5 Reasons Why Offline Marketing Is Still Alive and Kicking

by Startacus Admin

It is amazing how many articles focus on online marketing as if that was the only way to reach customers – this article is not among them.

Offline marketing is not only going strong but evolving in a number of ways. Here are 5 reasons why offline marketing is a powerful marketing method that should not be overlooked. We’ll also explain why several types of offline marketing remain strong and who should utilise them.

Ad Placement Where You Want Their Attention and Action

Ads in supermarkets haven’t disappeared because someone can comparison shop online. Instead, you still see end cap displays in stores promoting something to those passing by. You actually see more physical ads in stores, whether it is a display in the trolley itself or ads pasted to the floor. This is in addition to coupons in advertisement-laden holders trying to entice someone to pick that product over their rivals. “Look, we’ve not only got your attention, but get our coupon to have a better reason to buy our items!”

Affordable and Proven Local Outreach

Sending emails to customers doesn’t work so well when you want to promote hyper-local events like a new store opening, since customers may not have kept their address up to date with your customer relationship management system, and their email filter may block your messages. Conversely, you can turn to brochure printing through sites like Print24 and send them through direct mail to addresses in your targeted area. You aren’t sending messages to people who wouldn’t have an interest, but it will reach people at that address even if they are not on your email list.

Easy Referral Marketing Systems

One of the easiest ways to get new customers is to get your current customers to refer a friend or family member. The hard part is setting up a referral system. You can create unique referral links each person can share and then track those referrals. That system is often used by multi-level marketing systems, digital services providers and utility providers. However, this can be beyond the skill or budget of a small business. Yet there is a simple way to utilise it for a small business. Give your customers a referral card, and if their friends come in to buy and say who gave it to them, you can give the referrer a discount or reward of some type as well as a new customer discount for the one who came in. If the new customer heard about it via word of mouth but doesn’t have the card, you can choose whether or not to honour the discount but you still gained a customer. It doesn’t have to be either-or. For example, sending out physical brochures with coupon codes means they are less likely to be lost or incorrectly used when given to a friend of the current customer.

Control Over the Results

Many businesses discovered the problems that come with digital coupon codes. Unlike coupon codes and referral codes that may get posted on the internet and abused by many, physical coupons are harder to replicate and less likely to be replicated. If you can only afford 1000 £15 discounts, you only print 1000 coupons.

A coupon code shared online may not include the expiration date, leaving potential customers angry that the final price doesn’t reflect what they thought it would.

Deep Engagement with Customers

Customers read more deeply and trust content more when it is presented to them in print magazines. The same is true about print brochures, which is why they are still given out in doctor’s offices whether repeating the doctor’s advice or recommending lifestyle changes.

Another way to create deep engagement with customers is to give them something of significant value for free while subtly promoting your brand. This is the motivation behind magazine printing. Travel agencies and travel service providers print magazines that they send out to their best customers and make available in venues and transit. Financial services providers send magazines or simple newsletter to their customers with content they need; customers see the service provider as helpful and informed, while every few pages can promote your business’ expertise.

Each article can target a different demographic while promoting the relevant services to that market segment, so the whole magazine offers something every reader wants. And unlike search engine optimisation for a website, it won’t pull down the ability of your potential customers to find your content because you tried to be all things to all people. If a magazine is too much for your budget, informational brochures to people based on their life stages or likely interests have a similar effect. This is why cheap brochure printing is popular with non-profits and small businesses. Don’t forget the value of using that technology to create small portable menus you can send to would-be customers and attractive little value-added inserts to put in your shipments with how-to instructions.

As you can see, offline marketing is still alive and well and a viable marketing method depending on how you use it. Offline marketing lets you put ads where your customers are looking and entice them to act at the final stage of the sales funnel. Offline marketing methods like direct mail marketing are cheap, targeted local marketing options. Printed referral cards and coupons are easier to administer than digital coupon codes and customer tracking systems. And all printed materials have more gravitas with customers while letting you put different content on each page for a different market segment.

 

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Published on: 13th October 2017