Off-line or On-line Advertising for Businesses

We had this debate this morning in our office. Anyone can publish anything on the net of any quality, but printed material seems to feel a bit more authentic.

I don't know if writing to someone or sending out some literature feels more personal than sending an eShot.

The disadvantage with printed media is that it's much harder to track the success of your campaigns.

Unless you can make the first page of google, it seems word of mouth is still very important.

Printed material and direct mail have a higher conversion rate, because people are switching off to all the deluge of online advertising. People are often choosing to read print when away from the office, as a way of relaxing, and therefore giving it their undivided attention.

However, integration is the key, giving readers as many options as possible, to make it easier for them to respond.

It's horses for courses, different things work for different industries.

Online has distinct advantages in speed to market, measuring success, with complete granular analytical data down to which exact campaign / site/ source / keyword worked for you.

Things like PPC can even be instant marketing, and you can get measurable data within minutes.

People that see your adverts or services via online sources tend to be in a conversion mode at that moment in time. Something caught their attention and they responded to what ever advert they saw and performed an action on your site. This may be nothing more than a visit, an enquiry or a sale. But this entire journey can be tracked, analysed, and processes amended if need be.

I see offline as aimed at a different customer mindset. They are not normally in a buying mode, and more of a browsing mode. It may be a bill board on the way home, an advert on a bus, a flyer in your free paper, or an advert in the press. It may be a catalogue or a book of vouchers that is kept and acts as a reference for a future sale.

It's a powerful form of marketing, builds brand awareness, familiarity, and can be a good source of sales, but as already said it can be also be hard to track.

Until you've tried and experimented with different forms of on and offline marketing, you won't really know what works best for you.

A local landscape gardner may make a killing from local flyers pushed through local letterboxes, and have no need for a website let alone online marketing. An online only retailer may have a limited spend and is happy with just a PPC campaign which works for them.

One of the best off line marketing spends we've had recently was a pop up banner. Mixed with a few flyers, and biz cards it give you a pretty cost effective presence if you attend local business shows.

Successful marketing normally comes down to a blended approach, and you utilise different techniques that work for you developed over time and hard won experience

Thank you guys for the wonderful answers. I also believe that giving the clients more and more options is the best one, however not many companies can afford this, so basically I think we need a very good market research before starting an advertising campaign. Steve is thoroughly right saying it depends on the niche.

you need to use both

how so?

I totally agree with what most people are saying here that it all depends on what your business is?

If you are a local dry cleaning business then personally i would say that offline is right for you and if you have let's say a locksmith business like myself then both offline and online can bring you rewards.

One thing is for sure, if you want to have a successful business then i suggest you make sure that the people that you do business for make sure you look after them as they'll keep coming back and also they'll spread the word

So guys, what would you say about this:

The business is being run entirely online - I think that off-line marketing could be quite beneficial, too. Can you actually make people come and visit your site/fb page by using traditional marketing techniques?