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Best Offline Marketing Methods

7/13/2019

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Traditional Marketing is Still Alive in the Digital Age
By Stu Leventhal - Guru Marketing Tips Editor

Yes; many claimed TV, Radio, News Papers would all be extinct fast, now that the internet was here. Not so! Traditional Advertising is still going strong. Many of those same skeptics and pessimists now have been forced to agree that traditional forms of advertising are more powerful and important than ever in the age of cyberspace.

If you’ve gone to a local festival and given out Frisbees with your company name and logo printed on them then you’ve participated in offline marketing. If you’ve had your sales team make phone call to a list of potential new customers you are doing an offline marketing activity (cold calling). When you lease a restaurant and invite the news media and prominent members of your industry and community to a party to launch your new and improved model of your bestselling product, you are conducting an offline marketing promotion.

Offline Marketing and Online Marketing are not two divided entities or separate activities that work on their own in different universes that never meet. What a company does offline affects their Online Personality and vise-versa. Yes, whatever is practiced online influences your Offline Identity and how much commerce you do on your website and in your physical brick and mortar store or office.

Beware of marketers who claim to specialize in one or the other. Why? Because you need to know and understand what all marketing, sales, promotions and advertising efforts are trying to accomplish for a company plus know how they are trying to accomplish their individual goals in order for any one marketing activity to be useful. If your marketing campaign online for example does not aide your offline marketing’s goals then it usually is counterproductive or hindering and getting in the way of the other marketing activity’s success.

The overall company brand image you are trying to project to the world may be suffering due to multiple messages you are sending out on different media platforms to address various kinds of audiences and fans. Your message gets confusing and is weakened if it alters from stage to stage.

Offline marketing is anything you do that is not on the internet or shared digitally to market your company and promote what you sell. Give away t-shirts with your company name and/or your slogan on it and hats with your logo or coffee mugs and pens with your name, address and phone number and you are participating in offline marketing. Buy a billboard along the side of the road or appear on a radio show to talk about breaking news in your industry or to promote a new product; yep, that is offline marketing too.

All marketing wherever it done must be coordinated efforts to build your brand's reputation and image consistently.

Bear in mind that you entrepreneurs and startups could easily generate a flood of traffic, business prospects and leads to your website when you are offline just like your online activities can send customers to your brick and mortar stores, showrooms and offices. How you craft the campaign determines where the traffic, customers, clients and inquires that are generated are sent. Still, keep in mind that you are running one company online and offline.

Online Guru's do market offline! There are many, many on-land conventions where most online products and new digital services are launched.

If you hosted a seminar, for example, and gave a great speech on your favorite topic, wouldn’t that bring a lot of awareness to new people informing them about you and what you are an expert at? Giving a speech in this case is an offline activity.

Now envision folks attending your seminar taking photos at the event and posting them online in their social media accounts. You would get even more PR, this time via the internet promoting (online marketing) and IM (internet marketing).

That’s how online and offline marketing works together. The goals are the same wherever you promote or do business and most of the world's best companies conduct commerce electronically and offline; in a store front or retail location or with an office too. The object is to get customers to remember your brand, products and services when it comes time to buy and to make people aware of what the company is up to currently.

So we’ve learned that website traffic is not just generated online. Events and activities meant to create a buzz for your brand may start offline or online. You want people talking about your company while they are standing in a line at the checkout counter or riding the bus as they text, email and post to one another. Offline and Online Marketing working in-sync is a smooth and beautiful thing and profitable too!

When you are one of the main hosts or supporters of a charity event you are promoting offline but you still want to tell as many people as possible about that marathon race you are hosting to raise money for the local animal shelter. You decide to create a news release to announce the details of your charity race. Press releases used to be consider offline marketing but now they can be distributed farther and to more influencing media pros using the internet.

So the press release is sent digitally to assist with promoting the offline event. Do you see how many photos and film clips will be taken digitally and then shared online? Also photos will appear offline in newspapers. Film clips will be shown on TV news too. The local radio show DJs will talk about the marathon race to promote it and after the race is run they’ll tell their audience how successful the charity event was and how fun it was to watch and participate in.

Now-a-days offline and online marketing must be in allegiance with one another. The boost comes from all your marketing being in sync!

Let’s consider your offline seminar again as an example; if you wanted to give your website traffic a nudge you could post online, on your website, a video recorded version of the offline event. Now people can visit your website and watch your speech for the next few years. Your video allows you to get much more mileage out of that one speech. You could even edit the slow parts out of your speech to make it even more concise and dynamite.

