An effective offline-to-online marketing strategy can help you reach an almost endless customer base, without having to sacrifice any of your brand values.
However, the transition from in-person to online can be tricky, especially for brick-and-mortar brands.
In the following article, we share the key to successful offline-to-online marketing, as well as five proven strategies you can use to build your online community.
What is offline to online marketing?
The term “offline-to-online marketing” is used to describe any activity that brings customers from a brand’s physical presence (e.g., brick-and-mortar stores) to its digital offerings (such as the company’s website or Instagram account).
When executed correctly, offline-to-online marketing is a seamless experience: the user journey should be intuitive and aligned with the brand identity, from the visual design to the tone of voice used. And the benefits can be huge.
By creating both online and offline marketing strategies, brands can offer more touchpoints with their customers, ultimately leading to increased engagement and sales.
Who is the offline audience?
For e-commerce, it’s common for a physical store not to exist; rather, there is only a warehouse and distribution center. If our presence is 100% online, we are losing at least 15% of potential customers. So how can an e-commerce business get quality customers from strictly offline consumers?
The first step is to understand the mindset of offline customers. Why don’t they use the internet? According to the Pew Internet report, some of the most popular reasons were lack of interest, time, and technical knowledge or skill.
It seems that the demographic that cites internet usability as a disadvantage also cited their age as a limiting factor. They said they found it too difficult or frustrating, and 92% did not express a strong desire to go online in the future. We can use this information to create a better offline experience that, at the same time, sends referrals to our website.
For example, we know that a portion of our potential offline customers do not have the technical ability to interact with any portal or link to our website. A QR code or online coupon code would likely be a wasted effort for these customers. Instead, we should embrace traditional offline marketing with the goal of securing that extra slice of the offline market and getting those customers to send online referrals.
How to Integrate Offline and Online Marketing
Social media, email, search engine marketing, and other types of digital marketing have immense potential for success. But at the same time, they are based on fundamental principles that have always been true. And, even more importantly, they are at their best when integrated with offline marketing strategies that have been successful for decades.
Here are 6 ways to combine all of your marketing strategies into a more integrated approach that ultimately benefits both your business and your customers.
Direct Offline Audiences to Your Online Presence
First, and perhaps most obviously, you can use any non-digital touchpoint you have with your audience as an opportunity to bring your audience online. This can take several forms:
- Encourage store visitors to “like” your social media pages.
- Include links and QR codes in your printed materials.
- Use your website as a call to action in print, radio and local TV ads.
- And more.
When customers interact with you through any type of offline marketing, they are inherently more engaged than their online counterparts. It’s up to you to leverage that engagement. By taking them online you can do just that, especially if you have a strong online presence that offers them more content, more context, and more opportunities to interact with your business and their peers.
Request Online Reviews at Face-to-Face Touchpoints
A more targeted way to drive offline audiences to your online presence is through online reviews. We know that reviews have become a vital part of online marketing; the more positive reviews your business gets, the more likely it is to appear prominently in Google searches, Yelp reviews, and more.
But reviews don’t just happen automatically. In fact, if left to their own devices, customers with negative experiences will be much more likely to leave a review than those who had a good experience with you.
For that second group, you might need a little boost. And there’s no better place to do it than at your physical touchpoint, where they’re most engaged with your business. Make it easy for them to find you online and leave a review, building that online-offline connection in the process.
Leverage Online Data for Offline Efforts
One of the reasons online marketing has become so popular is because of the wealth of data it offers marketers. If you know what you’re looking for, you can learn about everything from your ideal target audience to the most relevant channels, the most compelling messaging, and more.
That data, of course, can not only be used for other digital marketing efforts. Instead, it can become just as beneficial to you when planning your offline marketing initiatives.
For example, you can determine your target audience through the types of people who tend to visit your website. You can then use that data to create better visuals for your offline marketing strategies, better representing and engaging that audience. Similarly, digital A/B testing can help you hone in on the messages that resonate most with your audience, which in turn can shape how you build your offline messaging.
Immersive Experiences
Perhaps the most advanced way to combine offline and online marketing is through immersive experiences in the form of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Both are initiatives designed to combine the two realms, which when executed in the right way, can become powerful ways to engage your audience.
Let’s take AR as an example. If you sell products online, you can build an app that uses the audience’s camera to show what that product would look like in their environment. VR takes it even a step further, creating virtual experiences that emulate the real world to blend your online and offline experiences.
Both help bridge the gap between the two disconnected approaches to create a more comprehensive and integrated marketing approach.
Take Your Content Marketing to the Next Level
We tend to think of content marketing as an online strategy, driven by its ability to make blog posts, social media pages, and websites shine. But that’s far from the only place you can leverage your content.
In fact, some of the same content can work just as well in a printed brochure or flyer. Your video could become the fuel for your next TV ad, or play on a screen in your store. A blog post can be featured in a relevant industry publication.
Content marketing works because it creates authenticity and credibility. But it also takes time to build. Finding the right channels to publish and repurpose your content, including offline channels, can significantly increase your ROI.
Combine your Online and Offline Reports
Finally, integrating your offline and online marketing efforts cannot be completed without considering both holistically when evaluating your efforts. Where possible, connect your online and offline reports to create a complete and comprehensive view of your entire marketing budget.
QR codes and URLs can be trackable for your online reporting. Other efforts, such as billboards, may be harder to track; however, you can see in your analytics if online traffic increased in the areas where you placed your billboards. The more you can find these integrations, the better you can evaluate the success of your marketing and target your strategy more effectively.
