In today’s world, we can’t imagine a business surviving without any form of online marketing.
Most businesses have a website and profiles on social media. And many of them leverage paid ads, influencer marketing, and a host of marketing tactics to connect to the audience.
It’s hard to imagine a time where businesses didn’t use the internet at all. And yet that was the case. Small business owners got sales from word-of-mouth recommendations. And they relied on traditional marketing forms like newspaper advertisements, billboards, and more.
Nowadays, with so much competition out there, you have to be more creative in order to succeed. One way that you can do this is by utilizing hybrid marketing techniques which combine both online and offline strategies.
When you combine the impact of both these approaches, you’ll create a stronger impact on your conversion rates and other metrics.
Want to know how to balance your offline and online marketing? That’s what this post is all about.
The benefits of blending offline and online marketing communication
Using offline and online marketing is also known as hybrid marketing. And one of its benefits is that it allows you to reach a wider audience.
Relying on a single mode of communication means you’ll miss out on audience members who can’t consume your content.
For example, a person who drives around a lot for work won’t be able to read your blog post. But they’re more likely to see billboards or listen to the radio.
The main benefit of blending different marketing strategies is that each marketing method can support another. It’s knowing how to link them that’s key. For example, using print ads to lead people to your social media pages. Or creating online ads to increase footfalls in your physical store.
Effective ways to blend offline and online communication
There are many benefits of blending offline and online marketing communication. For example, online marketing allows you to receive information quickly, reaches a wider audience and it provides a greater profit margin.
Offline marketing allows you to have an in-person interaction with customers through events, seminars, and conferences. As different as these two modes are, they can connect to each other. And in the process, making them work together creates an immersive experience for your audience. Let’s look at how to do just that.
Use your brand kit consistently
An effective way to blend online and offline communication is to use your brand kit across all marketing channels.
This means using the same colors, fonts, tone of writing, and more. To make it easy, create documentation where everyone connected to your marketing activities has easy access.
WPForms’ brand kit
Your content creators and marketers will easily pick up the right colors, graphics, and other details to keep your message sounding consistent.
Also, remember to train your customer service so that their delivery while speaking to customers or chatting with them stays in line with your brand voice.
Use the same keywords across channels
Your audience uses specific keywords to find what they need online. And it’s important to optimize your web copy, landing pages, and blog posts to reflect these keywords. This is so that Google and your audience can find your content and understand what it’s all about.
However, this approach works for offline communication too. When creating traditional ads, posters, flyers, radio messages, and other content, be sure to use the right keywords.
In essence, keywords represent how customers think and seek information. They say a lot about their intent and goals.
By phrasing your online and offline communication using relevant keywords, you make your branding content more consistent.
Focus on creating leads
One of the problems with offline marketing is that it doesn’t convert to leads. People may view a banner at a shop and take action by buying something. But if you don’t get their email address, then you have no way of connecting with your buyer.
Make sure that you keep driving your offline marketing to create online leads. That is, ask users to sign up for your newsletter, get a free lead magnet, or follow you on social media. Through such methods, you have ways to directly connect with your community even when they’re offline.
Don’t let your offline marketing efforts stand alone. Connect them with online actions to build your leads list.
Use QR codes
Want people to find you online from a physical interaction?
A convenient way to do this is to use QR codes.
With QR codes, people who are at your physical store or who can see your banner can just pull out their cameras, scan the code, and get a link to your social media or website or some kind of landing page.
Always offer some kind of benefit for people to scan the QR code or they won’t see a reason to do so.
Leverage hashtags
Another way to connect your offline and online business is to use hashtags.
People often like to take pictures during real-life events and even when they’re doing something normal like shopping, dining out, or taking a stroll.
You can create a branded hashtag or an event-based hashtag and encourage people to take pictures and share their experiences with their network.
Such user-generated posts get a lot of attention and hashtags can help drive more people to your brand.
Make use of Google My Business
And what about getting people to interact with your brand in a real-life, physical setting from online activities?
An underused tool is Google’s directory for businesses known as Google My Business.
It’s critical that you claim ownership of your store or office through Google My Business’s platform. And that you update all the details available to you and also share timely posts and updates.
People look online first to find a store, a product, or a service. By filling in your details carefully on Google’s own listing platform, you’ll get more footfalls in your workspace more easily.
Create events to drive footfalls
We’ve looked at how you can get people at events to connect with your brand online through QR codes and hashtags. But you can also leverage online events to boost your offline footfalls.
Regularly host online giveaways and live Facebooks or Instagram events for your audience.
You can also host webinars, do free demos, and other video-based activities to make people aware of your brand.
Creating a digital connection first will make your audience familiar with your business. And they’ll be more open to checking out and contacting your business in a physical location.
Conclusion
You’ve learned a number of powerful new things about marketing in this post.
One, you should blend different types of marketing – especially your online and offline content.
We’ve also looked at various ways you can communicate with people by blending social media with physical events. Or by using live streaming to encourage more people to try your store.
Read more: business2community.com