As I look at where marketing your business has come from and where it appears to be heading, some trends have become apparent to me.
First:
The days of doing random acts of marketing and then seeing your business grow are disappearing.
Being able to run a Facebook ad today, next week an ad in the paper and next month using direct mail and seeing a profitable response from these random activities are disappearing.
What is needed is a coordinated marketing plan, which is followed consistently and involves more than one type of media.
In the past, many businesses thrived with only online or offline marketing.
The days of this working for any business is waning.
What is needed in 2018 and beyond is a marketing plan that utilizes multiple types of media in a coordinated effort to attract new prospects who become customers, as well as bring back past and current customers regularly.
Second:
Marketing implementation is getting more complex.
While it’s getting easier to set up online marketing with the various tools available, it’s getting more challenging to use those tools in a way that generates a profit.
Do you know how many people I talk to that haven’t been able to make Facebook work even though it costs nothing to get started? I addressed this in an earlier article, Click here to read it.
Some of the challenges with online marketing are:
- Ad blockers being installed in browsers
- Email is overloaded, who wants another email?
- The Facebook Newsfeed is filling up with ads
- There is more competition for people’s attention online
- A shortage of skilled people who know how to implement all the marketing tools available
Now, that’s not to say that online marketing is hopeless.
Far from it. The people who successfully navigate these challenges are seeing great success in online marketing.
The Advantages of Online Marketing are:
- You can get started inexpensively
- You can reach people where they are spending time
- People often interact with your ad and don’t perceive it as being an ad
- You can test your message affordably
- There are massive audiences of people interested in what you’re offering
- You can reach these people affordably no matter where they are in the world
- You can find people who can help you set up an online system that works profitably (Go Social Experts)
Used properly, online marketing is a great place to start a relationship with your target audience.
It’s also a great place to stay connected with your existing customers and bring them back to buy more of your products and services.
Third:
Adding offline marketing can add a dimension to your business that online-only businesses can’t compete with.
For those of you marketing offline already, great job and keep it up.
You may need to evaluate what you’re doing, the results you’re getting, and shift money from one media to another, but make sure to continue.
What many businesses do is that they succumb to the lure of online marketing and stop the marketing that has been working to save money.
Never stop a profitable campaign to replace it with an unproven one.
You may need to add a new campaign, but continue the profitable campaign.
Some of the challenges for offline marketing are:
- Expensive to test with several upfront costs (Design, Printing, Layout, and Recording)
- Expensive to distribute
- Limited targeting options
As you can see there are many challenges to offline marketing, but there are also some benefits as well.
Advantages of Offline Marketing:
- It can be held in a person’s hands and gives the impression of legitimacy
- Perception of the public, they know you have money invested in it
- Fewer people doing it, so your message stands out
- Ability to personalize (Using direct mail can be written to one person)
As you can see there are some significant advantages to adding offline marketing to your business if you’re not using it already.
What’s important is to create a plan or strategy with an expert that is familiar with the different media.
The challenge of only talking to a person that uses or has ever used only one type of media is that they don’t know any other.
After all, if the only tool you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail.
When you integrate your online and offline marketing you’ll start to see your business grow.
All of this is assuming you have a great business, delivering great products, in a way that delights your customers.
Marketing is getting more complex every month.
Take some time to look at what you want to accomplish and then find someone who can help you succeed.
When you do, you’ll see your business grow and thrive.
If you’re looking for someone to help you lay out a plan for your marketing, schedule a time to talk at www.gosocialexperts.com/callbrian30. We’re experts at Facebook advertising and over the years we’ve also used newspaper, radio, TV and direct mail in various businesses.
Brian