6 Forgotten Offline Marketing Tactics

One of the most ridiculous occurrences in the world of marketing is the fact that some marketing techniques become obscure simply because something new has appeared in the market. The reason why this is so incredible is due to the fact that these ‘forgotten’ techniques may still be as effective and give as great of a ROI as they did in the past. The worst part is that this happened to an entire field of marketing, at one point and to a certain degree. Namely, with the rising popularity of online marketing, a lot of SMBs and startups have completely forsaken traditional offline marketing. In order to revert this devastating trend, here are several forgotten offline marketing tactics that are still quite effective.

Perhaps the most mysterious item on this whole list is the absence of guerilla marketing from so many SMB campaigns. This is especially true due to the fact that this particular technique translates quite well into digital format. For instance, you can upload a photo of street art on your company’s official Instagram profile or use this image for the homepage of your website. Either way, you need to start out in the real world and hire an artist capable of making the design that will capture the minds of bypassers. Furthermore, like most other offline marketing techniques, this is an offline tactic that will keep yielding returns for days and years to come.

Another thing worth understanding is the fact that millennials are less and less willing to use business cards to promote their businesses, which can be seen as quite problematic. Sure, some may claim that this is a remnant of an era long past, yet it is not to be discarded (no pun intended) yet. Of course, you can replace a business card by instantly adding someone on the LinkedIn or exchanging information with them via a mobile phone, yet, this is not the same thing.

In some parts of the world (particularly in the Far East), business cards have an almost ritualistic significance. Due to the fact that they provide a decent ROI and can be easily integrated with your online presence (usernames and social media handle as contact information) they still might be worth using.

One of the simplest ways to create a soft-sell approach-based system with promotional materials is with the use of signs and banners. Just think about it, when you send an email or an IM to a person, it’s so clear and obvious that you’re targeting them with a specific goal in mind. However, if you were to place a banner or a wrap somewhere, people walking by won’t feel that it’s directed at them individually. Therefore, if you were to look for a fence wraps sale and get one made with your company’s logo on it, you would be able to promote your business in a simple, reliable and non-invasive manner.

Another offline tactic you can use is printing custom t-shirts in order to promote your brand. This helps you in more than one way. First of all, it provides you with the ability to uniform your team with a relatively small resource investment. This might increase their productivity, internal unity of your company and turn you into a more serious enterprise in the eyes of your customers. Moreover, these t-shirts can be used as gifts in giveaways or they can be awarded to some of your most loyal customers. In other words, there’s so much to gain for a relatively small investment, which, already turns this into a great business move.

Due to the fact that the majority of small business don’t really have much history to rely on, they’re usually evaluated based on the personal brand of the person in charge. The most efficient way to improve this offline is to attend public events, mingle with people, do some networking and even speak on these events.

This way, people get to confirm your expertise in person, which is a factor that’s wildly underestimated in the digital world. Like most other methods, this too can be utilized in the digital marketing campaign, seeing as how photographs and videos that were taken during these events can be used later on. You can also try to live stream the event, thus increasing your traffic by quite a bit.

In their traditional form ads originally belonged in newspapers and magazines, commercials belonged on radio and television. While advertising online may be more reliable, in terms that it gives you more reliable metrics, traditional ads and commercials can still do wonders for your brand. When it comes to a tad older audience (baby boomers mostly), these are still dominant channels. Moreover, you don’t have to advertise on any of the major networks, due to the fact that an ad in the local newspapers can be just as effective.

If there’s one thing that you might have noticed is that we almost always make a mention of how this offline marketing trend can be integrated into a digital marketing campaign. The point of this is to show you that there’s no reason for you to believe that you have to choose between the two, in fact, they give the absolutely best results when in synergy. With all of this in mind, the idea that these six tactics are, nowadays, underused seems even more absurd.