There are almost no limits to all the places online that you could load a teaser clip of your video promoting the re-play of your speech. In the video clip, you supply a short snip of your great speech then recommend that for further info on this topic or to view the entire speech, go visit my website or my blog and you leave your website and/or blog addresses as clickable links.

Now you are getting a lot more traffic from the same activity of putting on your original offline seminar speech because you took the time to create a digital copy that can be enjoyed and shared on video sharing sites like YouTube and posted about on all the popular social media sites especially Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Once online your video can be linked to by local or global bloggers.

The bloggers and social posters are recommending to their own audiences that their fans go check out your speech video. Their linking leads their fans directly to your full video on your web-page. You website has more stuff for these visitors to see as well as special offers that are designed for them to give you their email address so you can send them some coupons or perhaps a how-to-guide.

Will your video go viral? Let’s hope so.

Can you see how other types of offline activities can be empowered for longer lengths of time once turned into online marketing campaigns? Think of an appearance on a radio show or getting interviewed on a cable TV show. The replays can be posted as videos online where they remain for years and years and years gaining you notoriety and publicity.

So the magic really happens when you merge offline activity with online capabilities. Online marketing can boost the success of your offline promoting. Offline events or campaigns bring credibility to the activity. An e-webinar does not have the clout of an actual offline seminar or workshop but the digitally delivered webinar has long and far reach. One does not have to fly across the globe to attend the webinar. A webinar can also be re-played. Still, actual on land events gain media news coverage that webinars rarely can gain.

So my advice is simple, do some of both plus combine all your marketing efforts to work side by side, in conjunction whenever possible!

Not tying your marketing up in one arena, stage of type of promoting is obviously wise. When one thing does not produce for you there are still plenty of other business sources bringing in orders and new clients. Sure it requires more work to design different types of marketing campaigns and it takes researching different media outlets and searching for unique stages upon which to advertise and promote but your results can be powerful. It should be noted that using lots of marketing methods has long been referred to as Multi-Channel Marketing. The word takes on more meaning now that we have great and varied digital marketing opportunities inexpensively available to any promoter or sales pro.

IMPORTANT: The buzz you create delivers more weight if it originates offline and then is empowered via new digital communication techniques. You can tell the world what is going on in your little corner of the woods.

That is the basics of generating traffic, buzz and far reaching PR.

Once you learn traditional offline marketing concepts, you will be able to transfer the use of the skills you have honed offline to the digital stage in a much more easy and meaningful way.

So yes, print biz cards, catalogues and pamphlets. On holidays send a real card via the post office because it is much more endearing than getting an email no matter how clever or entertaining the digital holiday email is.

Have you considered running for political office in the local town where you conduct business? You cannot get more FREE PR than as a politician. Just running for office, even if you lose, can be a means of getting yourself well-known in your community. Local Baker runs for City Council shows that you are more than just a Baker, you really do care about your fellow citizens and your community.

Do attend trade-shows even if you do not rent a booth because you can bond with other pros and meet new clients face to face, which is very powerful. That’s called networking at its finest and the connection you make in person cannot be matched in quality online …even with Skype.

More business is started with a handshake and a smile than in any other way!

The challenge online is can you duplicate the intimacy of an offline meeting digitally?

I say learn and master Offline Marketing first and then you’ll know what you have to do on social media and on your website and when you blog and also with buying paid for internet marketing. Get the basics down of what works when marketing and any type or method or strategy you use will perform better for you!

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Now You Can Be an Online Offline Web Champion

1/23/2015

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GURU MARKETING TIPS by Stu Leventhal the Philadelphia Restaurant Consultant, Chef, Caterer, Food Critic, Restaurant Review Writer and Business Mentor explains marketing and Business management in easy to understand terms! You will learn how to combine the power of your offline marketing with your online promotional efforts to crush your competition! This is the only business book you will ever need to read!

YES... We are NOW a Group on LinkedIn!

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Powerful Offline Marketing

6/13/2013

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Ways to Promote a Business Offline for Maximum Profits

WATCH YOUR PROFITS EXPLODE!

Marketing offline is something more online Marketers should be doing more of. Ideally we should all be marketing both offline and online to maximize the synergy of both powerful platforms. Online marketing and offline marketing compliment each other, used properly together they can multiply the amount of exposure gained.

Some of these offline long standing traditional advertising and marketing ideas such as the yellow pages advertising and newspaper classified ads have been performing exceptionally for years. They may seem lame by internet marketing standards but they should not be neglected!

Offline marketing ideas, especially traditional ones like newspaper advertisements and magazine ads, are being used much less than ten years ago, due to the prices and lower return on investment compared to internet marketing. But many analysts feel that is more because offline marketing is not always used as effectively as it could be. Due to all the attention the internet hordes. Direct response marketing and building news worthy publicity are two very effective promotion methods that come to mind.

