Offline advertising, who still uses it and why?

[SamLH]

The only offline advertising I've used is direct; phoning, mailing, approaching at events, etc. I've never been involved in campaigns with offline methods such as bilboards, newspapers, etc.

A company I'm working with has some advertising space, offline, within a couple of the big cities in the UK and being involved in only digital advertising for my whole career I see few benefits of offline advertising.

I understand the some bigger companies may opt for offline advertising as it can generate awareness quickly and in some cases cheaply, but most of the time the traffic isn't very targetted, goals can't be tracked, ROI is difficult to measure and you can't make ammendments to the display very easily, so are small companies, start-ups, low budgets etc still interested in offline advertising?

 

[Ashley_Price]

...but most of the time the traffic isn't very targetted, goals can't be tracked, ROI is difficult to measure...

But this is only the case if you haven't set up the advertising and results analysis properly.

1/ You can target the advertising if you make sure you advertise only in appropriate places (i.e. you wouldn't advertise in the hotel industry magazine if you were selling hospital beds)

2/ Goals can be tracked - depending on what those are.

3/ ROI isn't difficult to measure if you're set up correctly. You know how much the advertising campaign cost to run... so what return or sales did you get from it?

so are small companies, start-ups, low budgets etc still interested in offline advertising?

I assume by offline advertising you mean adverts, as opposed to other ways of promoting your business. I have a friend who gets most new work from her paid advert in the (printed) copy of the Yellow Pages. She says it pays for itself several times over each year.

 

[fisicx]

....so are small companies, start-ups, low budgets etc still interested in offline advertising?

YES!

The bloke who cleans my windows has a van with his phone number on the side. That's the only advertising he does. I teach maths and have a card in my local supermarket - it gets me a regular stream of new students. I advertise in the local papers and parish magazines - again a great source of leads. The wheelie bin cleaner slicks flyers to bins and gets new customers.

There is a huge untapped market out there for savvy businesses. However, the advertising space in London will only work if it's in the right place with the right advert and seen by the right people. There are a lot of variables to consider.

 

[Nochexman]

I understand the some bigger companies may opt for offline advertising as it can generate awareness quickly and in some cases cheaply, but most of the time the traffic isn't very targetted, goals can't be tracked, ROI is difficult to measure and you can't make ammendments to the display very easily, so are small companies, start-ups, low budgets etc still interested in offline advertising?

It sounds like you are describing online advertising!

Seriously, do you believe that online activity is terribly well targeted or goals tracked (how do you know your click through didn't originate from a conversation on a bus?)

 

[Krystsina]

are small companies, start-ups, low budgets etc still interested in offline advertising?

I'm very sceptical about traditional ways of advertising. However, I don't deny them completely, but trying to turn it in an alternative way. For example, for my family small restaurant business we go for prints, but in a way that we make by online and word-of-mouth promotion to make journalists write about us. So their readers can read about us more. But we don't go for paid print ads in newspapers to advertise ourselves - I don't really think it is worth it.

 

[fisicx]

But we don't go for paid print ads in newspapers to advertise ourselves - I don't really think it is worth it.

Have you tried it? A restaurant we go to often has adverts with vouchers in the local newspapers. It brings them in a lot of custom on quiet weekdays. He also does cooking tips on the drivetime radio show so his name is well know offline. Good marketing should cover all the bases and offline is still a lucrative.

 

[SamLH]

Good marketing should cover all the bases and offline is still a lucrative.

Thanks for the input.

From what I've read so far I can see the two biggest reasons for offline advertsing are.

1) The market - some people prefer to talk face to face or over the phone so aren't going to look at an advert leading to somebodies website, or there are people that just don't use the internet that much to be reached online.

2) The businesses technology. - A 1 or 2 person business without a website isn't going to advertise online because they probably don't have a web presence or the skills to set up online advertising.

I thought the offline market was much smaller than it actually is, time to do some serious research I think.

 

[SamLH]

It sounds like you are describing online advertising!

Seriously, do you believe that online activity is terribly well targeted or goals tracked (how do you know your click through didn't originate from a conversation on a bus?)

And you're butt hurt because?

Of course online activity is terribly well targetted,,, If you need explaining why you have 0 credibility.

 

[Nochexman]

Of course online activity is terribly well targetted,,, If you need explaining why you have 0 credibility.

Get you :0)

 

[SamLH]

Get you :0)

Sorry, I thought you were serious and wanted to act like a grown up professional. Didn't realise there was people on this forum that we only here for the attention.

