Is Offline Marketing Really Dead?

Posted By Larry ~ 15th August 2012

For several years now the mantra of social media marketing gurus and experts across the industry has been that offline marketing – the postcards, print ads, and radio spots that businesses have always used to boost business – is dead, a casualty of the social media revolution.

And it’s easy to understand why they say that. More and more people switch to smart phones everyday and our society as a whole has become internet dependent for locating the things we want and the businesses that can provide them. But contrary to all this noise, offline marketing is far from dead. In fact, there are some places where it is more effective now than it was before the emergence of the internet.

You may be wondering what that means for you. If online isn’t the only way to go, do you have to double up, essentially doing all you did before from an offline perspective while also pursuing each online opportunity that comes along? The answer is, yes, no, and it depends.

Yes

Yes, you need to continue to invest in the offline marketing tactics that have previously been successful for your business. You may find that you get more traction with a direct mail campaign now that you did ten or even five years ago because your mailing is the only one a prospect is receiving. The key is to focus offline efforts on those tactics and strategies that work, rather than just funneling money into something because it is what you have always done.

Yes, you need to be poised and ready to take advantage of each new online marketing opportunity that comes your way – as long as it makes sense for your business. The key is to make small investments in online marketing channels so that you can determine which are successful and which are not.

No

No, you do not have to continue to do all the things you have always done from an offline perspective. In fact, I would caution you against doing things just because you have done them in the past… unless, of course, they continue to work in your favor.

Take a good hard look at past offline efforts and invest in those that resulted in money coming through the door. You can also try new offline tactics; things like radio spots or newspaper ads may not have been a good fit for your business before but the changes in recent years may mean they are worth trying now.

And as with any kind of marketing strategy, if an opportunity isn’t right for your business – online or offline – then it isn’t right for your business… period. It doesn’t matter if it is the next big thing or some marketing master tells you that in order to be competitive, you must do this, do that, spend this, or invest in that. If it isn’t right or doesn’t feel right, say no, say no for now, or try it out on a small scale.

It Depends

Just as every person on this planet is unique, there’s no other business exactly like yours. Your business is a reflection of your vision, your mission and your corporate values, so how you choose to market it will also reflect those aspects. That means that what works for the guy down the street may not fit with your agenda, regardless of how trendy or promising the tactic in question looks.

Where you invest your marketing dollars will depend on where you are going to get the most bang for your buck and how those dollars can best represent the company you’ve worked so hard to build… some should be online and some should still be offline.

But it should all be you.