Digital marketing has taken the world by storm and more and more people nowadays view it to be the only good way of doing marketing. But is this true? Offline marketing is still extremely relevant as a way of making a strategy for your business and today, we will talk about some of the most effective ways of taking advantage of offline marketing to make your business as attractive as possible for the consumers.
Be Present in Local Media
Now, you might think this sounds really old-fashioned, but you should strive to get connections with your local radio and TV stations. You will be way better off by getting air time at a cheap price via the radio than you would with pay-per-click marketing. By making friends with prominent people in your local community, you assure that people get to hear about you and spread their impressions. And we already know that having positive words being spread about you will only lead to good things.
You shouldn’t strive for these relationships to be strictly in the form of payments. They can be very beneficial if you build a relationship and who knows, maybe down the line, they will invite you as a guest speaker for a subject that is relevant to your line of work at one of their events.
Create Your Own Line of Merchandise
Have you ever said no to a free pen? I thought so. People, naturally, love free stuff. You can get many people to be interested in your brand by simply offering them a free pen, notebook, or a T-shirt. You can rest assured that they will be wearing it. And by wearing it they also expose other people to your brand, more exposure means more potential clients. Not to mention this is all for the price of buying a pen and adding your logo to it. It’s an exceedingly effective strategy that most smart businesses implement.
For some higher-quality merchandise, you can even sell it for a fair sum. This can be a double-edged sword though, as it heavily depends on how much people have already invested in your brand and the overall appeal of the product you are offering. So it might be safer to give out free merchandise until you have gained a solid footing and a good reputation in the community to start selling your stuff.
Work on Expanding Your Network
Networking is vital in any line of business. Regardless of the size of the town or how much you would depend on others, networking can (and most of the time does) lead to profitable results for both parties. If you are an introvert, it will be exceedingly difficult for this but you have to do it. Constantly talk to people no matter the time or place. You never know when you might meet a person who is in need of a potential partner or that is in a complementary line of the industry to yours and could benefit from cooperating with you. It could be a visitor to an event, your client, hell, it could even be your neighbor!
But in all seriousness, attend events that are relevant to your field in order to meet as many people as possible, not all of them will seek cooperation but as long as you don’t give up and keep rigorously trying, you will succeed.
Create a Strong Marketing Campaign
Research has shown that the Internet is a live medium and presents more opportunities for interaction and more consumer motivators. With this in mind, you need to make your offline campaign be just as interactive and provide the consumer with motivations in order to stay relevant and outdo digital marketing. You have the physical touch and human contact going for you (which gives you a starting head start) but you need to work a lot to actually wow the potential customer. You can bring yourself closer to the customer by hosting seminars, sponsoring local events, and even doing public speaking.
Public speaking is a particularly good option that you can opt for. You need to present your speech in such a way to come off as an expert in a field you are familiar with, just be careful not to overdo it or speak about things you are uncertain about because there will be various similar experts listening to you as well who might prove you wrong and cause you to take a reputation hit. All of these suggestions have one vital thing in common, they serve as a means of improving your reputation.
Have a Strong Banner
Banners are a great option for a cheap, yet effective physical presence around the neighborhood. They are not only cheap and fast to make, but you can reuse them by moving them to different locations to get more exposure in those areas. Banners have a unique effect because they can represent your business in an attractive way for passive onlookers without being too in their face. There is nothing better to display your business in a positive light than a well-designed fence banner.
Distributing Coupons and Pamphlets
Distributing promotions online via emails might have a wider outreach but getting that physical piece of material will always be different. You can always make an ad on Facebook, but will it have the same effect? The physical touch will, as we have previously mentioned, always give you a head start and make it feel more personal. When you are sharing your business card you can give the person a coupon along with it. This way you offer them a stimulation to actually check you out (might as well since they are getting a price reduction, right?).
That would be it for today, hopefully, you understand better just how much offline marketing can influence the success of your business, and will try to implement some of these suggestions into your marketing strategy. Best of luck!
