Best Business Expert

The other day we had a heavy rainstorm and for about 15 minutes the power was out. Not a big deal. And since I work on a laptop that had a charged battery, I was able to keep working. The only thing was, I had no internet connection for those 15 minutes because, although my laptop is powered by a battery and kept on ticking, my wireless hub is powered through the outlet in the wall. And wouldn’t you know it, during those 15 minutes I thought of a million things that I needed to check online but couldn’t get to!

This brief "mandatory offline" time prompted me to think about my mix of online and offline marketing. Businesses need both. Unfortunately, small businesses don’t have a lot of resources to spend on a lot of marketing online and offline. It makes sense that many go online in order to gain exposure to a potentially larger audience.

But offline marketing is just as important. Now, I believe that a lot of offline marketing is undergoing dramatic changes right now. Just look at the print periodical industry to see how newspapers (and, to a lesser degree, magazines) are struggling to stay afloat. Radio and television advertising is often priced beyond the reach of small businesses, too.

But there are other offline marketing efforts that small business owners can take part in: Business cards, post cards, brochures, and direct mailing are four good examples. And, networking (for example, at a Chamber of Commerce event or an industry convention) is another vital offline marketing opportunity.

If your business has been focusing on the online marketing aspect for a while, that’s good. It’s important. But don’t neglect your offline marketing as well. Here’s a few steps for you to take to make sure that your online and offline marketing mix are working together:

Step 1: Plan. Look at all of your marketing – both online and offline – and figure out how it contributes to your sales pipeline. Does it create leads? Does it help to convert prospects into customers? Chances are, each marketing method does several things but probably only one or two primary things. Figure out what those are and watch for gaps!

Step 2: Unify. Once you’ve seen how each part of your online and offline marketing mix contributes to your sales pipeline, unify your message. Your brand – which includes your business name, Unique Selling Proposition (USP), your logo, your contact information, and some relevant supporting messaging – need to be present and similar across all of your marketing media.

Step 3: Increase. After choosing a handful of offline and online marketing, plan to increase those opportunities slowly. It’s often easy and tempting to increase your online marketing at a faster pace (because new free sites are added to the web so frequently) but make sure that you don’t leave your offline marketing behind. If the choice is to add a third or fourth Twitter clone to your marketing or to go to a networking event, you might want to consider the offline, face-to-face event. Although you’ll meet fewer people, your very presence may potentially have a greater impact.

Contemporary VA

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