Integrated Marketing: 15 Ways to Connect Your Offline & Online Marketing

It’s one of the biggest mistakes we see in marketing today: companies treating their online marketing (i.e. website, social media, content marketing, SEO) like it exists in a bubble separate from in-person customer service, radio and billboard advertising (traditional marketing).  Yes, we consider customer service as part of your marketing efforts—and you should too!—because customer service is part of the customer experience and many offline and online marketing tools rely on direct conversations with the customer (read how marketing can’t exist without excellent customer service here).  That doesn’t mean you should “hard sell” during every customer inquiry; if you’ve followed our blog enough, you know we recommend using a more subtle approach and selling when appropriate.

That being said, integrating all your marketing together—print, radio, SEO, content marketing, social media, TV (everything!)—sounds great in theory (doesn’t it?), but it’s hard to imagine how to apply to your business marketing without solid concrete examples of online and offline marketing integration:

1. Keep the feel of your offline and online materials the same (i.e. colors, logo, text, etc.)
2. Use your billboard or radio to market a social media contest or campaign (coordinate your efforts through a strategic marketing plan).
3. Add your social media channel URLs to your print pieces.
4. Answer customer questions by directing them to the content marketing piece that answers the question.
5. Offer an incentive to customers that join your email marketing list.
6. Draft email marketing pieces that bring your customers (and potential customers) into your store.
7. Answer frequently asked off-line questions from customers in your email and content marketing pieces.
8. Add pictures & notices of in-store discounts to your social media channels.
9. Give people a glimpse of the results of your services with pictures and videos in your email and social media marketing.
10. Use local search engine optimization to reach the attention of local customers.
11. Build a solid website that is mobile marketing friendly (with all the contact information easy to find) for customers that want to visit your store.
12. Use similar graphics in a coordinated and customized (for the specific platform) social media and print advertising campaign.
13. Add QR codes to your print materials connected to strategic URLs for a social media or website page.
14. Use your website, social media, content and email marketing to promote your offline events.
15. Post videos and pictures of your store, products, or employees (with their permission!) on YouTube and social media to draw your online customers into your business.

If you need any other ideas, or need help crafting a marketing plan that integrates your offline and online efforts, don’t be afraid to contact a marketing agency (like us!) that can help coordinate your efforts and get you the maximum results for your marketing dollar.