We are well and truly into the digital age, and the number proves it – 3 billion internet users and over 2 billion social media users. The web is awash with tips and techniques on SEO, mobile strategy, becoming an authority in social media, PPC and the list go on. We can’t help thinking that many of us have missed a trick. Well, perhaps ‘trick‘ is the wrong word.
We get so focused on the online space, as we are told to, that we neglect traditional marketing avenues. How would you have marketed your business before the WWW arrived? Would it have worked? Then it will probably still work today, and be even more powerful in combination with a well-planned digital strategy.
It’s not all or nothing
As a species we seem to have an all or nothing mentality when it comes to business; a binary mind if you will. We either do something or we don’t. It seems if we have two seemingly competing ways of doing something we assess the relative merits and ‘work’ involved in both and choose one based on a ‘threshold activation level’. If we don’t reach that activation level with either option we do nothing, or keep looking for options. Have you been guilty of this?
We have limited resources in terms of financial capital, human capital and mental energy, but we also need to make sure we take a holistic approach to our marketing and integrate offline and online opportunities to promote our brands. We need to get creative.
Dean, business analyst at Print-Print.co.uk, explains “there are so many ways that you can bridge the gap between offline and online marketing these days. You can use QR codes, print your website and social profiles on your marketing materials, host offline events and promote them through social media. It is all about knowing the tools available and then getting creative.”
Content is indeed King
We’ve all heard it; most of us have said it- Content is Kingggggg! But what does that really mean? Some interpret it to mean we need to write loads. Savvy marketing understand that it means we need to write what our prospects want to read.
If we don’t understand our prospects then how do we engage them? How can we possibly hope to write anything that they really want to read? Even more poignantly: How can we expect to make them take an action?
Focusing on offline events, where you hand out brochures, and network with prospects, giving and receiving business cards, provides you with the opportunity to get amongst the crowd; to see and be seen. It can be uncomfortable to network, but in this day and age such offline activity is vital not just to building your brand, but also to building your understanding of your brand’s place in the market. Here is some help if you are a nervous networker.
Questions are Queen
If the content is King then questions are Queen. We need to know the right questions to ask and those to answer. This means engaging and interacting on a daily basis with those we seek to be our customers. Are you doing this?
A new world; a new approach
It is madness to think that we can keep doing the same old things and succeed when the world is changing around us. Just as you look at businesses that are not using the online opportunity and shake your head, it is coming to the time when you will face such head shakers if you plough on digitally, blinkered to the power of offline- yes ‘power of offline’.
We are in the age of Socio Digital Marketing; the socio refers to relationships and not Social media though.
- When was the last time you took the time to hand write a letter to a prospect?
- When did you last pick up the phone and have a conversation with an authority in your domain of expertise just to pick their brains?
Above are the kinds of activities that will set you apart and pay dividends in the long run. It is time to start investing in forming quality relationships, and empowering them through driving engagement in the online environment- yes we are talking about social media now!
