Marketing Online Marketing – Offline
We had a stretch in February when business was slow. I don’t remember another time during the past five years when we went more than a couple of weeks without somebody contacting us for SEO or PPC, but it got me thinking. It struck me as odd that we’ve always had about the right amount of business without ever doing any traditional marketing. Even so, my guess was that most people in Iowa had never heard of Blue Traffic.
During that 2-3 week “slow period” I decided it was time to start building some brand awareness. While we’ve always done online advertising via several pay-per-click campaigns, most businesses aren’t searching for SEO and PPC, and those who stumble upon our site for more traditional advertising phrases seldom take the next step. I made up my mind to try a few geographically targeted banner ads (using Google’s Display Ad Builder), and I also decided to test a direct mail postcard marketing campaign.
Direct mail isn’t rocket science, but I quickly discovered I had lots to learn and found plenty of tips and secrets to making our campaign more successful. Postcard size, paper quality, layout, graphics, text placement, list filtering, calls to action, best days to mail…my “offline optimization” list grew the more research I did.
The print advertising process brought back memories of what it was like to market a business or product before the Internet. One of the most frustrating things was figuring out how best to track results. I wouldn’t be able to view impressions (how many people looked at the mailing) or views (how many people opened the mailing - although you can’t really open a postcard…so maybe I should call these “flip overs”). The analytics I’ve grown accustomed to watching online would be next to impossible to track offline. Even so, I would know how many phone calls the mailings generated and by watching the increase in direct traffic to our site, I could estimate how many people went there for more information.
Since the main purpose of these postcards is to start getting our name out there, results might be better measured long term. My hope is that over time, more Des Moines and central Iowa businesses will become aware of our company and the services we offer. Time will tell if we are able to market our online services using offline, traditional media. I’ll keep you posted!
View the front of our first postcard mailing here.
