Integrating Offline and Online Marketing Channels
Every day the boundary separating offline and internet marketing gets more hazy. Customers move between digital and physical worlds rather than functioning just within one channel. Businesses trying to establish a coherent and powerful brand presence so must combine offline and online marketing techniques.
Online and offline media use now more than ever shapes B2B and B2C customer journeys. Consumers and prospects search online whenever it fits them since they expect simple access to information on products and services. Though in a different way and strengthens their knowledge, the messages consumers come across outside also mirror what they see and hear online. This makes it absolutely imperative to combine offline and online marketing plans.
Online and offline media shape consumer journeys in both B2B and B2C sectors. Often resorting to internet channels at their convenience, consumers and prospects search for simple access to product and service information. While traditional marketing has broad reach and long-lasting effects for developing relationships and brand awareness, online marketing presents dynamic, affordable, and exact targeting. Developing a strong and coherent marketing plan depends on combining online and offline marketing methods as complimentary tools rather than competitors.
Essential Integration Strategies
These seven basic techniques will help you effectively combine your offline and online marketing:
Unified Branding
Effective integration depends on a consistent brand identity maintained both online and offline. This guarantees consistent across all platforms your voice, graphic elements, and messaging. This unified style makes your audience easily identify your brand, wherever they come across it, therefore improving memory and creating a strong and unforgettable brand presence.
Set common goals.
To keep cohesiveness, generate a strong impact, improve the audience experience, and enable the performance tracking of the campaign, both marketing goals and campaign objectives should take online and offline channels under consideration. This can be applied to marketing initiatives meant to raise awareness of a given product or stimulate sales of it.
Cross-promotional activities
Another vital tactic is cross-promotion. It’s a great instrument for increasing traffic between offline and online media. Offering special online-only discounts or promotions will help clients to visit your physical store. In-store specials might so direct consumers to your social media or website.
A retail store would, for instance, include a discount code on receipts that consumers might apply toward their next online purchase. An online company might also offer an in-store pick-up choice, therefore motivating consumers to visit the actual site.
Create combined campaigns.
Integrated marketing initiatives are meant to send a consistent message via several media. A great integrated campaign blends the tangibility of offline channels with the reach and interaction of internet marketing.
Think of a product launch campaign comprising TV commercials, social media campaigns, and in-store events. While social media allows for focused interaction and discourse, the TV commercial presents the product to a large audience. Events in-store give a practical experience that supports the online message.
Apply Technology
Perfect instruments for bridging the offline and online marketing gap are QR codes and NFC (Near Field Communication) technologies. Through their cellphones, these technologies let consumers interact with offline marketing materials, therefore transforming them into online content.
On a print advertisement or product packaging, for example, a QR code might point consumers to a landing page, special deal, or social network profile. In-store displays or product tags with NFC technology let consumers access comprehensive product information and reviews or purchase with a just phone touch.
This method also relates to product creation and how minute elements could be handled to combine physical and digital sales channels. One interesting example is the price tag design applied by Inditex companies, including Zara. To view product information, verify availability and sizing, and even place an order, consumers can scan a QR code included on their price tags with their phone.
Media Social
Integrating online and offline marketing approaches depends on social media in great part. It gives marketers a stage for real-time customer connection, enabling them to bring offline events into the digital realm and for consumers to be heroes via user-generated content.
For a trade fair or event you are planning, for instance, choose a distinctive hashtag and inspire guests to post their experiences on social media. Provide prizes for maximum involvement, such as a prize for the greatest picture or most inventive post. This expands the audience of your offline event and raises internet interaction. You may also design events that envelop the viewers in the universe of the company and have that “Instagramable” appearance and feel.
Running campaigns whereby consumers receive a discount for the physical store depending on their following of the company’s social media account or newsletter is another approach to implementing this.
Content Development
Good material can be used on several platforms to guarantee a consistent message and support the value proposition of your brand.
A blog post might, for example, be turned into a white paper, covered in a podcast, and handed as a printed brochure at a trade show. Likewise, client quotes gathered during in-store visits can be posted on your website and social media channels, therefore bridging the distance between offline events and online materials.
Analysis and Integration of Data
Tracking and evaluating data from several sources is one of the main difficulties in combining physical and internet marketing. With the correct tools and approaches, this data can nevertheless offer insightful analysis of consumer behaviour and campaign performance.
Make a strong CRM (customer relationship management) system for purchasing, integrating data from both offline and online sources. This allows you to monitor consumer contacts, preferences, and buying behaviour at all points of touch. Examining this information will help you to improve your ROI, customize consumer experiences, and hone your marketing plans.
