Once Upon a Time…
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, when a new business wanted to introduce itself to the community, it would launch a marketing campaign that included advertising in the local paper, sending flyers and brochures to the community via mail, passing out business cards and postcards at local events, sponsoring a local sports team, donating goods to a local charity event, and occasionally cold calling.
The Internet
Then the Internet was developed, and suddenly, online marketing became a faster, more efficient, more cost effective way to reach a much larger audience. Small businesses and large businesses were suddenly able to go global, and the tried and true advertising methods of just a decade earlier found themselves relegated to a very distant second advertising choice. However, “offline marketing”, the term for more traditional advertising techniques, is still extremely useful, and when used in conjunction with an effective online marketing strategy, offline marketing can boost the visibility and profit margin of a business entity exponentially.
Why Offline Marketing is Important
Offline marketing is the antithesis of online marketing. Online marketing is geared towards reaching a wide audience, going viral, and spreading the word about your business as quickly as possible. Offline marketing is about working locally. In an effort to grab national attention, many small businesses overlook their most valuable customers. These customers are local people who can literally walk through their door and ask for their services. If ten local people pick up a flyer about a new restaurant opening, and subsequently rave about how wonderful that restaurant’s chocolate fudge cake is on the restaurant’s website, chances are, someone passing through town will choose to eat at that restaurant because the local community recommends it. Creating an appreciative local audience can go a long way towards creating a viable national or international client base.
How to Go About It
Where do people in your local community gather? What events are happening in town? What kind of local client are you trying to attract? Choose one or two members of your marketing team who are familiar with the community in which your business exists to focus part or all of their efforts on creating positive buzz and interest locally. Mailings, strategically placed postcards, business cards, press releases, advertisements, and announcements released to the local paper, sponsorship of local events, open houses, and involvement in charitable giving, are all ways to increase your business’ visibility on a micro level. Working this way, finding clients personally, can be time consuming comparatively, but the positive word of mouth that offline marketing of this type can generate, can be very rewarding.
Cooperative Marketing
Another way to utilize offline marketing is to partner with another local business. For example, hire a local advertising firm to create a commercial for your business that will be shown locally or regionally. By doing business within your community you build your company’s reputation by direct interaction, circumventing the need to utilize online reputation management services.
Reaping the Rewards
By focusing on creating an offline marketing strategy that places your business front and center locally, you can develop a positive buzz and a reputation that has the potential to extend beyond the borders of your city. People travel, and their opinions travel with them. Never underestimate the importance of making a good impression on your neighbor. Your neighbor may very well be a favorite former college roommate of a popular food critic, or the child of a successful venture capitalist, or a partner in a major marketing firm who is in your town on vacation. Offline marketing is your chance to put a face on your business, so use the opportunity wisely.
—–
Dee Mason is a freelance writer who specializes in personal finance, marketing and property. She writes on behalf of a number of sites, including money.co.uk which helps individuals and businesses compare current accounts.
photo on Flickr by lumierefl