Can Offline Marketing Drive Online Traffic?

At first glance, this article seems fairly basic. The answer that should come as no surprise to anyone is “Yes.”

But before we just forget about this and move on to the “next” (an all too common approach in marketing) let’s unwind this a bit to see if there’s something deeper here that we can all learn from.

Reactive Web-Marketing

One example that’s especially relevant is the ”transaction” that occurs whenever business people attend a networking event.  Probably the first (or second) question you’re asked is “do you have a business card?”  Or, you’re the one asking the question to the person you’ve just met.

This is a perfect example of offline marketing.  Note, I didn’t say it was the best method.  Just a fairly common one.  Now, this is termed ”reactive” because, quite simply, the person driving traffic to your site is… YOU.  You are the driver here.

You attend the event, you hand out your cards, and you hope like hell that the person receiving your card actually cares enough about what you’ve said to sit down at their computer sometime in the near future to “check in” on your site.

It’s “reactive” because you’re doing all the heavy lifting.  It is NOT on autopilot, and if you never attended the event there would, presumably, be no traffic to your site.  Instead of the site working for you, you’re working for the site.  Does this even make sense?  Yet 99% of business people out there do precisely this.

Proactive Web-Marketing

“Proactive” web-marketing means that your website is working for you, 24/7.  With automated system handling lead capture and follow up, marketing your business while you work, golf, sleep, vacation, whatever you desire to do with your time.

So, given THAT view of web-marketing, is there a place for offline marketing.  The answer is still “Yes.”  But not in the way you might think.

There are 2 criteria that, we feel, are absolutely essential for offline marketing to integrate with your website and message for this to be an effective lead generator/customer acquisition model.

First, your offline message must have a clear OFFER and call to action.  Without these 2 elements, there is absolutely no reason why someone receiving your marketing message should go to their computer and type in your URL (web address).

Second, systems of capture on your website must run by autopilot.  Meaning, your targeted prospective lead/customer receives your offline message and decides to act on it at, say 2 am.  Do you have systems in place to capture his or her information and begin an automated follow up system?  That’s what we call proactive.

To learn more, you can register for our upcoming Seminar titled “Is Your Website Costing You More than Money.”  We’ll cover this and other points to help optimize your online business.

Next Steps…

Any questions?  Comments?  Did we hit a nerve?

Drop us a line by leaving a comment.  We will reply (here, and by email if you’d like) as soon as we’re able.  And if there’s a topic you want us to discuss, let us know.

To receive monthly emails with summaries of all our latest content, sign up for our “Monthly Web Tips” above.  Does that sound fair enough to you?

To discover how our web marketing firm can help you with your online presence, traffic, leads and sales, kindly follow the link.  You can also review our web marketing services to better understand how we work with clients just like you.