Omni-channel Marketing: Combining Offline and Online Strategies

Posted By
Gabriella Fantozzi
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When you've been buying lists and pushing ads out for as long as you can remember, it's understandable why inbound marketing may seem foreign to many industries, especially those rooted in their ways such as manufacturing.
However, your strategy doesn't have to be one or the other. Offline marketing strategies can easily be supported by online marketing campaigns and vice versa. The more you can engage your target audience, the better, so why not utilize as many marketing channels as possible? 

 

 

 

To combine offline and online strategies correctly, here are some crucial quick tips: 

 
- Promote your offline events on your website, blog and social
- Invite your offline contacts to follow or "like" your social media profiles
- Utilize offline customer interactions within your website's blog or news and other content areas
- Instead of automating your email responses, take online to offline by calling them directly

When you're combining offline and online initiatives it's important to keep your marketing message, graphics, and tone consistent across all platforms to avoid a disjointed campaign. Your message and offer need to flow seamlessly across all the channels you're utilizing.

Combining offline and online marketing is a detailed process. Once you determine the primary goal of your marketing campaign, there are several ways to integrate the different channels together. For example, offline you may run a television ad campaign. To incorporate that strategy and pull in online users, try including a Twitter hashtag within that television ad. Encourage offline personas to go online and use that hashtag on your social media. Hashtags can be added in all of your outbound methods, there's no excuse not to leverage them in print ads, broadcasting, etc. 

When you're attending or holding an event, such as a Lunch and Learn, try hosting a Twitter chat to accompany your meeting. An online Q&A on Facebook or Twitter will allow your digital audience to engage with your events in real time. This is particularly useful if you have customers who geographically can't attend physical events. Using the slides or resources from your event can also be a high-quality gated resource for future use on your website.

There are many benefits to combining online and offline marketing, but many don't realize that they can work with each other harmoniously. Integrating online and offline marketing strategies can help expand your content offer's overall reach and ease your business's fears of a total digital marketing transition. But let's be honest, inbound marketing provides more conversions and better ROI than older outbound methods. Don't be afraid to utilize inbound tactics in your industry to see tangible marketing success. 

Are you ready to begin your overall inbound marketing strategy integrated with your outbound methods? Manobyte can help! We frequently blog about inbound marketing best practices, potential pitfalls, industry trends and much more. Subscribe to our blog now to have the most up to date information right at your fingertips weekly. 
 
 
 
*This blog was edited in 2017 for accuracy.