unlock it.
Today’s digital age of marketing will continue to evolve, so it’s important to start integrating now. Start combining your online and offline marketing today and start seeing the benefits of consistency tomorrow! For more information about online or offline marketing, contact GreenMellen Media today!
