Marketing nowadays seems to mean that you will only need to create your social media, website, blogs, and email accounts. Those are just the basics you need which you can do in less than ten minutes without shelling out a single cent. That’s the reason everyone does it. And because it’s effective.
However, you shouldn’t leave other marketing strategies hanging. In fact, taking advantage of both online and offline and integrating each one to another has been effective.
If you have an online business and is eyeing to expand to the offline world, this is the perfect post for you.
Online to offline marketing (O2O) as the name implies, is where you combine both channels to strengthen and boost your strategies and campaigns.
Everybody knows Amazon for being a successful online e-commerce platform, but now, they are opening a physical store that’s paired with their online app.
The ability to measure results is one reason online marketing is the first choice of new businesses. Compared to offline marketing, a social media advertisement or a blog post won’t require hundreds of hours and dollars to implement.
However, never overlook offline marketing as something that’s a waste of time and effort. There’s a reason the well-known brands we have today became successful
Remember when digital marketing wasn’t a thing yet?
Now we’ve talked about how each tactic differs to each other, we will go ahead with the question:
Why do you have to do O2O marketing?
Is doing offline marketing counterproductive and just sets your business back?
To give you ideas, here are the reasons combining online to offline marketing is a solid move.
Benefits of online to offline marketing
First, we want to reiterate that while online seems to be the preferred marketing now, offline is still a great tactic. And combining both will give you double results.
Shorten the conversion journey
An e-commerce channel that purely uses online platform has a process where you add something to your cart, enter your details, pay the total amount, and wait for it to be delivered to your doorstep.
How do you shorten the journey for consumers then?
When you attend or host events, you can easily and instantly accept and give orders. People can get their orders made through phone on the event itself. Or they can claim the online vouchers can from you immediately.
Tap a wider market
Keeping your marketing efforts on a single channel limits you to a bulk number of consumers. For example, let’s talk about traditional and online groceries.
Both have their fair share of market and success because some people want convenience and would rather have their groceries delivered, and some still prefer to do the shopping themselves.
You get the idea.
Repurpose your tactics
Starting your campaigns online and repurposing it to be an offline marketing tactic will save you time and effort. For example, online contests and giveaways are flexible and you can done both simultaneously.
Beat your competition
Increase your brand awareness and recognition by tapping all available markets. While your competitors are busy with their digital world, you are out there one step ahead.
Ways to do offline marketing
If you’re looking for ways to do offline marketing for your online business, we’ve listed how these four below can help you.
Give away products at trade shows
Joining trade shows and giving away your own branded products is a good start. It’s true you need enough budget and might set you back a little with your product inventory, but this will help you boost your brand’s presence in the offline world.
Finding the right promotional giveaway items is key to the success of this tactic. Lots of items are being given away at a trade show, so have something that can make an impact.
There are multiple businesses in a trade show so being out there makes yourself known not only to your potential customers but also to your potential business partners.
Speak at events
Finding an event related to your industry is very effective in establishing your authority and your business’ credibility.
People like to see who handles a brand because they feel the genuineness and it adds personality to the brand.
When speaking at events, prepare a meaningful and educational speech with the main purpose of giving value and not selling. Make a good and lasting impression first and that alone can help boost your business.
If you feel you’re not yet equipped to speak at events, it’s still very helpful to attend one for networking purposes.
Make cold calls
Cold calls demand an instant response from people. Whether they buy, when you mention your business name, they will remember you once they hear your name again.
Start your cold calls by listing down your potential customers. Always be mindful of their time and needs because this might gain you more customers and help build collaborative relationships with other businesses.
Network with people
Having a face-to-face connection in a digital generation may be a rare occurrence, but this still provides value to your business. Getting to know potential customers and increasing your circle can help drive more traffic to your website.
Join any related clubs or groups, meetup events, launch parties, or business opening events will be full of people that are looking for partnerships and network.
Are you ready to do O2O marketing?
The good thing about the trends in the past years is that as a brand, there are multiple channels of marketing that weren’t available before. With those provided, it’s just smart to utilize all the channels that can add value not only to you but also to your customers.
While online marketing has been the go-to of new business nowadays, let’s not forget that the power of traditional marketing still exists and it’s best to leverage it for your success.