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Merging Online And Offline Businesses Through eCommerce

With the rapid rise of eCommerce, we’re seeing many pure-play online stores focus only on internet marketing. However, offline marketing is still a viable channel and Johann Carpio, of Resulticks, a site that provides digital marketing services and tools for companies, has some insights on how you can still use it for your eCommerce business.

We hear about the benefits of online and offline marketing all the time, but offline marketing still works, even for eCommerce companies. As an online business, one drawback is that customers can’t typically experience your product or service before making a purchasing decision. Real world events (trade shows, demonstrations, or product giveaways at community events) can provide potential customers with a chance to try your products, and they are a great engagement opportunity. These days, a piece of physical mail or a product sample can feel as personal as a handshake.

Internet Marketing and Television

TV advertising and marketing were once unrivaled ways to reach consumers for decades. However, in today’s modern world, the growth of internet video demands a change in tactics from marketers. A business owner that depends on TV ads to reach their target audience may be surprised to learn that many members of that particular audience watch even less TV than they think.

Many users get their TV fix using websites such as Netflix or stream YouTube videos on a tablet, desktop computer or smartphone. In fact, the immense popularity of websites such as these shows that marketers can’t depend on TV ads to catch all advertising as much as it used to. In fact, no sole form of advertising is enough. In order to keep up with modern audiences, there is a need to integrate internet marketing tactics to reach more of their target audience.

A prime example is that millennials watch more YouTube than any other network or cable channel. So using banner or video ads on YouTube is an effective way to reach people who don’t watch as much TV programming. Similarly, advertising on social media can help business owners reach targeted audiences with their marketing message.

On Radio and Internet Marketing

Though one of the oldest forms of mass media, radio is still being utilized and is a useful as well as a profitable tool for marketers. Even in the digital age, there are advantages radio gives that are difficult to duplicate digitally. Radio remains the best way to reach consumers as they commute to and from work, making radio marketing a great way to reach local consumers with relevant ads.

Internet radio does exist but isn’t used as widely as traditional. Even among the younger crowd, traditional radio is still extremely popular. Internet radio apps are used every day but can’t pull the same numbers as traditional radio yet.

Print and Internet Marketing

Newspapers and magazines have suffered a lot due to the rise of internet technology. There are those who are quick to declare that print media is dead and that future generations will consider a physical newspaper as strange as a roll of parchment. However, the truth of the matter is that there is still value to print media that digital sources just can’t replace. There are consumers who are more likely to buy a new product when learning about it through the newspaper or magazine ad. Integrating internet marketing with print media is relatively simple. This can be as simple as including websites and email addresses in print ads, or including print coupons for discounts that aren’t available online.

Remember: just because people use the internet doesn’t mean that they don’t use other sources of information. There are people who use coupons from newspapers or magazines. It also helps to include traditional media sources when distributing press release, instead of solely relying on online distribution.

Though it may be easy to get a press release published online, if the audience is local, it’s beneficial to get the news, product or event in question covered by the local news media as well.

Internet Marketing, Blogging and Social Media

Nowadays, more businesses are turning to WordPress for their marketing needs, as well as to get reviews on products from bloggers. It’s very simple to set up and is a complete package: there are plenty of plug-ins that you can use for advertising or to keep track of statistics (like how many people visit your blog or the keywords that they search for on Google that led them to your blog). It’s also fairly inexpensive, the barebones site being free and people can pay for themes and other perks such as image hosting, or paying for their own domain hosted by WordPress.

There is also Buffer, a paid service with a free 10-day trial. It’s essentially a social media manager where you use one website to log into several social media sites such as Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter all at once to maximize marketing potential.

How Are You Using Offline Marketing?

As more businesses crowd online marketing channels, the traditional offline channels become less competitive. By identifying these opportunities and taking advantage of them, you could save your business some money. Which offline marketing channel are you going to test? O2O commerce http://www.tmogroup.asia/china-online-to-offline/

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