 

[Nochexman]

I understand the some bigger companies may opt for offline advertising as it can generate awareness quickly and in some cases cheaply, but most of the time the traffic isn't very targetted, goals can't be tracked, ROI is difficult to measure and you can't make ammendments to the display very easily, so are small companies, start-ups, low budgets etc still interested in offline advertising?

Sorry, I thought you were being patronising; you probably weren't, but the way you write sounds like you are. I'm sorry if I misjudged you.

Frankly, however, the idea, in 2016, that someone should think online is the smart way to do advertising and offline is just for bigger companies is ill considered.

Offline can be incredibly effective when done well, but a complete waste if not. And the same applies to online. Effective advertising is the consequence of effective planning and it isn't the exclusive purlieu of either on or offline.

I'll get off me high horse now.

 

[fisicx]

Of course online activity is terribly well targetted,

Actually, no it's not. Most online marketing is very badly targeted. If you visit a site to buy socks you then see loads of adverts for socks on other sites. Which is pointless - you have already brought socks so why show me adverts for more socks. What they should be doing is showing me adverts for socks related products (like a sock tree or foot spray or whatever).

 

[myfairworld]

Advertising effectively is difficult full stop! But off line advertising does work. Things to think especially about are that 'older' potential customer bases may contain more people who respond to off-line rather than on-line - this is changing of course and will continue to do so but at present there are still a lot of 'older' people who don't do online or who do but still respond more to off line stuff. "Oldies" tend to be disregarded by many businesses but they form a very significant proportion of the buying public and may be ignored at your peril.

Also, as others have said, there are all sorts of ways of doing 'offline' advertising. Adverts in the local paper obviously work well for some businesses but are a complete waste of money for others. For some businesses things like adverts in the local church magazine may be not just cheaper but much more effective. One reason that I've worked out for this is that church goers with loyalty to their local church often read their church magazine (however crudely it is produced) with a thoroughness which they do not award to the local rag. Then when the boiler goes bang or they need a new door fitted or some new plants for the garden or their granddaughter needs a prom dress they remember that someone was offering something along those lines in the church magazine and go searching for it. I suspect that your average church goer keeps church magazines long after the daily and local newspapers have been assigned to the recycling bin.

 

[fisicx]

I own a classic car and get regular offers for spare parts by email. But these get lost in the general miasma that arrives daily. But once every couple of months they have a big discounted sale and send a post card to everybody to tell them how much they get off. This gets noticed far more than the emails.

My wife gets endless catalogues through the post - she browses, selects then buys online - probably more that she would do if she just visited the website.

@Krystsina just imagine if you were collecting contact details and each month sent out a 10% off voucher for a midweek special in the post - make it glossy and posh and you could bring back customers who don't visit so regularly. Getting a card with an offer can be far more attractive and effective to many people than an email or a facebook post.

There are loads of examples of how offline marketing (including advertising) can make a big difference to local businesses.

 

[columbo]

I'm a total convert when it comes to online marketing.

BUT, what I notice is this our postcard marketing campaigns bring in a much more loyal customer base than any online medium. Moreover, we can target specific geographic areas with a much greater accuracy.

Off-line advertising works when Google Adwords campaigns have long since ceased as people tend to keep printed matter.

Offline advertising executed well has a resonance that online will never have. Several academic studies have shown that people remember content better from print than seeing it on a screen.

 

[Krystsina]

Have you tried it? A restaurant we go to often has adverts with vouchers in the local newspapers. It brings them in a lot of custom on quiet weekdays. He also does cooking tips on the drivetime radio show so his name is well know offline. Good marketing should cover all the bases and offline is still a lucrative.

We tried it once - and didn't notice any difference. Having vouchers is a good idea for some places, but we wouldn't go for it to keep up with the level of our restaurant. Our Chef is performing on the TV and radio as well - but it is not paid by our side. He gets invitations to give the interviews and tell about the restaurant or share some cooking receipts as we promoted him online and word-of-mouth good enough for it.

 

[Krystsina]

@Krystsina just imagine if you were collecting contact details and each month sent out a 10% off voucher for a midweek special in the post - make it glossy and posh and you could bring back customers who don't visit so regularly. Getting a card with an offer can be far more attractive and effective to many people than an email or a facebook post.

I like this idea I don't have anything against offline advertising, but it is important to make it really work. I'm sure that your example would definitely bring some people back. But seeing an ad in the newspaper (without any benefits like vouchers, just an ad) - will it really bring back people? I doubt it.

 

[Scott@KarmaContent]

With any sort of marketing it's horses for courses but any business would be mad to discount offline marketing without investigating it fully.

