Offline advertising in the digital epoch

Integrating both traditional and digital marketing strategies, can reinforce a consistent brand message.

As a modern marketer, you may wonder about the purpose behind integrating offline and digital marketing. This can be explained in many ways, but the most important one is that combining the two methods will likely help you appeal to a broader audience, while having the maximum impact.

However, engaging with a brand offline and online, are very different. Consumers usually expect to be nurtured and encouraged to go down the conversion route. So, integrating both traditional and digital marketing strategies can reinforce a consistent brand message and drive action among users more effectively, than engaging in both channels independently.
In light of this, here are a few ways offline media can contribute to modern campaigns.

Know your audience

To begin with, brands must think like their customers, and understand how their target audience access information and consume content. Then, one also must recognise the value that offline advertising can add. 

Marketers are typically focused on building an ideal digital voyage for customers. But they frequently overlook the fact that customers also want to relate to and have real-life interactions with you. 

A brand's success is equally dependent on following a traditional marketing approach that takes consumers on a journey. One that includes both online and offline touchpoints.

Know your purpose

The most important question is, what would you like to accomplish? What sort of benefit do you wish to provide? The purely digital approach that we've seen so often in recent years, isn't getting us anywhere. It makes little sense to adopt a tech tool simply because it exists.

The fact that automation exists, for example, does not imply that it is the optimal solution for my business. There might be a far simpler, less expensive alternative that would be a much better fit. If we commit to using a digital solution from the start, we may miss out on discovering the optimal option.

Make use of one to market the other

You can use both modes to promote each other. For instance, you may build curiosity for a physical event campaign by providing teasers and excerpts on social media, or by setting a countdown on your website. In addition to building tension and excitement, this will increase the likelihood of customers participating in, and paying attention to, the event, when it does occur.

Alternatively, television, radio and on-the-ground activations can be used to direct consumers to your website in advance of an online event or promotion. Spreading your message over both platforms increases its reach and makes better use of your marketing budget.

Understand the demand

Furthermore, marketers who use both marketing tactics, may want to review the types of campaigns they are creating. If their online and physical initiatives do not complement one another, marketers miss an opportunity to make their consumers aware and create a unified experience.

The bottom line

Integrating your digital and on-ground marketing activities, generates a far more seamless experience for the user, allowing them to navigate more quickly through the customer journey. It also enhances brand awareness and recognition, which will enable the brand to stand out from the pack.

Though a master strategy often flows with different buckets after research and results, I often come across brands that have multiple digital agencies, experiential activation partners, PR agencies and advertising agencies on board, with no harmony among each other. There is so much a brand can benefit from by holding a cross-pollination of its objectives and actions.

The author is Nupur Sood, the director of Epic India Group.