Whilst both online and offline marketing have qualities that can generate attention and valuable interest for a business of any kind, online marketing for the most part, provides a more effective service in boosting almost any company’s overall visibility and even specific PR campaigns (Source: Brandnation) for some of the biggest brands in the world. This is due to the fact that we are living in a progressively more digitalised world, where people operate much of their lives online.
Offline marketing is made up of ‘offline’ advertising strategies, methods of boosting the visibility of a company outside of the online world and the internet. This type of marketing, whilst not as effective as its online counterpart, is still used in many industries and for many companies today.
Offline marketing tactics for any business will predominantly entail marketing and advertising via either television, radio and billboard advertising whereby companies display physical advertisements from buildings, shops and even advertisement vehicles or on the television at times when their target audience is most likely to see the advert or when they are most likely to hear it in the case of radio advertising campaigns.
Whilst online marketing can be seen as more effective in promoting a business, this does not negate the use and effectiveness of offline marketing, whose methods can play a huge role in brand awareness in particular. Many different businesses both see and use offline advertising as a vital and effective part of their marketing strategy.
For example, retailers can advertise sales, discounts, and other exciting products simply by hanging adverts and banners in their shop windows to attract passing trade. This is an effective method that will typically hit a large and suitable audience, typically being shoppers along the high street.
Some retail companies have also started to promote themselves through their interior design, making their shops more physically attractive, and often even “insta-worthy” to attract customers in. By retailers making their shops attractive enough for customers to come in, browse, and take pictures of the design for Instagram, this form of offline marketing ironically provides itself with free online marketing (source: Bobblehat). Retail design is an industry in its own right, with dedicated agencies and companies available to assist.
Whilst offline marketing does serve an effective purpose for many businesses, in our technological and increasingly connected age, online marketing has become arguably the most effective method in which to boost a business’ visibility. There are many different ways in which a business can use the online world to create successful marketing and advertisement campaigns.
Following on from how some shops generate attention from their “insta-worthy” interiors, social media platforms are an incredibly effective strategy to help boost a business’s visibility. Creating accounts for a company and posting regular updates about different products and offers can provide a business with free advertising opportunities which, when generating a big following, can reach a significant number of consumers.
More businesses than ever have started to implement Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategies for their websites, to help boost online visibility via search engines. In this increasingly online world, almost everyone uses Google to search for things they want and need. SEO can help to boost a business’s visibility by improving their rankings with Google, putting them higher on the search engine’s pages.
Effective SEO is conducted using numerous different methods, each one helping to build up an “SEO-friendly” website for the business. Some of these different methods include creating good quality, SEO-stylised content for the site, generating reputable backlinks, and fixing any issues with the sites internal links in order to streamline page loading time.
Additionally, influencer marketing strategies can help to further promote a business using online platforms. Influencers are online celebrities, who have become well-known by producing entertaining content on their social media accounts and YouTube channels. Businesses can connect with these influencers and pay to have them advertise their products on their online channels.
Some influencers have a following of over a million (sometimes multi-millions), so getting a product endorsed and advertised by one of these online celebrities can do wonders for a business’s online visibility, and furthermore their overall visibility.
Hence, whilst offline marketing strategies can be extremely effective in promoting a business and the goods and services that they offer, these practices should always be integrated with a healthy dose of online marketing in order to ensure the brand is visible to the online world.
