When you have your own business website it is easy to forget that your business has an offline presence as well. You spend a lot of time and money on either improving the look and feel of your website or your radio ads and forget about the printed material – like your advertisement in the local newspaper. The solution is to coordinate both your online and offline marketing strategy and ensure that your marketing plans incorporate both the real and virtual worlds. Sometimes your brand presence online and offline may not bear any resemblance to each other – with one side letting the other down or maybe both are good but so very different. If you can get your customers to realise that your are the same business online and offline then you’re on to a winning strategy. Your business will be easily recognisable by your customers and more customers must be good for your business – right?
Here are three ways to help reinforce your unique brand with your customers:
1. Your Slogan/By-line/Catch Phrase – should be the same
If you have a catchy phrase printed on your flyers or in your brochures – then add it to your website (especially when you’re advertising with a particular promotion) so that when your customers go to your website from the flyer they’re looking at they immediately feel like they’re in the right place.
2. The same look and feel
It is important to have your printed material have the same look and feel as your website. This comes down to having the same fonts, colours, logos etc on your brochures or business cards. By making them the same, it helps your customer to remember you. Remember the adage that it takes seven steps to change a habit? Well, it’s the same idea when you are trying to get your customers to recognise your unique brand and organisation. Keep reminding them by your brand and in a variety of ways where you are, how they can find and contact you.
3. Add your web and/or email address to your marketing material
This is one of the most overlooked – yet surprisingly simple things to include. There is no point of having a website if people can’t find you online or know how to contact you. So don’t forget to add your email address and your website URL on your marketing material. If your email address has got the same name as your website URL, then that also helps to create a more professional and credible presence.
It is important that your online and offline marketing materials present a consistent message but there are differences in using your offline selling tools and your online website – and using both avenues effectively will provide advantages to your business if you get it right.
