Aligning Online and Offline Marketing Campaigns
Brynn A asked:
Many industrial and B2B companies are taking steps to add or enhance online marketing. Online marketing encompasses search engine optimization, article marketing, blogging and other Internet activity. As companies branch into the digital marketing world, it is key to evaluate current marketing initiatives and ensure that they blend with any new online marketing tactics. In fact, some online and offline marketing can work together for an added boost.
To align your marketing efforts, it is important that they follow a similar path and message. Your online marketing campaign is now as important, if not more important than your offline marketing. So, the message you send online should be planned and considered as thoroughly as the campaigns you already have in effect.
To make your digital promotion correspond well to your traditional marketing, you should ask a few questions:
1. What is your message? What are you promising? Is your website offering the answer to your message, does it guarantee to fulfill your promise?
2. Do your traditional marketing pieces have your web address place prominently on them?
3. Do both your online marketing & traditional marketing efforts provide a number, email or different ways to create action and convert customers?
To understand the importance of aligning marketing campaigns, realize that a potential client will always look to gain more knowledge before purchasing. After promotion of any type is seen, a client will do further research, if the advertisement captured their attention. One of the best ways to catch consumers is to educate them during their research stage. Providing a web address within offline marketing materials like business cards, sales books and trade show booths helps to further the “conversation” from paper to computer. Providing a web address is a powerful marketing tool, as it is not overly aggressive, yet provides you with another opportunity to catch their information like name, number and email address.
So, as you begin to flow your customers from your offline marketing to your industrial online marketing landing space, create your website to be a one stop information shop about your company, the products or services you provide, what you have given to the community and what others have to say about you. You can help a potential client have a positive impression before they even pick up the telephone or submit an online inquiry.
Every so often it is important to step back and think about how you proceed as a consumer. What actions do you take? What information are you looking for? Ask those in your company those questions and brainstorm about your ideal consumer’s buying process. It will likely include offline and online marketing channels, and a migration between the two. That is why it is important to have online and offline marketing emphasize the same message, and to have the two channels complement one another. You will be pleased with how powerful your marketing can be as the leads increase.
Many industrial and B2B companies are taking steps to add or enhance online marketing. Online marketing encompasses search engine optimization, article marketing, blogging and other Internet activity. As companies branch into the digital marketing world, it is key to evaluate current marketing initiatives and ensure that they blend with any new online marketing tactics. In fact, some online and offline marketing can work together for an added boost.
To align your marketing efforts, it is important that they follow a similar path and message. Your online marketing campaign is now as important, if not more important than your offline marketing. So, the message you send online should be planned and considered as thoroughly as the campaigns you already have in effect.
To make your digital promotion correspond well to your traditional marketing, you should ask a few questions:
1. What is your message? What are you promising? Is your website offering the answer to your message, does it guarantee to fulfill your promise?
2. Do your traditional marketing pieces have your web address place prominently on them?
3. Do both your online marketing & traditional marketing efforts provide a number, email or different ways to create action and convert customers?
To understand the importance of aligning marketing campaigns, realize that a potential client will always look to gain more knowledge before purchasing. After promotion of any type is seen, a client will do further research, if the advertisement captured their attention. One of the best ways to catch consumers is to educate them during their research stage. Providing a web address within offline marketing materials like business cards, sales books and trade show booths helps to further the “conversation” from paper to computer. Providing a web address is a powerful marketing tool, as it is not overly aggressive, yet provides you with another opportunity to catch their information like name, number and email address.
So, as you begin to flow your customers from your offline marketing to your industrial online marketing landing space, create your website to be a one stop information shop about your company, the products or services you provide, what you have given to the community and what others have to say about you. You can help a potential client have a positive impression before they even pick up the telephone or submit an online inquiry.
Every so often it is important to step back and think about how you proceed as a consumer. What actions do you take? What information are you looking for? Ask those in your company those questions and brainstorm about your ideal consumer’s buying process. It will likely include offline and online marketing channels, and a migration between the two. That is why it is important to have online and offline marketing emphasize the same message, and to have the two channels complement one another. You will be pleased with how powerful your marketing can be as the leads increase.
