Today, we are living in the digital revolution. In today’s world, almost everything is done online – from shopping and communicating to dating and dieting. And, advertising is no different – digital marketing is always top priority, and marketers seem to have completely forgotten about the old-school, tired and tested offline marketing methods that may not be useful to the masses online, but certainly aren’t completely outdated yet. Today, offline marketing methods can be used to perfectly compliment and give your digital marketing strategy a boost. Offline and digital marketing strategies can often be tied together to complement one another, bringing your site new traffic and your business new customers.
Business Cards
The business card is a secret weapon in the pockets of many savvy marketers and business owners. Perhaps one of the most widely used offline marketing methods today, there are many ingenious ideas for creative business cards and they’re used to grab attention, whilst not losing the ‘personal touch’ that has become so rare in today’s era of social media and email mailing lists. Business cards are now easier and cheaper than ever to print, with online services such as showcasecreative.com allowing you to come up with your own design and have hundreds or even thousands printed at a time. Carrying a handful of business cards around with you could be the best thing that you do for your business.
Banners
Banners, especially at trade shows, are still a powerful marketing tool. They can be used to grab attention from a distance, and with a whole plethora of design options to choose from are a modern offline marketing must-have at trade shows and other business events. Banners can also be hugely useful for generating more interest in your business if you send sales representatives out into the public, for example. And, they are much cheaper than a digital form of display, such as a large plasma TV screen, whilst still doing the job just as effectively.
Direct Mail
You have probably thought about sending emails to a mailing list (if you don’t already do this) but, have you given any consideration to sending direct mail in the post to your customers? Although you may be worried about your customers losing interest if you were to send them ‘spam’ mail through the post, this method of offline marketing can be seriously effective if you do it right. Thanks to the internet, something good through the post these days can be quite rare – most things coming through the mail box tend to be bills or notices of other payments due. If you can set up a mailing system and send not only interesting sales letters and advertisements through the post to your customers but also things that they will find useful such as a small free gift or money off voucher, it can work extremely well as a way of marketing outside of the internet.
Do you use offline marketing? Which methods do you use, and why? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.