We’ve seen how the Apple’s ‘1984’ commercial released in the same year revolutionized the marketing world. This commercial is a direct predecessor of the viral videos that are breaking down the internet in the Digital Age. This is a clear example how one company’s bold move can disrupt the whole advertising niche. Digital marketing has come a long way since its introduction. In the beginning, it was a revolutionizing new concept, used by a small number of innovative marketers. Today, it is the most effective and the ‘one and only’ marketing method, used by all major corporations.
Marketing is a very dynamic niche. It doesn’t stand still, while we wait for another big disruption. One of the ways how marketing is changing, as we speak, is by combining traditional and digital marketing techniques in order to create more effective marketing strategies. Although some traditional marketing techniques have been declared dead for a long time, they can still effectively engage consumers, especially when being paired with the advanced technology.
Consumer behavior
Consumer behavior is the most important element of every marketing equation. Although the technologies used in the marketing niche are constantly changing, today’s consumer behavior can still be described by the behavioral patterns used for creating the Apple’s ‘1984’ campaign. The similarity between consumer behaviors in different decades allows us to use many traditional marketing models in the Digital Age.
How to combine digital and offline marketing?
By combining traditional and digital marketing techniques, companies are saving money and improving the ROI of their campaigns. They can combine these techniques in many different ways, including:
1. Active and passive marketing strategies should complement each other
Traditional marketing methods are much less engaging. One of the best things about digital marketing is that companies and marketers can have instant feedback from their consumer group by following and communicating with them on social networks. In the ‘good old days’ marketers needed to ‘keep their ear to the ground’, follow their revenue and sales oscillations and conduct gazillion surveys to determine the campaign’s impact.
The idea of combining active and passive methods and adding them to the marketing mix, is developed so companies can get instant feedback about their campaigns. One of the best examples of this mix is Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ campaign. The idea of the campaign was to personalize one of the most universal products on the market. This idea is as old and traditional as the market itself, but Coca-Cola decided to execute it in a completely different way. They organized a huge online campaign in order to get instant feedback from customers and use their personal social media accounts as an efficient marketing channel. Coca-Cola customers massively shared the bottles with their names, and the campaign turned out to be an instant success.
2. Find the perfect mix of digital and offline marketing channels
Spreading the marketing effort across both digital and offline marketing channels will definitely benefit the company’s brand recognition. There are plenty of examples of companies that advertise their offers across different types of channels. McDonald’s is one of them. They use billboards and leaflets customers receive on their plate. These printed materials often contain the addresses of social media pages or popular hashtags McDonald’s is launching at the given moment. This way, the company directs different types of consumers to their website and other online presentations, where they can enter the sales funnel and subscribe to company’s special offers and other promotional announcements.
3. Event marketing goes digital
Event marketing is a very important component of the marketing mix because it allows marketers to come in direct contact with potential customers. Event organization has been constantly changing since the introduction of social networks. Facebook and other social platforms can be very useful for advertising various promotional events and they also allow organizers to follow the attendance list and track and engage the attendees. These are some of the ways companies can increase their event attendance and their following on social media:
- Programing the conference (or any other event) by measuring feedback and using crowdsourcing through apps like: Tweet Poll or Crowd Campaign;
- Creating separate event pages on: Facebook Event, Eventbrite, Upcoming or LinkedIn;
- Organizing social media contests for event attendees, where promotional products will be shared as rewards. This form of contest can produce a great ROI, especially since printing services and promotional merchandise in general are so widespread and affordable;
- Creating a hashtag for the event and motivating attendees to share their experiences from the event on their social media timelines;
- Sharing event videos, audio and photos on social media and motivating attendees to do the same.
4. PR stunts look even crazier on social media
Some people think that there have been no PR stunts before Twitter, but actually this is one of the oldest marketing methods. For example, in 1951 Leonard Lord, the owner of Austin Motors, bet that his employee Alan Hess couldn’t drive around the planet in a new Austin A40 Sports car in 30 days. Hess managed to do it in only 21 days and this public stunt drastically improved this model’s sales in the next couple of years.
