To be successful in business, you need to be flexible in your marketing approaches. For one, its unhealthy for your business if your focus is on online strategies only. Why?
Offline and online marketing benefit businesses differently. Online marketing allows instant access to company websites and information on promotions.
On the other hand, its better to use offline marketing strategies if one wants to improve visibility, to physically promote products and services, and to directly address issues such as customer complaints.
Internet marketing is an essential concept to everyone, no matter what industries they are in. However, the ultimate goal for businesses is to get closer to potential customers and influential people. This can be done only through the physical marketing strategies such as cold calling, and attendance at business conferences.
The next questions would be:
How is integration done? What are the expected results?
Are there concrete examples that have already been proven to bring out desired results?
For the first two questions, consider the following:
Unique Story: The first step is to know how unique your product is. This will allow you to tell a different story about how your product can affect peoples lives. When people hear something new, the natural response is for them to take steps to know about it, and perhaps use it.
If you succeed in the first step, the next step is to tell it online and offline. Since your products value is unique, it will sell no matter what platform you use.
Using social media: Good engagement translates to increased sales, and using engagement doesnt mean only meeting people face-to-face. You can accomplish good engagement with your potential clients by using the platforms offered by Facebook and Twitter. Posting about events that have taken place in the real world can encourage company-customer engagement online.
Theres the last question to answer what are samples of approaches that integrate online and offline marketing? Here are two more for you.
Direct mail marketing Dont limit your mail marketing reach. The approach can cover both offline and online platforms. Make time to list names of online visitors who have accessed your website recently, and launch a direct mail program that can send your message both to these people and the offline names that you already have on the list.
Make sure however, to take note of the inexpensive ways you can make use of the US postal system for this purpose.
QR Codes Another is QR codes. The minimum goal for this is to make people visit your online site and let them know more about your brand and the special offers that you have.
Be flexible. Take advantage of both types of marketing strategies. What one can do, the other cant. Think about ways these two distinct types of marketing strategies can be used hand in hand.