Which offline strategies work the best? It is simple, the best ones draw attention without shocking, and they target people based on where they are located. Are you marketing medical training courses, then put your ads in colleges, labor exchanges, and even in doctor’s waiting rooms.
Put yourself in your target customer’s shoes and see what they see every day.
1. Direct Mail or Leaflets
We all hate junk mail, but it has the capacity to work for you. It works because people are forced to look at it, even if they only look at it while they are walking it from the door to the trash can. Those few seconds are all you need to grab your target customers’ attention and sell to them. Even better, if you have coupons that need to be cut out, or that have online codes on them, then people have a harder time throwing them away.
Do not be afraid to combine your marketing budget with other local businesses to do leaflet distribution in London. For example, each of your consortiums could take up one-half of each side of the leaflet. This would allow four companies to pool their resources, which could lead to a larger delivery and printing budget so that more leaflets could be dropped while each company pays a relatively small amount per company.
2. Word-of-Mouth Marketing and Offline Strategies
How you conduct your word-of-mouth marketing is up to you, but it is a time-tested way to get people to buy your products or visit your website. Giving people an incentive to spread the word is even better. Is there a way you can get people to ask about your company?
You could offer store discounts and store credit for people who are able to refer to others, but this is tricky when dealing with word-of-mouth. For example, if you were using an online referral system, then people could use a discount code, but it is trickier with offline marketing. Is there a form you could get people to fill out, or maybe some sort of transferable coupon?
3. Strong Reusable Bags With Very Specific Elements
You are actually able to stimulate interest in your website over the long term with shopping bags. You can give away free shopping bags and actually receive web traffic so long as they conform to a certain set of principles.
• The bags must be strong enough to last several uses (if not more)
• They should be recycled or recyclable in the current climate of public opinion
• They need to be over-sized for their initial use
• You need to add your domain name on there
• It should include some sort of logo
• A tag-line should also be present if possible
• Add a QR code onto your bags too
With all these elements, people will be exposed to your website in all sorts of situations, from seeing people carrying the bags in the street, to sitting at coffee shops where people ask their bag-carrying friends where they got their items from.
4. Hire a Roadside Marketing Company
Online articles suggest that you put up billboard posters like it is as easy as picking your nose. The fact is that it is a big job that requires a marketing company. They will help you pick the best positions with the best return on your investment. They may help you with design, and they will help you with the printing. Find out what other locations they can advertise your business because of roadside ads, maybe just part of their business.
Nobody is saying you should instantly resort to marketing companies, but they often have business relationships that you can exploit. For example, they may be the only company that deals with your local bus service, which means if you want ads on your local buses, then you need to go through that marketing company.
5. Advertise at Local Events
You could set up stalls full of loss-leaders to help people learn about your product and try your product, and you could put up banners or posters. How involved you get will depend upon the type of event, but even something such as a flea market offers a chance to show off your goods and do a little bit of branding.
Sponsoring is fine, but find another way to get involved that ties in with one of your promotions. If you are giving stuff away, then make sure it is good and valuable stuff like branded shopping bags and not paper hats. Do not give away balloons full of helium because helium is a limited resource.
6. Creative Places Like the Back of Toilet Doors
The conclusion is going to tell you to think about where your customers will lay their eyes, and there are many places that other less-creative companies may not think of.
For example, women have to look at the back of toilet doors, and many do not make contact with the seat when using public bathrooms. They cannot use their phones, so all they have to stare at is the posters on the back of the toilet door (your posters).
Ads on floors and ceilings have been tried too many times, but somebody thought of advertising on escalators, and that worked pretty well. Think about where your customers are spending most of their workday and their free time. What do they see when they step outside of their houses? Would they like the look of these car wraps, do they see ads in shop windows, do they see ads on passing buses?
7. Give Demonstrations at Trade Fairs
If you are giving stuff away at trade fairs, then people have no reason to stick around. Giving out stuff at trade fairs is about as effective as giving kids candy on Halloween. Instead, give demonstrations and maybe even get some audience participation. If people are watching a demonstration, they are not walking away, and they are not talking to your competitors.
Where Does the Eye Come to Rest?
There is so much fuss made over social media and the Internet, but where are people looking for the rest of their day? Are they looking out of bus windows, are they sitting in waiting rooms, are they resting in parks on their lunch breaks? Your offline strategies should seriously consider what your target audience is looking at when they are not on the internet.
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