A beginners guide to offline marketing

Please be aware that this is a guide only and you should seek specific advice for your business*

Offline marketing refers to advertising that uses traditional media such as newspapers, billboard ads, radio and television. Word-of-mouth and networking can also be referred to as offline marketing.

Although a lot of businesses now use online marketing due to the amount of people the internet can reach, offline marketing is still an important part of your marketing strategy. It can work alongside online marketing to support a wider strategy that can help your business to grow its popularity and sales.

To help you learn more about offline marketing and the pros and cons of the different channels, we’ve put together a guide to help you navigate the offline marketing landscape and decide if it can support your marketing strategy.

How does offline marketing work?

Offline marketing works by using traditional media to reach your potential customers when they aren’t online with messages about your business. This could be when they are watching TV, reading a newspaper, listening to the radio or if you have a physical store, when they are walking past.

Not all audiences are online 24/7, so reaching customers offline can help you cut through a lot of the noise people are exposed to online. Offline marketing can also be more real and tangible for potential customers helping to build trust in your brand.

Is offline marketing right for your business?

Choosing which offline marketing channels to use should come back to your marketing strategy. Who are you trying to reach? What messages do you want to share? What are your business goals? Thinking about these will help you to decide which channels are likely to be more effective for your business.

Unlike online marketing, offline marketing can be harder to measure as you can’t track a specific action such as a visit to your website. However, having a presence offline, especially if want to reach people in your local area is important. They’ll be less competition locally, as opposed to online which can include local, national and global competition.

Offline marketing can also build trust amongst your target audience because seeing an ad in a newspaper or hearing it on the radio can help to demonstrate you’re a legitimate business.

If you want to learn more about offline and online marketing, including setting a marketing strategy, you can read our useful guide.

Different types of offline marketing

To help you learn about different offline marketing and how they work, here are some of the most popular offline marketing methods and their pros and cons.

Television advertising

TV advertising is running an advertisement during the ad break of programmes or during video-on-demand services (VOD) such as All4 and the ITV Hub. TV advertising can also refer to product placement in TV programmes.

TV advertising can help you to reach a lot of people and also the ability to target certain audience types based on what they are watching. The audience is also likely to be more receptive to your message compared to other marketing channels as during the time your ad is running, it’s the only advert been shown.

As it’s such as trusted platform with a large audience, TV advertising is expensive compared to other types of marketing. There are also costs involved in the creation of the TV ad as well as buying the advertising space from the TV network.

If your budgets allow you to advertise on TV, then it can be a great marketing channel to use which can have a big impact on your business’s popularity and trust.

Radio advertising

Radio advertising is having an advert play during the radio programme that promotes your business. Radio advertising is known as a ‘spot’ and can include a traditional ad which is a produced ad and also sponsorships which is when you choose to sponsor a specific segment of a radio show such as traffic reports or weather.

The benefits of radio advertising is that, in a similar way to TV advertising, you can choose to run your ads on radio shows which target specific audiences. It can also be a cheaper alternative to TV advertising.

It’s worth noting that radio advertising can have a low attentiveness as people listening to the radio could be doing other things such as driving or cooking. It also loses the visual impact of a TV ad as it only relies on one sense – sound.

Print advertising – Leaflets & Brochures

Leaflet and brochure advertising is using leaflets or brochures that are given to potential customers that promote your business. Leaflets can be posted through letterboxes, handed directly to potential customers or picked up from other stores.

If your strategy is to focus on local advertising, using leaflets can be a great way of reaching people in the local area and promoting your business.

Leaflets can include a lot of information about your business as well and been visually appealing to the reader. You can also distribute them in areas which are more likely to be lived in and visited by your target audience.

Some of the disadvantages of leaflets and brochures is that they can discarded quickly and your message forgotten, so the design is important to get the impact you desire.

Print Advertising – Newspapers & Magazines

Print advertising is running an ad in a newspaper or magazine. Dependent on your product and the goals of your marketing this could be a typical ad in a newspaper promoting an offer to product reviews in a magazine. You could even include samples of your product if it fits your target audience.

A benefit of newspaper and magazine advertising is that compared to a channel such as social media, those reading a newspaper or magazine are more likely to be absorbed in the publication. Also you can use the readership to target specific audiences based on audience type and interest.

Some of the cons of newspaper and magazine advertising is that it can be costly, especially if it reaches a national audience. Physical newspapers and magazines also have a lower readership today than 5-10 years ago due to the growing digital space and publications focusing on their digital audiences.

However, if targeting local audiences is your goal, local publications can still have a good readership in your target area.

Outdoor advertising

Outdoor advertising can also be known as ‘out-of-home’ advertising and it refers to ads that reach people outside of the home such as billboards and posters.

Outdoor advertising can also include ads on buses and taxis as well as on street furniture such as on benches and bus shelters. You could also count your business store signage as outdoor advertising.

Outdoor is a great method for targeting people in a local area and dependent on where the ads are placed they can be seen by large number of people. However, it can be costly due to the designing, printing and placement of the ads. The more popular an area your ad is used, the more expensive it’s likely to be.

Event Marketing

Event marketing is promoting your brand, product or services in-person such as at an event or exhibition. Event marketing is a great way to build awareness of your business and meaningful interactions with your customers.

Event marketing can either be yourself hosting an event or attending an event. Events can also include conferences and trade shows and digital ones such as webinars and live-streams.

Event marketing is a great way to differentiate yourself from your competitors. In fact, 93% of marketers believe in-person events provide attendees with a valuable opportunity to form connections in an increasingly online world.

Some of the cons to event marketing is that exhibitions can be costly and your competitors could also be in attendance, which means you’ll need to consider how you’ll stand out at events.

Word-of-mouth marketing and networking

Word-of-mouth marketing is when a customer talks about your business or products to others. It’s one of the most powerful forms of advertising because 92% of people trust their friends over traditional forms of advertising according to Nielson.

Building connections with your customers and others in your industry is a powerful marketing technique and also a free one. The more you interact with people, the more likely your business name will spread. This is important in today’s digital society with the rise of ad blockers which block online ads (such as banners ads) making it harder to reach potential customers.

The cons to word-of-mouth marketing is whilst a positive interaction can be shared, so can a negative one, which is why customer service is such an important part of word-of-mouth marketing to make sure customers are happy and satisfied with your business.

Choosing the right offline marketing channels for your business

We’ve covered some of the most popular offline marketing tactics for you to try for your business, but it’s important to consider your strategy and the goals you’re trying to achieve. Offline marketing can be more expensive than online marketing, so understanding your audience and how to reach them is crucial before you invest in marketing that may not work for you.

It’s also important to remember if you’re carrying out direct marketing (such as sending letters or making calls) you need to make sure that you are doing this compliantly and have the permission of the individual to market to them. For further information about making sure that you market in a compliant manner, you can read the direct marketing guide from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

You can learn more about online marketing here and how it can work with offline marketing to help you build a strong marketing plan.

At The Co-operative Bank we want to help your business to grow and thrive. More useful guides and articles can be found on our Business Exchange.

*While all reasonable care has been taken to ensure that the information provided is correct, no liability is accepted by The Co-operative Bank for any loss or damage caused to any person relying on any statement or omission. This is for information only and should not be relied upon as offering advice for any set of circumstances. This is merely a guide and each business is unique in its requirements. Specific advice should always be sought in each instance.