With the introduction of social media and video-sharing platforms, PR stunts organized by big companies are receiving huge following around the world. One of the companies that have built its image on PR stunts is Red Bull. You’ve probably heard about the annual fly days (flugtag) organized by this company. These events gather enthusiasts who attempt to pilot home-made flying machines. This competition is massively advertised on social media and it represents an annual PR stunt.
Another popular PR stunt organized and financed by Red Bull, which has received a massive following on social media, is the Red Bull Stratos. It’s one of the most popular space diving events, where Austrian skydiver and daredevil Felix Baumgartner jumped from the height of 39 km in a branded Red Bull pressure suit. The fall took more than 10 minutes and it is the longest skydive in history.
In order to successfully add traditional offline marketing techniques to the digital marketing mix, you’ll have to ask yourself what kind of marketing strategy you would implement if the internet didn’t exist. After finding the right answer to this difficult question, finding the winning combination of digital and analogue marketing techniques and channels will be a piece of cake.
About Author:
Emma Miller is a Sydney based writer with a degree in marketing. Interested in digital marketing, social media, start-ups and latest trends. She’s a contributor at Bizzmark blog.
If “Content is King,” then having a really well-developed online presence is Queen. But few business owners start out with a true idea of what developing an online presence requires. With a little of the same entrepreneurial spirit, and a bit of perseverance, it’s possible to gain a better understanding of the elusive online presence. At its most basic, it simply means making people aware of your business online.
In a world where so many people are now bringing businesses online, it’s important that you set your business apart from the rest by using inventive tactics to get recognized. Use these strategies to ensure that your business gets noticed.
Webinars
What’s in a webinar? The potential for greater connection with your target market. Allowing people to sign up for webinars in which you offer something useful can be a great way to connect with your customers. This is especially true for service-based businesses. If there is something that you can teach your customers within an hour, offer webinar signups and have someone lead an online seminar. SEO companies, writers, and even business development specialists have all used this tactic.
Video and Teleconferences
Just as with webinars, video conferencing and teleconferencing can help you to branch connections over long distances. It’s also a far more ideal way to connect with your customers when they have questions or comments about their product or service. Research has shown that when clients can interact with a physical person via video, they feel that the experience is more personalized. A little bit of video conferencing equipment can go a long way to placing a human face on your business.
While teleconferencing won’t put a face on anything, it does provide the ability to offer informational sessions over the telephone or VoIP for free. This, too, can be a helpful adjunct.
Fan Contests
Everyone likes to feel that they are a winner, and that’s probably why Facebook fan contests have become so popular. It’s important that you think carefully about what your audience might want to win; simply giving away a $5 iTunes gift card isn’t enough to sway people to interact with your online presence any longer. If you can afford it, giving away even cheap MP3 players, tablets, or other electronics tends to be very popular. Cash prizes are always popular, too
Be sure to always tie a certain level of interaction to the prize, to prevent people from signing up just to win. You may choose to ask for likes, fan art submissions, or even referrals. Whatever route you choose, stay away from the obvious like baiting tactics like posting images saying “I bet you can’t think of a word that ends in R.” These can be seen as spam by most of the larger platforms, and they simply annoy fans.
Online Hangouts
For an example of just how successful an online hangout can be, head over to internet message board Reddit’s “AMA” section. This section, designed to allow Redditors the ability “Ask Me Anything,” has allowed some fairly well-known businesses to answer questions and address comments from the public. Of course, Redditor’s AMA section won’t be your first option unless you already have significant fame.
Hangouts are ideal once you’ve established a basic presence and have some level of regular interaction going on through your Facebook page or Twitter account. As a rule of thumb, when you start getting questions regularly, it may be time to have an online hangout.
