As we move into a world dominated by AI Marketing, advanced analytics for digital marketing, and dominance in data-driven marketing decisions, it’s hard not to dismiss the influence of ‘offline’, perhaps more traditional marketing. In reality, offline marketing needs to also be treated as ‘online’ since it feeds the larger scope of marketing, and is an essential part of making data driven marketing decisions.

The two in reality go together, however many business still make the error of treating them as separate entities. They are seen as non-related activities, but in reality, a solid online campaign is supported with an offline campaign, and vice-versa.

At Brand & Pepper we know all too well how critical it is to get your offline campaign right, so we are going to share 7 lessons to build a kick ass offline campaign with you.

Keep it on Repeat

Repetition is vital in ensuring any campaign is effective due to the amount of advertisements there are seeking your attention. Competition is tough, and repetition is a sure-way to get noticed – it’s simply the law of probability in mathematics.

Consumer targeting is equally important in offline channels, whether you’re advertising on radio, TV, print, and outdoor. The broadcasting authority publishes research reports on audience segmentation per channel and medium – it’s a great resource to take informed decisions for channel marketing. Similar to online marketing, this will help you reach the right audience and maximise your reach to higher purchase potential customers.

Offline channels can get expensive very quickly, so be mindful of frequency, promotion times, and reach. Selecting the right balance, and integrating it with an online campaign on social media, placement, or search engines, can provide a broad mix to reach your network.

Note: It’s important to keep ad fatigue in mind when running the same advert on repeat. This is especially important online, however it does affect offline campaigns as well. Test for feedback, check people’s reactions to an advert, and always be flexible to change some elements to keep it fresh.

Keep it simple

Successful offline campaigns are similar to concept of billboards; the creative concept needs to be simple, yet clear enough for someone passing by to get the message. A clear and concise message, and/or instruction is always easier for your audience to follow and take action upon, whether this is to visit your website, or your café.

Images are a brilliant way to catch a passing eye; use images smartly, and effectively within your design. The message of your campaign needs to remain clear, so selecting appropriate imagery, combined with short, catchy, and memorable taglines is vital in ensuring your offline campaign is a success.

Apple are the experts at simple, as pointed out by Jayson DeMers in his Forbes article titled Here’s The Simple Secret To Apple’s Marketing Success. Jayson very interestingly highlights just how simple Apple’s marketing campaigns truly are. Quite frequently it is simply just an image of the product, no CTA, no fancy sales text, just plain and simple imagery.

Make it Emotional

Just like any good story, marketing campaigns need to be filled with emotion. Emotion is a powerful tool you can harness as a marketer, it enables you to create a deep bond and connection between your brand and the consumer.

Try to depict things people can relate to, such as children, devastation, elation, and family. By using imagery, video, and text, you can harness the power these unique emotions have to create that important bond, and drive the viewers of your campaign to convert.

Great examples of this are Christmas adverts. A few of our favourites that we anticipate every year are from John Lewis, H&M, Coca-Cola, and M&S. The one thing these all have in common is the emotion they portray; they make their viewers feel a part of the video by using situations and scenes we have all seen and been through.

Educate the Masses

Show the world just how good you are in your field by providing free and educational material to as many people as possible. This will establish you as the expert within your industry, and will help build consumer trust.

The best way to capitalise on educating is to not advertise your business in any way during the education section, keep it simple and factual. The information you are providing needs to be the best in industry, and inclusive sometimes even of other products*.

*The trick here is to find other brands/products to mention that are complimentary to your own, rather than a fully competing product that may end up damaging your bottom line.

At the end of the educational material is where your sponsorship and logo should be placed. This will help reinforce, and really drive home that you are a leader in your industry, and you are the go to businesses for your products, or services.

A good example of this is Calamatta Cuschieri. Chairman Alex Cuschieri hosted Malta’s most popular financial radio programme, ‘Haddem Flusek Sew’, for over 9 years. Here he provided unbiased financial advice, tips, and guidance for free, all the while not mentioning Calamatta Cuschieri. At the end of the show, Calamatta Cuschieri had an advert, and soon the show became associated with Calamatta Cuschieri, boosting the company’s reputation for financial advice.

Discounts for Everyone

Employing the use of discount codes in your offline campaigns gives you a chance to track conversions, and give you a rough estimate of how well your campaign performed.

Make sure you use discount codes that are simple and easy to remember, as people seeing your ad will only see if for a few seconds. You have probably seen lots of magazines and newspapers using them already. “Use promo code VALENTINES15 for an additional 15% off your order” is a typical example of a discount code that is used.

Don’t forget to keep track of the various discount code you use. This will help you with analytics at the end of your campaign, and will prevent repetition in future campaigns.

Pizza Hut are a delicious example of this. To enhance customer retention, with most orders they provide you with a booklet of discount vouchers, ranging from money off, to free pizza. When you are receiving money off, you are more likely to purchase, not to mention the constant reminder on your fridge of delicious cheesy goodness!

Go to Events

Make sure you are at brand appropriate events. There is nothing nicer as a customer than being at an event and finding a new product or service that really fulfils your needs. Find events that are relevant to your industry, and which might draw in your customer base – it’s a fantastic way to encounter potential customers and showcase your offering.

A great example of this is Vodafone. They are always at the KSU careers fare, promoting their products to the students, and giving out lots of promo material. This is brilliant in 2 ways, the first being that the students get information about great deals they can get on their mobile plans as well as information about careers with one of the largest telecoms companies in the world.

The second being the great publicity this causes, helping the future generation and providing them with access to key resources helps to create a positive connection between your brand and the general public.

Be Prepared for Results

This is the golden rule of all marketing campaigns, but we cannot stress enough how often this step is overlooked and totally missed. Nothing is more off putting for a potential customer than being urged to take an action, whether it’s visiting your store, or website and finding that you cannot handle the extra traffic.

If you have been smart and used custom URLs or discount vouchers make sure the landing pages are correctly set up with enough server space and bandwidth allocated to handle the extra traffic. If your campaign objective is to drive people into your store, make sure you have enough staff available and that all are trained to use tills and assist customers to the best of their ability.

A failure in this step is game over for converting actions, and there is a good chance that consumer will be put off your brand forever.

Your customers want to arrive at the location you have sent them to and having them feel like they have just turned up to the most happening party in town. Another nice personal touch that will help win over customers is interacting with them. Whether you do this by frequently commenting on posts and replying to comments online, or hosting activities in store, it will always go down well with your customer base.

Concluding Thoughts

There are multiple ingredients to building a kick ass offline campaign, and with good planning you too celebrate the success of offline marketing. Offline marketing still packs a powerful punch when looking to increase brand awareness and your customer base, and is not something that should be overlooked at all.

Ensure you use as many methods as possible to track conversions so you can properly gauge the effectiveness of your offline campaign.

If you are still not sure if an offline marketing campaign is right for you, get in touch with us and we will help you assess, and plan your next offline campaign.

Did we miss any killer ideas? If you have something you think is vital when building an offline campaign, let us know in the comment section!