Top 10 Online Business Marketing Mistakes
Assassin Marketing asked:
Before starting up any kind of business, one must set up a plan to earn more than we spend and avoid mistakes along the way. Here are a few internet marketing mistakes that you should watch out for and avoid:
1. Making viewers wait.
Don’t regret paying more for a hostile package that could bring you to people fast. If your website is constantly down, your server is slow, your graphics take two minutes load, you can say goodbye to your potential customers.
2. Technical arrogance.
Never assume that everyone has the latest version of a program to view your site. Always have plain HTML and text versions ready for these users who do not have Macromedia’s flash installed. Also, take notes from successful sites. Outsource to a pro for SEO writing, web design, and programming to invest in a good template for your site if you’re not that confident on your technical prowess.
3. Not marketing offline.
Complement online traffic to your site by marketing offline as well, because no one is online all the time.
4. Not remaining timely.
If you want to attract customers, you need to be updated on recent and upcoming events that are relevant to your site. If you’ve got marketing materials on your site about Memorial Day special and it’s June 15th, you’re losing customers.
5. Poor linkages.
Focus on building long-term passive traffic rather than bulk traffic packages or trying traffic gimmicks. However, be very careful with whom you align yourself. Some companies operate co-registration and affiliate programs that violate the CAN-SPAM act and other rules and regulations. Check out any company that offers you anything , especially those who offer you anything that’s quick and easy.
6. Giving users the third degree.
Signing up for newsletters or making purchases should be easy for your customers. Avoid making them go through a number of links or asking too many questions before complete tasks. You loose 10-15 percent of your potential customers for each question you ask them.
7. Not using viral marketing.
Let your customers create ‘buzzwords’ for you through simple ‘forward to a friend’ links or ‘two for one offers’ or offline marketing on t-shirts and other accessories that your customers can wear. Viral marketing or ‘word of mouth’ (in offline marketing lingo) could create an exponential growth of your site’s visibility by spreading from customer to customer and then business to business.
8. Resorting to cheap gimmicks.
Some marketers resort to goofy and even phony campaigns just to gain brand exposure. These could be entertaining and even viral but sometimes those could backfire because they are irrelevant to the customers and sometimes even to your product or service. Provide something that convert to sales and not just to generate shock or surprise. Connect with your buyers in a positive way by providing products and services that are worth talking about. Associate your site with quality rather than gimmicks and you’ll have customers coming back.
9. Not collecting email addresses.
This is not the same as spamming email addresses because unlike spamming, you ask for your customer’s permission to send them your newsletters and other updates to your site. Remember that spamming could cost you because fines could be very heavy when you are found to be in violation of CAN-SPAM laws. By collection email addresses, you maintain your target audience and your potential market.
10. Mistaking Traffic for Results.
Only because a lot of people seem to be clicking on your ad doesn’t mean that they are buying. Remember that some sites actually buy traffic just to maintain top-line business. But if these people aren’t buying, how do you expect to even earn off it? Continuously paying for this traffic can be expensive. On the other hand, just because you have enough traffic, it does not also mean that your income is guaranteed for the next months to come. What you should really focus on is, how much of this traffic actually converts to sales? Everyday is a challenge to offer something that your client really needs, to persuade them that they need what you’re offering and that you are offering the best of what they need. Online customers actually know what they want, so it is up to your to tell them that what they want is what you are offering.
Before starting up any kind of business, one must set up a plan to earn more than we spend and avoid mistakes along the way. Here are a few internet marketing mistakes that you should watch out for and avoid:
1. Making viewers wait.
Don’t regret paying more for a hostile package that could bring you to people fast. If your website is constantly down, your server is slow, your graphics take two minutes load, you can say goodbye to your potential customers.
