Fusing your online and offline business communications is Essential to maximizing the results of your marketing strategy.
When you are marketing your business these days, it is easy to get caught up in your online efforts and think of them as their own entity separate from any print, direct mail, in house, or broadcast marketing you may also be doing. That just isn’t going to get the same results for your brands as if you integrate on and offline marketing efforts.
If you are able to do that you will be pulling together the two in a way that benefits your brands, the response rate to your marketing, and the results that you seek.
In the grand scheme of things you have a ton to do, but if you are investing time and dollars into marketing at all, you should make the over riding theme be clear, and be sure your brands speak to their audience in the same way on and offline. It is a simple yet elusive task. There are three key points to consider when aligning your marketing strategy:
Imagery
The visual design of your website, email marketing messages, and social network images should be congruous with your menu, in store graphics, direct mail, and print ad graphical designs. Both online and offline marketing materials are visual mediums whose success may be determined by the initial (before reading) response an audience member has to the imagery contained. That imagery can be a reminder to someone aware of your company, it can create interest in someone who is just now being introduced to your brands, and it can bridge the mental gap between the time they saw a post from your facebook page shared by a friend to the direct mail piece they just found in their mailbox.
Images are some of the most powerful tools in marketing and they should work together stylistically where-ever you use them.
Language
Your brands speak to their audience in many ways, one of the most powerful is through its language. It can communicate the style of your restaurant very effectively by choosing its linguistic voice. Once that voice is established it is important that consistency is maintained and nurtured in each of your marketing efforts. Whether you portray a playful vibe or a serious one, the style should work together across each message. Your brand should understand its target audience and craft messages in a voice to speak to them. This is one of the essential parts of your marketing strategy that too many companies overlook.
Offers
Your brand makes an offer to your customers every time there is an interaction, being in business is making an offer. Know that, remember that, and do that in a way that leverages the medium of choice effectively. Your audience may be divided, with some seeing your communications online and some seeing them in print. Do your offers transcend these boundaries too? If not you are effectively reducing the chances your offers can help you increase sales and convert casual members of your community into devoted customers. Online you may use coupon codes to match the coupons you mail to people with direct mail, you also make an offer without offering a discount and that is important. Sharing picture of your food online should be matched in your offline efforts as well.
If you simply share a picture of an amazing burger, that is making an offer. When I see a picture like that I want to eat that burger… so would a lot of others.
Lets focus on the overall message style more in our marketing strategy:
Takeaway from this a renewed effort to bridge mediums, and self evaluate the way you communicate today. The medium should not dictate the message, it may adapt it, but the medium always transmits the message.
What ways do you integrate offline and online marketing?
I am working with my clients this month explaining ways that they can do this with their companies marketing messages and I cant wait to help them do it. If I can help you feel free to ask.