Consumers are everywhere, and brands can direct their marketing messages to them in a variety of effective ways. The online marketplace is a great way to reach these consumers but offline efforts, from print ads to signage to TV and radio spots, still can help a brand reach its intended audience. Whether to use offline or online to reach a brand's intended audience, however, is not an either/or proposition.
A successful marketing campaign cannot live solely in an offline or online marketing neighborhood. These two marketing venues should not be gated communities. Consumers should be able to connect the marketing dots between a brand's offline and online efforts. Not establishing this marketing integration leaves a brand vulnerable to lost conversions, from lead generation to outright sales.
A consumer should be able to move between offline and online marketing.
For example, any print ads or TV and radio spots should also drive consumers online so they need to include the URL for the brand's website or any microsite set up for a specific campaign. Online content, especially websites, need to enable consumers who might not want to make online purchases to be able to find any of the brand's brick and mortar locations. Properly integrated marketing campaigns will enable consumers to reach from one sphere to another with minimal effort.
The integration and mutual support of offline and online marketing efforts also needs to carry over to any branded materials included in the campaigns. If a consumer sees a banner ad from a brand online and then later sees one of its TV ads, he or she should be able to tell just from the design, creative, and messaging in both that the ads are from the same brand. This continuity helps build brand awareness and familiarity which will in turn better a brand's chances at getting these consumers to select the brand to satisfy their needs or wants.
There is precedent for online and offline campaigns working together as part of a single-minded marketing effort.
Research has found that two-thirds of online users will perform an online search about a brand after encountering the brand's offline advertising, with nearly 40% of these consumers eventually purchasing from the brand. However, the continuity between the offline and the online marketing efforts was often not maintained. Two-thirds of surveyed marketers did not use the same videos and imagery offline and online, and 76% of the offers made offline could not be acted upon online. This lack of continuity between offline and online can detour consumers from what a brand is offering and send them off in other directions, possibly to competitors who have not neglected to integrate their offline and online marketing efforts.
So the moral of the story is that offline and online and not separate but equal. They need to be part of a shared marketing strategy with each putting the brand's messaging forward while also allowing consumers to follow their interest in a brand from offline to online or vice versa. Offline and online are not competing against each other. They need to be integrated effectively to ensure maximum return for a brand.
[Post contributed by Emily Carroll]