The end of traditional, offline marketing has been greatly exaggerated. Just because we’re in the age of smartphones and social media, it doesn’t mean that your marketing campaign can’t benefit from strategies like direct mail. Here’s why you should still be considering offline marketing.

The benefits of offline marketing in 2019

A study found that 54% of customers are more likely to buy a product if they’ve learnt about it through print marketing, like magazines and brochures. Even though you might have decreased your budget for offline marketing spend, there are still valuable opportunities you can target.

Offline marketing demands our attention

There’s so much noise online that it’s easy for content to get lost. Our social media feeds update every second and there are different videos, articles, posts and updates vying for our attention. It’s never been easier to see content online but also to ignore it.

When you’re next browsing social media or looking through your email inbox, just think about how many posts or emails you’re actually engaging with. How many are you scrolling past and forgetting almost instantly?

Leaflets, magazines and brochures are much harder to ignore. They might not be looked at initially, but they spend more time in our homes and are more likely to be engaged with at some point.

Because we physically hold these items, we can’t help but have a look at them. Make your print marketing effective, eye-catching and engaging and you’ll find that you get a good response.

Not everyone wants to be marketed to online

Your ideal customer might be savvy when it comes to social media, using Twitter and Instagram to decide what to buy and engaging with relevant influencers. Or, they might only use Facebook to check on family and only really engage with online content when a friend sends it to them.

These are the people who are difficult to market to online. They don’t see ads, they spend very little time browsing and they trust the opinion of a friend over any online customer testimonial. This large group of people needs a little encouragement to engage with your brand and this can be achieved through offline marketing.

Whether it’s a leaflet, a large print advert or ‘warm’ calls, these people need a little nudge in the right direction if you want them to see your online marketing.

The ROI is better than you might think

Offline marketing is thought of as being expensive and ultimately not as cost-effective as online techniques. Direct mail, for example, is actually the marketing technique that offers the third highest return on investment (ROI).

Like with all marketing strategies, offline marketing can be costly if it isn’t carried out in the right way. Printing 10,000 leaflets and sending them out indiscriminately is a waste of time and it’s unlikely to be worth it.

What you can do is send out 1,000 leaflets to targeted individuals that you believe would be ideal customers. If you already have a contacts database of potential prospects, then use that and you’ll find the ROI is much better.

Also, take this opportunity to personalise the marketing materials. Someone’s less likely to ignore something or throw it away if it’s specific to them in some way.

It provides useful data

You might have ditched offline marketing techniques because they’re harder to track the effectiveness of. Online alternatives are usually easier to monitor and adapt thanks to comprehensive analytical data.

It’s actually not that difficult to track the results of an offline marketing technique and it’s a great opportunity for offline and online to work together. There are different steps you can take, like specific landing pages, for example.

Send out a direct mail leaflet that encourages readers to visit your website via a specific link. Make the link a leaflet-only landing page and you’ll be able to see how many visitors that page received as a direct result of the leaflets. Once they arrive at your landing page, you can use images, videos and content to get them to convert into customers.

Using offline and online together

The above example is just one instance of online and offline marketing working together to boost your sales figures. By creating cross-channel marketing campaigns, you’ll be increasing the range of the audience you meet and the number of paths that lead back to your business.

It really doesn’t have to be one or the other. A good marketer will see how a combination of the two can benefit their business. Use social media to try out content for your next print material, run a campaign that starts offline but finishes online or use online calls-to-action (CTAs) on your offline promotional pieces.

An online marketing campaign will benefit from offline support and vice-versa. By utilising both, you’re creating a more fleshed out marketing strategy and raising your business’ profile across as many channels as possible.