Love Grows for Offline Marketing
The Sprocket Report
It may sound wacky in this digital age, but lately offline marketing has been getting a lot of love. Think you’re too cool for old-fashioned marketing? Think again!
Now that we mentioned it, you’ll be noticing the gurus talking about “offline” everywhere if you haven’t seen it already. There are some very basic reasons for this seemingly sudden revelation.
Reason #1: It’s about time for a trend change.
Bobby socks, bell bottoms, neon spandex – the fashion gods dictate what’s IN right now and we all jump on the bandwagon until the fashion gods get bored and make us all jump for something new. There are fashions in marketing as well and fashions in marketing discussions, so maybe the marketing fashion gods just felt it was time for a change.
Reason #2: Online marketing isn’t new and cool anymore.
At one time, all you needed was to be an early adopter to reap big benefits. The first websites, the first Facebook business pages, the first social media ads – those early adopters had hardly any competition and they only had to be barely competent to look cool. Now everyone is doing online marketing and the bar has been set high to stand out from the crowd.
Reason #3: Online marketing got expensive.
Folks turned away in droves from traditional marketing such as print because it was so much cheaper to go digital. Email means never having to pay for stamps! You can build your own website for free! Social media costs are just a little time rather than money! But rising above the competition these days can require some serious cash spend for professional services
Reason #4: Your efforts are actively being worked against.
People are tired of being sold to all the time and have made that opinion clear. In response, search engines have ad blockers – such as Chrome’s recent release – and Facebook is planning more emphasis on family and friends rather than businesses and organizations. The options for places to get noticed online are narrowing.
No one is suggesting that online marketing is useless – far from it, in fact. Online tactics should definitely be part of your marketing mix ALONG WITH your offline campaigns. But rather than trying to back one (hopefully) successful trend, it only makes sense to spread out along a few different channels.
Scattershot marketing can also be unsuccessful, however, so don’t spread yourself too thin either. Understand the marketing vehicles you are using and know what goal you are trying to achieve to make the most of your efforts.
Changes in business marketing are happening constantly and more quickly than ever before. For some organizations, being the first is a workable strategy or being the best. But for those of us who don’t have the resources to complete those goals effectively, the best course is to be diversified and nimble. Having support is also a good plan, so give us a call when you’re ready to offload some of your social media marketing. We’d be happy to help!
Kate Gingold
I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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