And then there are some really creative offline ideas that are often overlooked again due to the internet stealing the lime light; valuable joint ventures and strategic alliances to name two. Some of these ideas have the potential to really deliver a lot of leads and sales with minimal “work.”

So dig in and start thinking about how you could apply these ideas to your business today!

Start out with the simplistic and gradually get more creative and complex.

    Part I – Traditional Offline Marketing

Don’t think of these methods as too simple or mundane. They are very effective when done right and combined with other techniques in this report.

    Classified Ads – This is something everyone should be testing in some form or another. It’s great for lead generations. You should still have a strong benefit-driven headline and a clear call to action. Free reports work very well with classifieds. My local paper, the Hartford Courant even has an ongoing deal of 3 lines for 3 days – for free! Even adding more lines only ends up costing a few bucks. With a price like that, there’s no reason anyone with a website should not be testing ways to draw traffic to the site with classifieds.

    Direct Mail – Nothing beats direct response when it comes to results-driven proven advertising. And messages sent directly to your highly targeted market via direct mail can deliver a terrific return on investment (ROI) when tested properly. There’s a wealth of information on direct marketing by Michel Fortin, David Garfinkel, Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy, and many more experts. Here are some sites where you can learn more:

    http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com - Home of the Gary Halbert Letter

    http://www.dankennedy.com - Dan Kennedy’s site

    http://www.srds.com - The Standard Rate & Data (SRDS) List Book, a great resource to locate mailing lists of nearly any type you can imagine. You can also find it in some larger city libraries.

    http://www.referenceusa.com - Reference USA is a great place to get compiled lists by industry, SIC, demographics and more. It contains names, addresses and lots of other great information on more than 12 million U.S. businesses, 102 million U.S. residents, 683,000 U.S. health care providers, 1 million Canadian businesses, and 11 million Canadian residents.

    http://www.usps.com - The US Postal Service website has a variety of tools and educational materials about direct mail as well.

    Postcards – Yes, postcards are a form of direct mail, but it warrants its own category. Postcards are cheaper to produce and mail than full-blown direct mail packages or sales letters, and they are great for generating leads. Like classified ads, a free report or free gift often works well here. Postcards are also a great way to stay in touch with your customers and prospects, and they also work well as part of a sequence of mailings. A good place to go for customized postcards is http://www.usps.com (the US Postal Service website), because the USPS has partnered with a company that will print and mail your postcards for you! Best of all, you only pay for the postage (i.e. FREE printing costs). Hint: be sure to include yourself on the mailing list so you can get your own mailing as well.

    Yellow Pages – Another great resource that is often underutilized or used ineffectively. Yellow page ads are great because when someone sees your ad, they are already in the market for your product or service. Yellow page ads need to be benefits-driven, with your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) stated clearly and boldly (remember, this is the one place where your prospects will see your ad alongside all of your competitors). You want your ad to stand out from the clutter. Use a direct response type of ad, and again, free gifts or premiums work well here.

Gary Halbert has written about yellow pages several times in his newsletter. To find them easily, just enter the following search at Google:

site:thegaryhalbertletter.com +”yellow page”

Another great resource that JP Maroney recommends is Alan Saltz’s course on the subject, available at http://www.yellowpagesprofit.com

    Space Ads – If you’re going to do a space ad, it will generally get better results if you use the same layout as the editorials. Use the same font styles and sizes for the headline, body, etc. If the newspaper uses 2 columns per article on the page your ad will appear, use 2 columns in your ad. If they use 3 columns, you use 3. The “advertorial” approach almost always does better than traditional space ads that scream “ad.”

A great way to get very low costs space ads is to use what’s known as remnant, or standby advertising. Enter the following search in Google to see what I mean and to learn more:

site:thegaryhalbertletter.com +"Nancy Jones"

And you’ll learn to experiment in many creative ways to find out what works for you. A local advertising paper, the Rare Reminder here in the Hartford area, has classified ads and space ads. But I noticed that one “stone and mulch” company has their space ad featured upside-down in every weekly issue. At first I thought it was a mistake. But after seeing it upside-down week after week, I suspected they found that their upside-down ad stands out from the clutter. People think it’s a mistake and read it. Yes, it’s a gimmick. Would I do it? Only if it tested positively. And maybe it has for these folks. Food for thought.

    Radio/TV/Infomercials – You might be surprised how inexpensive you can get these types of slots, especially if you use remnant advertising. Study the best infomercials, for example (the ones you see over and over again…they must be working or they wouldn’t keep airing them), to get some ideas on how they are constructed.

