Your offline marketing efforts can be given a real boost by integrating it with your social media marketing. We tend to use offline marketing to create brand awareness, advertise to a specific demographic and deliver targeted messages with visual content. Online marketing, however, is all about interacting with consumers, by building relationships and having conversations with them. By combining your online and offline marketing efforts you get the best of both worlds. Here are some ways to add social media to your offline marketing:
Include social media URLs on your business cards
Adding social media to offline marketingPhysical business cards are still as popular as ever, and are
shared at networking events, meetings and conferences as much as ever. You can make the most of this
by including links to your social media accounts on your business cards along with the rest of your
contact information. Try to use short or vanity URLs where possible to make it easier for people to type
them into their browser.
Remember that employees’ business cards should have the company social media profiles on them, not
personal ones, with some exceptions, e.g. LinkedIn or Plaxo.
Offer an incentive to become your friend, fan or follower
Who doesn’t love a freebie? It helps to offer customers and contacts a small gift (e.g. pen, USB key, etc
branded with your logo, contact info and social media URLs) if they will connect with you online by
becoming a friend, fan or follower. Alternatively you could consider running a competition whereby all
new followers or fans are entered into prize draw.
Include social URLs on company invoices and receipts
You can make the most of any business stationery by including your social media URLs on your
invoices, receipts, etc. Every time you send out a product or invoice this gives people another
opportunity to connect with you online. You can also ask customers to review your product or service
online by adding a URL on your invoice that allows them to give feedback on a social site.
Use QR codes on your marketing brochures and banners
You may have notices QR codes on direct mail pieces, advertisements and posters recently. They are
square-shaped bar codes that can be scanned by Smartphone cameras to redirect people to a webpage.
You can generate QR codes with an online QR code creator, such as qrcode.kaywa.com or
azonmedia.com/qrcode-generator, and embed the resultant graphic on your own printed marketing
materials. It’s an easy way to direct your customers who use Smartphones to your social media profile
pages. Whatever offline marketing you’re involved in, chances are there is some way to integrate it with your
social media marketing. Don’t forget that it goes both ways: you can use social media to promote your
offline activities as well as vice versa.
If you haven’t already, take a look at my posts about adding social media to your website and email
marketing too.