Why online and offline marketing should go hand in hand

It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking you have to choose between online and offline marketing, whether that’s in budget or in focus.

But it should come as little surprise that an integrated, mixed platform approach can in fact yield far greater results on your investment in strategy.

This week we’re exploring three reasons your online and offline strategy should go hand in hand.

Offline data informs digital 

According to a recent blog by media-monitoring organisation Signal, marketers should not lose sight of the fact that the majority of consumer spending still takes place offline.

Despite the ever increasing trend towards online shopping and interaction, Signal argues that you ‘certainly shouldn’t overlook the incremental value that offline first-party data offers a brand.’

Signal suggests that data on anything from a customer’s purchase history, demographic info, contact with a call centre or even a birthday may be included in offline data, and that without connecting this offline information with digital data it is impossible to gain a holistic understanding of your target market.

With only ‘6% of marketers worldwide report having a single view of the customer across online and offline channels’, Signal believes there are a lot of improvements that can be made if marketers are going to successfully integrate their offline and online strategies.

Online marketing can lead to offline conversions 

If offline data can inform online data and strategy, it stands to reason that online marketing should also be seen as a way to drive offline conversions.

The symbiotic nature of this relationship is highlighted by a recent Hubspot blog, in which a wide range of statistics on how online and offline marketing can work together are compiled into a handy infographic.

Some key insights include;

– 28% of marketers say they’ve reduced their traditional advertising budget to fund digital marketing activities

–  23% of conversions between online and offline marketing are about services, whereby a consumer refers to something they saw online

– 69% of adults still trust their local newspaper and 54% are more likely to buy a new product when learning about it from a newspaper or magazine

By targeting influencers in both the digital and traditional arena and ensuring spending is not diverted towards digital to the detriment of offline platforms, it is possible for marketers to strike a good balance that drives offline sales and conversations.

You need to be seamless

For Marketing Land, the importance of being seamless in your branding and messaging cannot be overstated.

It is argued that although organisations are often tempted to divide their marketing into online and offline teams or strategies, ‘those silos only exist inside marketing departments.

The article continues ‘we live in a world where customers casually cross multiple marketing channels throughout the course of an hour’, meaning that the messaging needs to be instantly recognisable across all platforms for maximum impact.

For Marketing Land, ‘marketers can capitalise on that feeling of a seamless brand presence to drive a stronger interaction between online and offline channels’, and ultimately make a lasting impact on consumers and maintain relevance in a fast-paced and crowded market.

Put it into practice

Although the concept of creating an integrated strategy is sound in principle, actually implementing this in relation to your brand takes vision, organisation and commitment.

For influential Australian marketing site Blue Wire Media, 2016 and beyond offers ample opportunities for integration. From email campaigns and guest blogs to put content at the centre of your strategy, to designing high-quality brochures as a display of your brand offering, there is little reason to prioritise one or the other platform.

Blue Wire concludes ‘by combining online and offline ways of marketing, the chances of being at the right place at the right time increases.’ By being at the forefront of a customer’s mind and offering multiple ways of engaging with your brand, it is possible to reap the return of a fully integrate approach to marketing.

Speak to our experts to get advice and support with your integrated online and offline marketing strategy.