2. Technical arrogance.
Never assume that everyone has the latest version of a program to view your site. Always have plain HTML and text versions ready for these users who do not have Macromedia’s flash installed. Also, take notes from successful sites. Outsource to a pro for SEO writing, web design, and programming to invest in a good template for your site if you’re not that confident on your technical prowess.
3. Not marketing offline.
Complement online traffic to your site by marketing offline as well, because no one is online all the time.
4. Not remaining timely.
If you want to attract customers, you need to be updated on recent and upcoming events that are relevant to your site. If you’ve got marketing materials on your site about Memorial Day special and it’s June 15th, you’re losing customers.
5. Poor linkages.
Focus on building long-term passive traffic rather than bulk traffic packages or trying traffic gimmicks. However, be very careful with whom you align yourself. Some companies operate co-registration and affiliate programs that violate the CAN-SPAM act and other rules and regulations. Check out any company that offers you anything , especially those who offer you anything that’s quick and easy.
6. Giving users the third degree.
Signing up for newsletters or making purchases should be easy for your customers. Avoid making them go through a number of links or asking too many questions before complete tasks. You loose 10-15 percent of your potential customers for each question you ask them.
7. Not using viral marketing.
Let your customers create ‘buzzwords’ for you through simple ‘forward to a friend’ links or ‘two for one offers’ or offline marketing on t-shirts and other accessories that your customers can wear. Viral marketing or ‘word of mouth’ (in offline marketing lingo) could create an exponential growth of your site’s visibility by spreading from customer to customer and then business to business.
8. Resorting to cheap gimmicks.
Some marketers resort to goofy and even phony campaigns just to gain brand exposure. These could be entertaining and even viral but sometimes those could backfire because they are irrelevant to the customers and sometimes even to your product or service. Provide something that convert to sales and not just to generate shock or surprise. Connect with your buyers in a positive way by providing products and services that are worth talking about. Associate your site with quality rather than gimmicks and you’ll have customers coming back.
9. Not collecting email addresses.
This is not the same as spamming email addresses because unlike spamming, you ask for your customer’s permission to send them your newsletters and other updates to your site. Remember that spamming could cost you because fines could be very heavy when you are found to be in violation of CAN-SPAM laws. By collection email addresses, you maintain your target audience and your potential market.
10. Mistaking Traffic for Results.
Only because a lot of people seem to be clicking on your ad doesn’t mean that they are buying. Remember that some sites actually buy traffic just to maintain top-line business. But if these people aren’t buying, how do you expect to even earn off it? Continuously paying for this traffic can be expensive. On the other hand, just because you have enough traffic, it does not also mean that your income is guaranteed for the next months to come. What you should really focus on is, how much of this traffic actually converts to sales? Everyday is a challenge to offer something that your client really needs, to persuade them that they need what you’re offering and that you are offering the best of what they need. Online customers actually know what they want, so it is up to your to tell them that what they want is what you are offering.
7 Proven Tools to promote your Produts Offline!
May 2, 2009 by admin
Filed under Traditional Business
Javed asked:
People spend lots of money on promoting their products on revolutionary online ways like Google Adwords, Articles, Forums etc., but they skip the whole idea of going back to Grassroots marketing, where its the cheapest of the marketing methods and no one else is doing it any more, because everyone is trying to jump on these new bandwagons to promote their products and its just awful because you can spend so much money trying to promote in Google Adwords and places where its paid Advertising. You are not going to make much money in return because so many others are promoting there.
The items like BUsiness Cards, Rubber Stamps, Magnets, Post Cards, Window Decals, lawn Signs, Pens are very unique tools for offline marketing. You think about these items and you are probably wondering where you you are going to get Rubber Stamps or Magnets or Lawn Signs or Pens created and how you going to do it so cheap? Well there is a place out there called vistaPrint.com and if you go to this site you can see an area called free products,where you can have free Business cards Made, Free Rubber Stamps created, Free Logo Design and there is far more things that you can get like Car Door Magnets.