    Flyers – Who says you can’t hire a high school student to stuff mailboxes or stick ‘em under windshields? Obviously if you are selling a high-priced financial course, it would be better to target the windshields of a fancy hotel than your local Wal-Mart. And I believe the US Postal Service also prints them for you like they do postcards if you want to mail them. Check out http://www.usps.com

    Networking – Your local Chamber of Commerce, trade shows, seminars, and anywhere your prospects hang out are all good opportunities for networking. In many cases, the hotel bar the night before the seminar is the best opportunity for making contacts. It’s usually more effective to try to capture contacts and leads than to try to close a sale on the spot, so get your elevator speech ready and have plenty of business cards on hand.

    Telemarketing – Remember the “Do Not Call” list only applies to consumers, so if you do any kind of business to business selling, telemarketing is a viable marketing method you can use effectively. Also, the “Do Not Call” list may not apply to you with your customers or if you already have a relationship with your prospects.

    A Trade Show Booth – A great place to capture leads. Again, a free report or gift does wonders. When you get a long line waiting at your booth, many people will stop by just to see what the fuss is about. Make your sales materials and sales people benefit-driven. Remember what your prospects are thinking: “What’s in it for me?”

    Blimps, Banners, and Billboards – If it’s zoned for advertising and it’s blank, you have an opportunity.

    Door Hangers – Those same high school students can help you with door hangers as well.

    Circulars – Again, high school students can also help you hand out circulars, post them on community bulletin boards, on telephone poles, wherever. You can make a donation to your local church and ask them if you can leave a stack at their next bake sale or bingo event. And certainly you can arrange to have your circular included in your local newspaper or community paper. For your money, circulars are very inexpensive to print and distribute.

    Card Decks – These stacks of index cards are mailed to targeted audiences. Each deck can contain anywhere from 50 to 200 cards or so, each with an advertisement or coupon. They may also double as a business reply card on back. Since your ad is mixed in with tons of others, it’s especially important to have a great headline and layout that will stand out from the clutter.

Card decks are inexpensive because all of the advertisers are sharing the cost of the mailing. They can cost as little as three cents a prospect for large mailings. Even for smaller mailings, they are generally cheap, which is good for testing.

Make sure you choose your audience wisely. Card decks are great for targeting a niche. Free reports or books work especially well here, because the person flipping through the cards will be attracted to the word “FREE.” As always, make sure there is a clear call to action. Multiple methods of response usually work better than a single method. For example, they can drop the card in the mail, call a free recorded message, go to your website, etc. And you may have some options with remnant space, so always try to negotiate a lower price (how hard is it for them to stick another card in their mailing…their costs are incremental and their profit is high even on remnant rates).

A couple other tips: When you see repeat advertisers in a deck, you have a pretty good idea that the deck is working for that ad. If that ad also targets your niche market, it may be a good one to test in. Also, test with copy that you already know works.

    Value-Paks – Similar to card decks, “value-paks” are little booklets with multiple ads. They are mostly used with coupons, rather than business reply cards.

    Ad Magazines – You’ve seen them. Magazines that are little more than a collection of space ads. They are usually local, and the ads in them usually aren’t direct response. By putting your direct response ad there, you stand out over all the other ads. But the downside is that these magazines tend to be less niche-focused (although there are certainly exceptions, with the real estate and automobile-themed magazines and newspapers).

    Catalogues – Your catalog doesn’t have to look like L.L. Bean or the like to be effective. A good one to study with respect to the ads themselves is the J. Peterman catalogue (check out http://www.jpeterman.com).

Here’s a good way to start small and work up from there in developing a good catalogue:

    Try a simple double-sided flyer first and test response.

    Make sure you locate highly targeted lists, as the wasted cost of mailings is going to be your biggest expense.

    Continue to expand, test, and tweak. Test everything—your layout, your copy, your prices—until you find the best combination.
Stay tuned for more Offline Marketing Strategies

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Be a Marketing Guru!

Best Offline Marketing Methods

Traditional Marketing is Still Alive in the Digital Age
By Stu Leventhal - Guru Marketing Tips Editor

Now You Can Be an Online Offline Web Champion

Powerful Offline Marketing

Ways to Promote a Business Offline for Maximum Profits

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Be a Marketing Guru!

Best Offline Marketing Methods

Traditional Marketing is Still Alive in the Digital AgeBy Stu Leventhal - Guru Marketing Tips Editor

Now You Can Be an Online Offline Web Champion

Powerful Offline Marketing

Ways to Promote a Business Offline for Maximum Profits

Author

Archives

Categories

Traditional Marketing is Still Alive in the Digital Age
By Stu Leventhal - Guru Marketing Tips Editor