You may tend to look at offline and online marketing differently, building separate strategies and marketing plans for each. This may not be the most efficient way to grow your business. Most goals and strategies that work offline apply online as well (and vice versa). The underlying concepts are the same, but executions differ. Some examples follow.
Targeting and Differentiating
Targeting and differentiation are based on the premise that each of your products, services or ideas is useful to some people and not to others. That premise is the same whether your business is online, offline or both. You differentiate your business from competitors so that people can understand the benefits you bring to them that others do not. You target your audience by delivering marketing messages so that those benefits are exposed to the people that need them. Offline, that could mean advertising in certain newspapers your target customers read. Online, those same messages can be delivered directly from your Website, through pay per click advertising or through emailed newsletters.
Increasing Repeat Sales
Your existing customers (or clients) are important to you whether they were acquired virtually through a Website, or physically through a retail store or salesperson. They have already bought into the benefits you bring to them and are likely to purchase more if given the opportunity. Those opportunities to increase repeat sales can be offered online, offline or both.
- Communication with existing customers can encourage repeat orders. Offline, this can be through mailings or catalogues. Online, emailed newsletters or RSS feeds can keep customers up-to-date on new products, discounts and other news of interest.
- Customer service can make ordering easier for both repeat and new customers. Offline, "operators standing by" can help customers through the process and suggest appropriate add-ons to an order. This can apply online as well with live customer chat.
- Loyalty programs are another way to increase repeat sales by existing customers. Those who purchase repeatedly from you receive some compensation (such as dollars back or free product). This type of program can work online as well as offline. Offline, customers present their loyalty program number or card directly. Online, they fill in a promo code or comment field stating they are loyalty program members.
Testing
Testing is a marketing and research concept that can be implemented both offline and online. When marketing offline, in order to improve conversion or response rates, we often test by exposing different versions of a program to sample audiences before fully implementing the program (through a trial postcard mailing, new product test markets, or other marketing research methods, for example). The exact concept applies online as well.
One way to conduct online testing is by split testing different versions of your sales (or other Website) page. Using split testing software or a script, you can rotate through different versions of a Web page to see which is most effective. Just as with offline testing methods, you can analyze the conversion or response rates of each version to see which performs better. In fact, online testing is easier because the logistics are easier; unlike similar offline tests, there is nothing to print and distribute to the target audience.
Adapting To Change
Offline or on, trends and customer preferences change over time. To compete, you must change with them. This means adapting all of your marketing and products/services over time, whether they are Web or "brick and mortar" based. By thinking of your offline and online activities as two different ways of marketing the same business marketing strategies, you can more efficiently incorporate those changes to all of your offline and online activities.
Trusting Your Intuition
"Going with your gut" is one strategy you aren't likely to find in any marketing book. After a certain amount of business experience, your intuition will, at times, come to a strategic conclusion before your brain does. If your intuition has a good track record, trust it. Here's why:
Every business – online, offline or blended – has an optimal marketing strategy uniquely its own. This is not only because each individual business is a bit different, but also because strengths and weaknesses (as well as preferences) of those involved create an environment like no other. In other words, given identical circumstances and identical marketing programs, the people involved will manage the execution differently in each company, creating different results. Those differences – the abilities of you and your people to execute some programs better than others, or to work with some outside agencies/services more effectively than with others – create more variables than can be easily captured by analysis. Your intuition, however, can capture those variables and guide you in making the best choices, whether they apply to online or offline marketing activities.