You can go to the Marketing materials area on this site, where you have items like Postcards, Brochures, Flyers, Post Card Marketing, Magnets, T-SHirts, pens and the list goes on & on & on. There is an are called Signage where you have the Car Door Magnets, Window Decals, Lawn Signs and you can see if you ever remember driving down the road you might have seen a Lawn Sign, and VistaPrint.com is the place where you can get it made very cheap.
If you are doing any kind of marketing in Google Adwords you are paying like a Dollar a click or 50 Cents a click you are only going to get a hand full of clicks coming to a website, when you can spend the same amount of money and get a Lawn Sign and go put it on a major road in your local neighbourhood or in your local city to get you product advertised and get out of the ratrace that every one is into and jumpig back to the Grassroots where a ton of Money is to be made with a very minimal effort.
Now you know where you can get the above mentioned 7 different types for marketing tools or strategies created. Then you you have to know where you are going to put this kind of stuff, where are you going to get people to buy your products through these items. Well I put together a list of places for you.
So What are the places?
Bathrooms
Work
Windshields
Salons
Bookstore
Parks
Bandit Signs
Parties
Health Clubs
Dance Classes
Seminars
Political Events
Spas
Book clubs
Libraries
Antique Shops
The Mall
Parent Organisation
PLay Grouds
Self-Help Groups
Laundromats
Colleges
Coffee Shops
Theatres
Beaches
Pools
Vacation Areas
Destinations
Bowling
Bus Stops
Airports
Singe Meetings
Checkouts
Bars
Neighbourhood
This is totally off the wall and the reason is because there is nobody else is promoting any other products in these areas.For example bathrooms, imagine if you are a guy going to a bathroom and there is those areas on top of the urinal where you can set your keys,wallets or drinks, imagine having a business card describing your product on the stand so that they pickup and put in their pocket and it has you website address or contact address which they can go through when they go home.
That is the difference from promoting products is Grassroots Marketing like this and promoting in cutting edge technologie like Adwords where you are going to spend a fortune trying to get that one customer to pickup card and go check out your website.
If you have a full time Job, you probably have tens of hundreds of coworkers or colleagues wiht whom you go to lunch or Happyhours or you go to breakfast, if you are working with people whom you know one on one basis. Imagine if you have the materials like Business Cards or Post Cards or Magnets or Pens with your website address printed on them which you can give to your co workers. So they actually come to your website and buy your product.
Do you have a Mall or Big Shopping Store nearby where there is hundreds of cars in a parking lot, well with windshields you can create these little Business Cards or Drop Cards which doesn’t have your name, telephone number or address on it but its just a white or red or black card with just text headline describing your product folowed by your website address. You can create Drop Cards on the same VistaPrint.com and just put the cards on the windshields.
You can leave your marketing stuff in bookstores or cofee shops or parks where hundreds of persons can get to know about your product with the help of these marketing tools. Lawn signs are “The” most effective in marketing becaouse they can be put where there is just a ton of people everyday. Parties, seminars are places where you talk to a lot of people on a one on basis, you can put a Bandit Sign or Lawn Sign right there at the parking lot. And you can drop your cards around where ever the seminar is like where the lounge is where they hang out, thats an incredible place to promote.
There are tens of thousands of people in college you can promote through Flyers, and there just tons of cars parked at theatres, beaches, vacation areas, Airports wher you can actually drop your stuff around there. These are the other conventional marketing strategies aprt from the online markting techniques. if you can follow any of the above mentioned strategies, you can beat he heavy competition going on around in the online marketing techniques.
People spend lots of money on promoting their products on revolutionary online ways like Google Adwords, Articles, Forums etc., but they skip the whole idea of going back to Grassroots marketing, where its the cheapest of the marketing methods and no one else is doing it any more, because everyone is trying to jump on these new bandwagons to promote their products and its just awful because you can spend so much money trying to promote in Google Adwords and places where its paid Advertising. You are not going to make much money in return because so many others are promoting there.
