Why Offline Marketing is still your Friend

It’s really easy to jump straight into digital marketing and forget about traditional strategies, but online and offline methods can work hand-in-hand to increase brand awareness for your start-up.

Offline marketing is still a really effective way of getting messages across about how fab your new start-up is. In fact, you’re probably doing your start-up a disservice if you completely neglect offline methods.

A well-rounded approach means that your online and offline marketing can be mutually beneficial and they can strengthen each other – like some kind of super-hero double act.

So which offline marketing methods are worth sticking with and how can they help you to navigate those choppy start-up waters?

Networking your socks off

Good, old-fashioned face to face contact shouldn’t be underestimated. Connecting with potential customers and other brands and dazzling them with your charm and charisma (optional) is a great way to communicate your start-up’s best messages.

Building up a rapport at networking events, conferences, trade shows or customer evenings can leave a lasting impression. You might have a chat with someone that’s completely unrelated to your business, but you’ll still stick in their mind and create some form of connection. If people like the cut of your jib then they’re more likely to listen to follow-up or make an enquiry with your start-up. Putting a face to a name is a valuable way to enhance brand loyalty.

Make sure you’ve got killer business cards too so you can go handing out crazy.

Print Marketing can make a big impact

Print marketing allows you to create interesting, visual collaterals that can act as a signpost for your brand and its online presence too.

Taking out ads in newspapers and magazines with strong, striking graphic design or creating brochures with long-form visual content gives your start-up a strong offline presence. Customers that aren’t digitally active might miss your online marketing, so this is a good way to cover bases.

Brochures, flyers, business cards, product packaging; they’re all ways of getting your branded content out there. They’re physical pieces of marketing your customers can hold onto. The power of print is that people can carry around your marketing in their pocket or plonk it on their coffee table.

Top tip: Make sure your offline marketing is consistent with your online content.

Speaking at Local Events

Public speaking isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, so approach with caution, but when you do it well it can be a great way of marketing your start-up.

Pick events that are relevant to your area of business so you can talk to a targeted and interested crowd. Bring something new to the table – you could approach a subject from a completely different perspective and name-drop your start-up throughout.

Picking local events to speak at can also leverage more exposure and create a buzz in your community. Making sure you have some print marketing to hand out helps too.

Guerrilla marketing can help your start-up stand out

A bit of guerrilla marketing here and there can be really effective, especially for start-ups. By this, we mean unconventional marketing strategies that grab people’s attention.

You don’t have to go really big and start doing flash-mobs in the middle of town (go for it if you want!); you can create small, disruptive pieces of marketing that surprise people. It can be something small like sponsoring an artist to produce eye-catching, branded chalk-board graphics.

When you have your business cards in your pocket you can engage in guerrilla marketing wherever you go; if it’s appropriate you can drop them in random locations like a coffee shop or a restaurant. You never know who’ll find one.

Combining print AND digital marketing helps you to reach out to more people in lots of creative ways.