- Toyna Chin, San Francisco, CA
Tying Your Offline Marketing to Online Marketing
Digital marketing is essential for any business today. You need to be online if you want to get your business in front of the right people. However, that doesn't mean that marketing offline is no longer relevant. It's still important to consider which "traditional" marketing methods are useful for your business. If you're using some offline methods, you might feel like they're a bit disconnected from your online activities. Fortunately, you can tie them both together so that they can work in harmony. Take a look at some of these techniques for tying your online marketing to your offline marketing.
By Pxhere
Create Professional Contact Details
If your business is largely based online, it can sometimes be tough to make it look professional. But many people will want to know more about your "offline" presence, especially if they want to make sure that you're a legitimate and trustworthy company. You should have clear contact details to help people contact you both online and offline. On your website, list your address, phone number, and email address. You might find it useful to get an official address from https://physicaladdress.com. Many small businesses don't have a separate business address, but you might not want to use your home address. A virtual address makes you look more professional, plus it gives people a way to contact you by mail.
Offer a Range of Ways to Contact You
To combine your online and offline marketing techniques, you should make sure you have a range of ways for people to contact you. Providing customer service online is a good idea, but some people also want to be able to speak on the phone or perhaps even send you a letter. Make sure that people who visit your website or social media pages know that they can get in touch with you offline. Use your offline marketing materials to show that people can contact you online too, using email or social media.
Put Online Information on Printed Material
When you have printed marketing materials, such as flyers, brochures or posters, use them to let people know where to find you online. There are various methods you can use to make it easier for people to get onto your website and other online locations. For example, you can use scannable QR codes for your website or your mobile app. You can also just write your website URL, your social media handles or perhaps a hashtag that you want people to use on social media. An email address can be useful too, especially as a point of contact for customer service.
By Pxhere
Encourage Website Visitors to Visit You In Person
You might also want to send people in the opposite direction. Does your business have a physical location? You can direct your online visitors to see you in person using several different methods. For example, you can hold a sale in your store and advertise it online. There are also ways to send people marketing materials by mail after they have visited you online. Some people might want free samples or a catalog or brochure before buying anything from you. Others might like to receive special offers or news of new products by mail.
Let People Online Know About Offline Events
As well as offline sales, you might have other events that you want to let people know about. Maybe you're sponsoring a local charity event, or you're going to be in attendance at a trade show. If you have a big online audience, letting them know where you'll be and when helps to keep your online and offline activity connected. You can use your social media or perhaps publish a blog post. You can also stay connected online throughout the event, perhaps using a hashtag to talk about what's happening on social media.
By Pixabay
Provide Incentive to Go Online
If you want to encourage people to get online, you often need to provide some incentive to do so. One great tactic is to give people discount codes that they can use on your website. So if you send give out flyers or include them in your orders, anyone can go online and get some money off whatever they want to buy next. Or you could have an online competition to get people to visit your site or follow you on your social media channels.
Your online and offline marketing and customer service don't have to stand on their own. There are lots of ways that you can bring them together so that they're more connected.