As a small or medium size business owner, you probably know that the future of business marketing is digital. Most businesses have migrated to online marketing and have based all their strategies on the internet. Though this is the case, you might be wondering why it is important not to forget about offline business marketing plans. You are justified to ask this question and the wrong answer could lead to failure in business marketing. At end of the day, you will realize that for your small business to move on to the next level, you will need both digital and non-digital marketing. Here are important points to consider when merging these two marketing strategies:

1. Visibility

People will not buy from a business they have no idea exists. For visibility purposes, online marketing is the best way to improve your business’ visibility and create a brand that people can trust and rely on. The internet has provided different effective tools that can be used in marketing businesses in form of websites, business pages and social media platforms. But think about it, posters, billboards, local social events and other effective offline activities can improve your businesses visibility.

Here Is why,

When you involve your business in local activities such as sponsoring local events you will enjoy what is referred as hyper-localize targeting. It is highly likely that people who visit the local event will come from a local geographical area and can easily be transformed from just an event attendant to a customer. You will have a better chance to ask them to visit your physical or go a step further in encouraging them to visit your website and like or follow you social media pages.

2. Credibility

There are many online strategies that you can use in managing the reputation of your business and in the process enhance your credibility. You can use blogging, and social media pages to interact with your target consumers online and get the best of results especially because people have turned to the internet for everything they need. Though the internet is effective, simple altercations with consumers can turn into big disasters that will be difficult to manage. One the other hand offline reputation management is a bit easier.

Building credibility offline is as easy as taking part in charitable events, being part of industry events, receiving awards for efforts in sustainability, and getting an endorsement from influential agencies and individuals. These forms of credibility cannot be taken away from you. There is no way people can refute that you received an award or argue about your sponsorship in a charity event. You can use the internet to improve your credibility but offline reputation can come in handy in backing it up. When using the internet to socialize and market your business, keep in mind that while it can be effective, things can go ugly and the bad thing is the internet does not forget.

3. Leads

The generation of leads is the heart of marketing regardless of whether it is offline or online. The best place to find leads for a local business is online. This is because today people are using local searches to find local business by entering a business name and a location. For offline lead generation, you will need to ensure that your brand is highly recognizable such that after people search for your business online, finding it physically is an easy affair. Digital marketing is highly effective but for your small business to prosper, you will need to merge it with the conventional offline marketing strategy to create a strong reliable brand.