 

[fisicx]

But seeing an ad in the newspaper (without any benefits like vouchers, just an ad) - will it really bring back people? I doubt it.

How do you know until you've tried?

Imagine a weekly advert with details of this specials (with pictures of the dishes). People will get used to seeing the advert every week. It might not bring in customers on week one but it will start to percolate through. The mistake many make is only doing it once. Good marketing needs multiple impressions, it's why you see the same advert on TV again and again. What you want is for people to see the advert/promotion and think 'that looks nice'. Then the next week reinforce the 'looks tasty' feeling and by week three they will be ready to pick up the phone and make a reservation.

It does work but like any marketing it needs careful planning and execution.

 

[Scott@KarmaContent]

When I think about buying a bike, I think of 'Charnock Richard Cycles'. When I think about buying a bed, I immediately think about 'Bensons for Beds'. Why? They both used to have incredibly catchy local radio adverts years ago and I can still recite them to this day. That's great offline marketing.

 

[Krystsina]

How do you know until you've tried?

I just wrote on top that we tried placing an ad in the newspaper. Well, not newspaper, but magazine.

I would better pay those money to promote the restaurant on Facebook with the same picture of food and description of specials - at least I will be able to see how many people were really reached by my ad, how many people got engaged + Facebook reactions/comment. The mechanism will be the same as you just described.

 

[fisicx]

I just wrote on top that we tried placing an ad in the newspaper. Well, not newspaper, but magazine.

How many adverts? Was it a sustained campaign over a couple of months?

Read the post from @colombo again. My parents don't do facebook but they eat out regularly and get inspiration form the local newspapers. How many other 'oldies' are you missing because you promote online not offline? They won't get your postcard with the offers because they don't even know you exist - or maybe know you exist but need a bit of a nudge.

 

[ethical PR]

We tried it once - and didn't notice any difference. Having vouchers is a good idea for some places, but we wouldn't go for it to keep up with the level of our restaurant. Our Chef is performing on the TV and radio as well - but it is not paid by our side. He gets invitations to give the interviews and tell about the restaurant or share some cooking receipts as we promoted him online and word-of-mouth good enough for it.

And that's the problem - as you know advertising isn't likely to work on a one off basis, it's about creating ongoing brand awareness through various on and off line mediums.

 

[ethical PR]

I just wrote on top that we tried placing an ad in the newspaper. Well, not newspaper, but magazine.

I would better pay those money to promote the restaurant on Facebook with the same picture of food and description of specials - at least I will be able to see how many people were really reached by my ad, how many people got engaged + Facebook reactions/comment. The mechanism will be the same as you just described.

How many people who saw your ad and you engaged on FB became paying customers at your restaurant? How do you track this?

 

[fisicx]

Tracking people from newspaper advertisements is easy. Just add a unique promo code to each to get a free coffee. Cost is virtually zero.

 

[Krystsina]

How many people who saw your ad and you engaged on FB became paying customers at your restaurant? How do you track this?

1. Some people leave comments under our FB posts tagging their friends with the words like "We should go there". Some of them put likes or other FB reaction. How can I see if some of them became our customers? -> They write message to our FB page to book a table.

2. By feedback. People usually say "Oh, we saw your restaurant on Facebook and decided to come".

3. By the amount of FB page messages with the request to book a table in comparison with phone calls -> people prefer to write a message instead of calling by phone.

 

[Krystsina]

And that's the problem - as you know advertising isn't likely to work on a one off basis, it's about creating ongoing brand awareness through various on and off line mediums.

Agree, that's why as I wrote on top, we use online promotion as well as offline, but we don't go for paid offline promotion.

 

[Krystsina]

How many other 'oldies' are you missing because you promote online not offline?

Oh, common, I wrote that we go both ways. "Oldies" are reached by the interviews with our Chef, articles about our restaurant in general, TV/radio shows where our Chef participates. I believe an article on 2-4 pages with 4 pics about our restaurant will bring enough interest.

 

[fisicx]

All of that is good but is it local? How are you pulling in people near the restaurant who may well become regulars? A TV interview is great but the marketing value is very limited if watch by someone in Glasgow when the restaurant is in Slough.

But you didn't answer the question. How long did you run the magazine campaign for?

Please don't think I'm dissing what you do, it's just that you wanted advice on print based marketing. And all the evidence points to it having a good ROI if done properly.

 

[Krystsina]

All of that is good but is it local? How are you pulling in people near the restaurant who may well become regulars? A TV interview is great but the marketing value is very limited if watch by someone in Glasgow when the restaurant is in Slough.

