Offline Marketing
Offline marketing encompasses a number of different avenues, from traditional print advertising to radio and television adverts and networking. It can be a lot easier for a person with a traditional mindset to see the facts and figures related to offline advertising as opposed to online and can also be an effective tool to keep your brand in the limelight.
Print Advertising: This is seen as one of the most traditional ways of attracting new customers. You can purchase adverts in newspapers and magazine’s on a local or national scale, depending on your budgets, and also have the ability to target readers of specific publications related to your industry. Although it can be an expensive operation, especially for a start-up business, if seen in a well-known and trusted publication, you should see a return on your investment.
Direct Mail: Once you have collected a database of information of both customers and potential customers you have the chance to send them direct mail. Direct mail allows you to target individuals with specific messages that are tailored to them, whilst also keeping your company image in their minds on a semi-regular basis, offering discount codes and latest offers. The drawbacks include the cost of mailing potentially thousands of clients and the fact that it can be seen as spam mail and instantly dismissed by the recipient.
Networking & Conferencing: You can’t beat a bit of traditional networking and getting to know people. If you put your name and image to a local or industry networking event or conference you can guarantee that your name will be seen by fellow businesses, local suppliers and potential clients and other start-up businesses. With networking it is more about the long haul and getting your name recognised on a long term basis. By being a guest speaker at a conference you can become a well-known name in your field.
Business Cards & Brochures: With your business cards, leaflets and brochures you have a chance to make an instant impact with your design, logo and company branding. You should look for start-up business packages that supply you with stationary branding and bespoke brochures that can be sent to prospective clients and give you a familiarity and chance to leave an impression when in a business meeting.
Online Marketing Strengths
As much as results from marketing has its roots traditionally in the offline type in recent years the focus has started to shift towards online marketing and making the most of a world where more and more people from all demographics and locations are using the internet.
There are again, a number of different ways in which you can capture a new audience online, from creating a website, blogging, using paid advertising on search engines and utilising the many different social media platforms available, and there are a number of benefits:
Cheaper than Offline: By using online marketing a start-up business can stretch their marketing resources much further than if they solely went down the traditional offline route. Website design and search engine optimisation is not cheap if you want to have long term and in-depth campaigns provided by specialists, but it is instantly more rewarding and takes less of your budget than a traditional marketing campaign. There is also a lot you can do online yourself for free or with a low budget, especially when it comes to social media.