If you offer a service or product, set up open information sessions where the public can come in and address issues or questions. Be patient, candid, and ensure that it’s lighthearted and fun. In some cases, you may encounter difficulties; trolls exist everywhere online. If these issues come up, simply ban them from the hangout or refer them to your customer service department. Being able to react positively to negativity is just one important step on the road to a great online presence.
About author:
Richard Myers is an app developer, tech buff and an overall geek. He is also closely associated with Videonations.
When the online marketing industry was in its infancy, success came from simple link building campaigns for SEO. Today, that is just a little bit of what you need, to thrive. Technical know-how is now the most valuable thing in the industry, and it does not come easily. The industry is now diverse, and many factors influence success on all scales. Anyone with aspirations of succeeding as an online marketer now needs to embrace the following tools and features as well as understand their significance.
Data and Tracking Tools
Data is playing a huge role in determining who makes it through and who does not. To run an online marketing campaign successfully, you need to know your data points. Websites have many features to track and they require specialized tools. At the same time, you need to know how these features contribute to your goals so that you are able to interpret your traffic analytic reports.
Websites tracking includes the number of visitors to the site, the time taken by each visitor, the actions taken by the visitor takes on the site as well as the pages that attract the visitor. You will also have to look at social media numbers. They include the number of people sharing your content and the number of people who find your content through social network sites and other websites. You also need to track your conversion rates for list campaigns and e-commerce sales.
Different devices
Devices also play a part in influencing your online marketing success. You have to create different landing pages, calls to actions and content for desktops and mobile devices. Smartphones accept applications and thus offer an alternative venue for marking your products other than through websites and email lists. Apps require proper design and the right sales model otherwise, they will not lead to the expected conversion rates. They also let you process e-commerce transactions.
Local SEO
As you form your SEO strategy, you must also factor mobile devices. They come with geo-location capabilities. This means that they will allow users to interpret search results differently. The advent of location-based search features compels marketers to incorporate local SEO techniques alongside their traditional marketing efforts. Keywords for desktop users slightly vary with those of mobile users. As marketers use them on their content, they also have to comply with various search engine demands such as keyword density and relevance. Marketers must also pay attention to their link building strategies to avoid wrong associations that negatively affect page ranks.
Website Design
When creating websites, you have to consider the content that you are publishing. You must make sure that it will be usable on devices with tiny displays just as it is usable on the devices with large displays. On the issue of display and readability, concepts like typography and responsive designs emerge. The features that you choose to display on the website also affect the perception and trust that people have on you and your products. This affects their buying decisions and your conversion rates.
Social Media Influence
Social influence matters just as much as good content. You have to learn how to drive traffic to your web pages and increase the number of shares you get across different social platforms. Many social media platforms now allow you to integrate them on your site, but doing that is not easy for all marketers. The integration must have significance; otherwise, they will just appear as clutter and lead people away from your marketing message.
Much of what you display on your website as your social influence depends on how much interaction you develop on the individual sites. Building a rich profile on any social network requires dedication and the right approach. Social media also offers a location-based challenge. A marketer must define the location, the demographic and the interests of the target audience and then use a combination of social sites to target them. Some sites present the marketer with a steep learning curve due to their uniqueness.
As online marketing evolves, the marketer needs change. A resultant emerging trend has been creation of online courses by various Search Engine Management companies to respond to the industry demands. The title ‘Technical Know-How : A Essential Element in Online Marketing’ rings true and anyone who disagrees with it has no chance of accomplishing any worthwhile online marketing goal today and in future. All marketers must ask themselves whether they understand the significance of the emerging tools and features and whether they have the necessary skills to use those tools for success.
Author Bio:
Jason Smith is an online consultant for Athreon – Legal Transcription Service. Jason likes blogging about online strategies that are related to SEO, Content, PPC & Lead generation. In his free time he likes to study about web designing and practice Jiu Jitsu.