Yes, it is local. My case is not the UK case but another European country. I think I mentioned it in some old threads previously when you participated there as well. But just in case, will repeat it here. So the country my restaurant is located in is not that big, having 3 major big cities, so TV channels and newspapers reach them and regions as well.

The magazine campaign was for 6 months, once per every new issue of the magazine, so it is 6 ads.

And by the way, I didn't ask for advice I shared my opinion on the question of this thread, and then all the questions to me started Our marketing works perfectly, so I don't have any troubles with it, that's why I don't really need the advice for it. But I appreciate some of your ideas that you shared, I really like the idea with some posh discount vouchers coming to the actual post, so maybe we will use it in the future when we will have less people visiting us to make them all come back again

 

[Kevinize_FB]

Even if you do not have a web presence you can still set up a basic landing page, drive traffic to it to capture peoples names and phone numbers.

Then you can use that to continue your offline phoning.

Its not always one or the other, mix it up and gain competitive advantage.

 

[DavidWH]

When I think about buying a bike, I think of 'Charnock Richard Cycles'. When I think about buying a bed, I immediately think about 'Bensons for Beds'. Why? They both used to have incredibly catchy local radio adverts years ago and I can still recite them to this day. That's great offline marketing.

When I wanted a bike, I googled local bike shops, and clicked the first organic link. Low and behold the same shop you used following an advert on the radio.

 

[Alan]

Am I in the right place

No wrong place

 

[Alan]

I don't really count SMS as offline. But then its not really online. All due respect to TXTlocal that started this thread, SMS is a dying technology, and won't be long before it is as useful as Telex, Pagers & Fax machines.

How many people regularly uses SMS versus instant messaging apps like WhatsApp?

 

[TCB Media Partnerships]

We are doing a lot of work with a lot of the more traditional media channels, particularly radio, press and TV, as some of the other members, notably Ashley have said traditional media can allow you to

• Drive direct response.
• Measure it.
• Track it.

this of course allows you to learn and refine you campaign, hopefully to get better results from doing so, you'll often see it helps your online presence too.

 

[Paul @ Ascent]

It's an impossible question to answer without knowing who the company are, what they are selling and who/where their target audience is.

Analogue can be far more effective still in the right circumstances.

 

[webgeek]

Flyers - for people like removals companies, are ideal.

Although I'm a died in the wool online marketer/salesperson, I know that some traditional forms work, especially depending on your area targeted and what is the age of the people you're targeting.

 

[Julia Sta Romana]

Thanks for the input.

From what I've read so far I can see the two biggest reasons for offline advertsing are.

1) The market - some people prefer to talk face to face or over the phone so aren't going to look at an advert leading to somebodies website, or there are people that just don't use the internet that much to be reached online.

2) The businesses technology. - A 1 or 2 person business without a website isn't going to advertise online because they probably don't have a web presence or the skills to set up online advertising.

I thought the offline market was much smaller than it actually is, time to do some serious research I think.

If your market is local, traditional advertising would also work better. During off season, resorts would market more to the local community using low cost, traditional marketing techniques like posters. leaflets and promos. This allows them to break even during slow months.

 

[EC1 Solutions]

The key to success in marketing (online, offline, traditional or whatever) has always been the been the same - the need to understand your target customer. Who they are (how old, location, time of day they shop, how much their income is, etc etc), how they found you and what makes your product/service more attractive to them. You really cant go into too much detail to build your understanding. You should compare this to converted sales to make sure your ideas are accurate. Hubspot do some great free inbound marketing courses and resources. I aways suggest looking at your competitors marketing successes and failures too.

 

[yourmoneytree.co.uk]

In my experience both online and offline marketing can work brilliantly when applied correctly - the problem is that few people (including agencies) actually put in the leg work to know what works and what doesn't.

There's a myth that online marketing is well targeted by default, it's not. Online marketing takes time and analysis to get right BUT what it does have in it's favour is that it's much easier to track the outcome of that marketing.

Because it's more trackable people think it's better than traditional media - but both can be very successful provided you apply some thought to what you're doing.

Take for example Nike - they heavily use traditional marketing routes centered around celebrity endorsements and that really works for them. This has then in turn been copied by brands all over the world in an online sense via instagram (causing controversy). Even though the medium is online, getting famous people to wear and show off your products is really a traditional advertising method but with a better method of distribution.

Get your analysis right and both online and offline can be very effective - just make sure to track what you can otherwise you'll end up being afraid to stop advertising on something "incase" it gives you sales because you actually don't know where your sales come from!