5 Most Effective Offline Marketing Tactics
Every business must make its mark so the focus has shifted to online and social media tactics. The size, product or service, and the purpose of many businesses drive them toward new prospect populations with every means possible without regard for cost. However, the expertise and time required of a website and social media management cost big!
Small local businesses, startups, and relocated businesses are rediscovering marketing values in tactics that payoff.
1. Get out in public. You know your product or service the best so you should pursue options where you can make a pitch. You can locally and effectively with appearances at Chamber of Commerce meetings and similar opportunities.
You should speak before professional trade conferences and periodic meeting. Every business sector, from landscapers to food service to financial advisors, have professional associations that hold meetings and produce media in which you can advertise or publish.
2. Talk up the business. Word-of-mouth must start somewhere, and yours is the most authoritative voice. You can use it to join or build a network. You can meet and greet prospects while shopping, church-going, exercising, socializing, or wherever you meet people.
Personal contact brands your product. When you can speak to gathered groups, from the PTA to community groups, you appear before focused groups who will listen and spread the word.
3. Ambush them. To build a brand, you must meet prospects where they are. As Forbes says, “Don’t go where your audience is not.” You have to mine the population for prospects. So, you must make your two-dimensional presence online into a three-dimensional experience by making you and your product tangible.
This often depends on sales collateral or marketing materials: business cards, sales brochures, giveaways, and more. Thanks to advancing technology, for example, digital signage appear everywhere. These electric signs repeat images and messages welcoming people to towns, shopping centers, public office complexes, and more. Individual stores and offices have them. And, they appear at the entrance to sporting events, school campuses, and concert venues. People find themselves looking for them, they have their eyes on these banner announcements for the content, time, and location of deals
4. Be a “good” business. All business is local. Yours must make itself felt in the community. Your budget should support local teams, charities, or activities that will post your brand in programs, ads, or on t-shirts. You might offer gift certificates or contribute products for fundraisers and silent auctions. Offering your product or service as the prize for a local contest builds visibility for your business while showing your commitment to the community.
Being a “good” business also means treating your employees and customers well. The most difficult word-of-mouth to defeat is the word you mistreat your workers. You may consider a former employee as “disgruntled,” but you are underestimating the damage they can
5. Make a call. Business people have forgotten how to phone. While mass cold calling has lost favor, you can always call a name and number in your network. And, once new customers expand your network, you have more opportunities
You can make a call seeking customer feedback, conducting a survey, or asking for leads. And, you make friends and customers by offering a deal or new way to save money or other customer pain. The Small Business Administration suggests, “a thank-you email stating that you welcome feedback and would appreciate a testimonial for your website if they care to give one, is being done more and more these days.” That’s fitting when you consider email is the new phone call.
Keep your eyes on the digital banner!
The technology is proving a lasting marketing tactic for the businesses you run and those you patronize.