The items like BUsiness Cards, Rubber Stamps, Magnets, Post Cards, Window Decals, lawn Signs, Pens are very unique tools for offline marketing. You think about these items and you are probably wondering where you you are going to get Rubber Stamps or Magnets or Lawn Signs or Pens created and how you going to do it so cheap? Well there is a place out there called vistaPrint.com and if you go to this site you can see an area called free products,where you can have free Business cards Made, Free Rubber Stamps created, Free Logo Design and there is far more things that you can get like Car Door Magnets.
You can go to the Marketing materials area on this site, where you have items like Postcards, Brochures, Flyers, Post Card Marketing, Magnets, T-SHirts, pens and the list goes on & on & on. There is an are called Signage where you have the Car Door Magnets, Window Decals, Lawn Signs and you can see if you ever remember driving down the road you might have seen a Lawn Sign, and VistaPrint.com is the place where you can get it made very cheap.
If you are doing any kind of marketing in Google Adwords you are paying like a Dollar a click or 50 Cents a click you are only going to get a hand full of clicks coming to a website, when you can spend the same amount of money and get a Lawn Sign and go put it on a major road in your local neighbourhood or in your local city to get you product advertised and get out of the ratrace that every one is into and jumpig back to the Grassroots where a ton of Money is to be made with a very minimal effort.
Now you know where you can get the above mentioned 7 different types for marketing tools or strategies created. Then you you have to know where you are going to put this kind of stuff, where are you going to get people to buy your products through these items. Well I put together a list of places for you.
So What are the places?
Bathrooms
Work
Windshields
Salons
Bookstore
Parks
Bandit Signs
Parties
Health Clubs
Dance Classes
Seminars
Political Events
Spas
Book clubs
Libraries
Antique Shops
The Mall
Parent Organisation
PLay Grouds
Self-Help Groups
Laundromats
Colleges
Coffee Shops
Theatres
Beaches
Pools
Vacation Areas
Destinations
Bowling
Bus Stops
Airports
Singe Meetings
Checkouts
Bars
Neighbourhood
This is totally off the wall and the reason is because there is nobody else is promoting any other products in these areas.For example bathrooms, imagine if you are a guy going to a bathroom and there is those areas on top of the urinal where you can set your keys,wallets or drinks, imagine having a business card describing your product on the stand so that they pickup and put in their pocket and it has you website address or contact address which they can go through when they go home.
That is the difference from promoting products is Grassroots Marketing like this and promoting in cutting edge technologie like Adwords where you are going to spend a fortune trying to get that one customer to pickup card and go check out your website.
If you have a full time Job, you probably have tens of hundreds of coworkers or colleagues wiht whom you go to lunch or Happyhours or you go to breakfast, if you are working with people whom you know one on one basis. Imagine if you have the materials like Business Cards or Post Cards or Magnets or Pens with your website address printed on them which you can give to your co workers. So they actually come to your website and buy your product.
Do you have a Mall or Big Shopping Store nearby where there is hundreds of cars in a parking lot, well with windshields you can create these little Business Cards or Drop Cards which doesn’t have your name, telephone number or address on it but its just a white or red or black card with just text headline describing your product folowed by your website address. You can create Drop Cards on the same VistaPrint.com and just put the cards on the windshields.
You can leave your marketing stuff in bookstores or cofee shops or parks where hundreds of persons can get to know about your product with the help of these marketing tools. Lawn signs are “The” most effective in marketing becaouse they can be put where there is just a ton of people everyday. Parties, seminars are places where you talk to a lot of people on a one on basis, you can put a Bandit Sign or Lawn Sign right there at the parking lot. And you can drop your cards around where ever the seminar is like where the lounge is where they hang out, thats an incredible place to promote.
There are tens of thousands of people in college you can promote through Flyers, and there just tons of cars parked at theatres, beaches, vacation areas, Airports wher you can actually drop your stuff around there. These are the other conventional marketing strategies aprt from the online markting techniques. if you can follow any of the above mentioned strategies, you can beat he heavy competition going on around in the online marketing techniques.
