4 Offline Marketing Ideas for 2019

Companies today are hyper-focused on digital marketing, and while it is important to have a digital footprint for your brand, many companies are letting their real world brand awareness tactics fall to the wayside. Many marketing managers do not understand how powerful offline strategies can really be, and the power it has to inspire consumers to act. For maximum results, brands should maintain complementing offline and online campaigns. This is an often overlooked dynamic in multi-channel marketing, and most iconic brands that you are able to conjure up have figured out how to maintain this balance effectively.

Here are 4 proven ways that having an airtight offline marketing strategy can boost your brand.

1. Establish Trust With Physical Products

Have you ever heard the phrase seeing is believing? Well, there’s a reason it;s a popular proverb, and that’s because it’s works. People trust brands that they can see and experience in their daily lives. Over the last couple of years, social media companies have been rocked by scandal after scandal, and that has lead to growing distrust in top networks, which reflects on the brands that advertise on these platforms.

In a survey conducted by the public relations firm Edelmen, they found that around half of respondents believed that brands are complicit in the social media problems that have arisen around privacy, fake information, and hate speech. Consumers believe that brands are responsible for the inappropriate or incorrect content that appears near their advertisements on social media. It is this belief that is greatly hurting brand trust across many industries.

While there are ways to improve trust in your brand online, a promising solution is to improve your offline marketing strategy at relevant events, trade shows, customer hubs and more.

Having people interact with your brand offline and in their everyday lives will solidify trust in your brand. It shows consumers that your brand is a real-world company, and does not just exist in the digital world.

*SOURCE: 2018 EDELMAN TRUST BAROMETER GLOBAL REPORT

2. Community Involvement

Offline marketing also allows you to build trust within your local community. This doesn’t have to be costly or complex, local marketing strategies can be as simple as leaving branded items at popular local business. You could leave branded smart business cards, customized USB drives, and even phone chargers at the front desks. You can also sponsor local events that benefit the community. This will allows you to be seen (you can put your brand name and logo up all over the event) and you can pass out your customized tech. This is a fantastic way to establish relationships and strengthen association with your market.

Attending speaking events within your industry, or networking events is another excellent opportunity to exchange promotional products. Events like these give you an opportunity to boost brand awareness with branded items like the customized flash drives, and allow your company to develop face-to-face connections, which will inspire trust in your brand – especially since people tend to trust other people, more than advertisements online.

3. Build Your Brand and Audience

Many people, especially professionals, do not spend a ton of time online. Some people may only go online after work, for a daily checkup. Either way, if your brand awareness strategy focuses solely on digital channels, you could potentially miss out on an audience that would be interested in your product or service. Utilizing offline marketing strategies to support brand awareness allows you to reach demographics that you would otherwise miss online. Even when digital content reaches your audience, there is usually a need for more visibility as a result of ad budget constraints and secondary markets.

4. Why Promotional Products Work

If you use promotional products like custom USB drives or the custom mobile chargers, chances are that consumers will see your brand regularly. According to a consumer study by PPAI, 81% of people who receive promotional products will use them for at least 1 year, and 83% are more likely to do business with the brand.

Of course, if your promotional products are useful in people’s everyday lives, this will increase the chances of regular use, and therefore brand recognition. This is why tech products are especially useful – not only are they valuable, but we use them on a daily basis. The study also found that after receiving a promotional product, 79% of people researched the brand afterwards. This is huge because if you are using a mix of digital and offline marketing strategies, you will have then enhanced the efficacy of your online marketing as well. By using offline-marketing strategies like useful promotional products, you are inserting your brand into the daily life of someone who may never have come across it online, and therefore increasing your chances of a sale.

Create More Content

The name of the game when it comes to multi-channel marketing is synergy. Ideally, we want our offline marketing to support online campaigns, and vice-versa. Oftentimes, companies think of these as two unrelated tactics, but this line of thought may ultimately hurt your brand. Brands that succeed are consistent and adaptive across all channels. If someone interacts with your brand in the real world, and then looks you up online, they should experience a sense of continuity. Smart brand managers develop interplay between their offline and online marketing strategies.

Offline and Online Marketing Success

A music festival called Tomorrowland in Belgium sent out tickets via specialized antique looking treasure chests. The packaging looked expensive, and came with a few bonuses. Not only did these chests make the recipients feel like the brand appreciated them because of the quality, but they were also so cool looking that people wanted to share pictures of them on social media. They allowed their offline work to trigger a strong online response.

If brands are able to give consumers a promotional product that is unique and useful, those consumers would be more likely to show it off, thereby exponentially improving reach.

Increasing your offline marketing strategy is all about making sure it is engaging and actually inspires your consumers to act – whether that be through a purchase, or a social media post. Tech products like customized USB drives and mobile chargers with interesting shapes (examples) and uses, warrant more of a social media response than say leaflets describing your company. People are also more likely to post about your brand if you sponsored an inspiring community event, or if someone took a video of a unique product demonstration at a trade show. Putting time and creative thought into your offline marketing ultimately pays off through valuable organic customer content and buzz around your brand.

Conclusion

So, if you are thinking about cutting your offline marketing budget, because you believe that digital marketing is the way of the future, think again. We may live in a digital world, but if you want to build a trusting relationship with your consumer and beef up brand awareness, you need to have a multi-channel marketing plan that includes offline strategies. All of the most iconic brands know that creative real-world marketing lends itself to increased sales, and ultimately better organic digital content.