Any successful small business relies on its customers. And if you want your small business to succeed, you’ll need to find a method to engage with customers, create a community that allows you to cultivate that connection, and, in turn, increase revenues.
One of the most effective ways to grow that small business community—both online and offline—is via clever marketing. Any marketing strategy you utilize to contact your clients digitally, such as social media or search engine marketing, is considered online marketing.
Any marketing strategies used to contact clients in the “real world,” such as signs, print advertisements, or marketing brochures, are referred to as “offline” marketing. And you’ll need both to establish a consumer community properly.
Now, let’s go over everything you should know about leveraging online and offline marketing to promote your small business community, support growth, and inspire involvement.
Maintain consistency from the start
Setting up a new business community requires trust, and trust is earned through consistency. Creating a consistent experience throughout your online and offline marketing activities can help you meet your business goals and build trust with your clients.
Assume you’re starting a promotional campaign for a new product. Have the same font style and color palette in everything from social media advertisements to large-scale signage and your product packaging to ensure consistency in your online and offline advertisements. These marketing assets should have the same emphasis and goal as the rest of your marketing materials, such as driving clients to a specific web page or an exclusive discount code. This way, your marketing becomes consistent and directs your clients to the same spot no matter where, how, or when they encounter it.
Introduce your customers to your online presence using offline marketing
Offline marketing methods can be a powerful tool for connecting with clients. However, if you want your offline marketing initiatives to be even more effective, you should also include them in your online marketing campaigns.
Offline marketing may be used in a number of ways to get clients online. For example, invite attendees to sign up for newsletters if you’re having an in-person event. After the event, send a follow-up email to all new subscribers with a special offer or a customized thank-you message.
Alternatively, you may want to promote to in-person clients in a way that motivates them to interact with your company online. Make a creative background at your physical store or restaurant and invite people to take a picture, post it on Instagram, and tag your company for a chance to win a prize.
Use online marketing to bring your customers to your store.
The basic principle of marketing is to meet customers where they are—and chances are, the majority of your customers are already online. So, promote your consumers online while pushing them to connect with your company offline.
Imagine you’re getting ready to debut a new menu of personalized beverages at your coffee shop, and you want as many people as possible to test it out. You can utilize social media to generate buzz about your new beverages, perhaps by posting a video showcasing one new drink each day. A day before your new menu goes up, offer a special buy one, get one free promo code that your social followers may utilize on launch day.
Alternatively, you may choose to direct online buyers to your physical retail outlet. You may include banner advertising in your emails or pop-ups on your website promoting in-store-only promotions or products.
Know your customers
When merging online and offline marketing methods, you’ll want to assess results—and that includes monitoring where consumers are coming from.
This data may be tracked in several ways. For example, include a QR code or a personalized URL on all your print items, such as mailing lists, posters, and flyers. When a consumer scans the code or views the URL, you can see which materials are bringing in the most customers. Alternatively, if you’re utilizing social media to attract visitors to your business, generate unique discount codes for each social media or email ad—and then track which platforms are bringing in the most customers.
Tracking your online and offline marketing activities can give you essential insights into which techniques are effective and are not and how they are blending to grow your small business community.
Over to You
As you combine offline and online marketing strategies to build a business community, don’t forget that the best offline marketing tool is the one already attached to your product—your custom packaging. Your product packaging is highly crucial to your success because it is how your customers recognize your product. If the packaging does not reflect what consumers see during your promotional campaigns, they will not be able to recognize your brand.
