How to Connect Online and Offline Strategies for More Effective Marketing

Marketing strategy is an important resource for growing your business, however many organizations have one strategy for online marketing and one for offline efforts. Connecting the two will make both more effective.

The Importance of Marketing Strategy

The challenges that come from a lack of a marketing strategy can be understood by considering these questions: What strategies should your company focus on? Where do you see the company going in the next five years? How do you want to attract customers? What marketing channels should you focus on? Where Should You Focus Your Marketing Strategy? When it comes to marketing strategy, focus is important, even if it means narrowing your focus.

Plan for Both Online and Offline Marketing

Your company should have two-pronged marketing strategies to increase the effectiveness of your efforts. Analyze your customers’ online data to inform the marketing strategies for both. What data do you have about your customer? Are you tracking website traffic, digital conversions, email subscribers, social followers, or store visits? These metrics will provide an overall picture of your customer. If the data shows they have been interacting with your website, then it’s time to launch an advertising campaign targeting them. Create an Online Marketing Strategy Evaluate the data you have about your customer and develop an online marketing strategy. Create a product you’re comfortable with and use the same content for both your online and offline marketing efforts.

Connection Strategies to Connect Your Efforts

The method you choose to connect your offline and online marketing strategies will depend on the goals and tasks of your organization. When preparing to use offline activities, you should select activities that will provide long-term benefits. Instead of trying to grab consumers' attention during the promotion of a new product, focus on selling to existing customers. Using other offline tools can provide resources that encourage online behavior. A great example is a dental clinic that creates an online coupon system to be distributed at the dentist's office. Every time consumers use their smart phone to capture the coupon, the client's phone gets tagged with a unique ID number. This allows the clinic to track all the offers and their impact on the client's choices.

Conclusion

Online marketing can make an impact on customer and employee behavior, but it’s important to focus on both channels. Success can be measured by attracting customers and retaining customers. Use the tips in this article to use both online and offline strategies in your business. For more help developing your advertising and marketing strategies, contact Content-1 today.

Why Professional Graphic Design Is Important for Your Business

With the proliferation of design software on desktops and online, many companies are stepping away from professional graphic design resources and opting to try to automate design functions. This often causes the brand consistency, look, feel and just plain quality of work to take a turn for the worst. Here are some reasons to work with a professional when it comes to graphic design.

Why Design Matters

The graphic design process helps build credibility and trust in your brand. Without graphic design, your logo doesn’t look professional, your brand name is meaningless and your services and products don’t stand out. A little bit of design won’t ruin your company’s reputation, but no design will make it possible for it to grow, flourish and attract consumers. Few people are going to hire you without having confidence in the quality of your work. Design should be just as important as the architecture, quality of the facility or the services offered. In this digital age, being able to build up trust and credibility is what separates the best companies from the rest.

Quality and Consistency

Professional graphic designers are professionals and therefore it’s important for a brand’s design to be as consistent as possible. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to design and consistency is the key to success. Professional graphic designers keep in mind that business and branding are built from multiple angles – from visual, functional and emotional aspects. This means that a graphic designer will always consider the point of view and the needs of the company and therefore the design should always be consistent. In addition to consistency, professionalism also ensures that all the designs are created professionally, to an adequate standard.

What Should You Look For in a Designer?

Many businesses believe that being able to generate graphics is enough and that they don't have to hire a graphic designer. Unfortunately, not only do most businesses still require graphic design, it's become increasingly difficult to find the skills and the talent to do it well and within a reasonable budget. At the end of the day, a graphic designer's success relies on both his or her ability to create an engaging user experience, and the skills to read and interpret a client's business requirements. Whether you're in a creative agency, or a one-person team or even a freelancer, you will need a graphic designer to handle every part of the design process.

How to Find the Right Designer for Your Company

There are two obvious ways to find the right designer for your company. First, take the time to work with an expert. This would include an established branding expert who knows how to build a brand and can help you get your company to a fully-professional level. Take the time to find a designer with a proven background and reputation. Having a company’s brand built with the right research will give a client an advantage in all the marketplace battles. Design an image of how the company and their product will look and feel for your target audience. A good brand identity is a company’s equivalent of a brand blueprint. Companies have to spend resources and commit to developing and maintaining that brand identity.

Professional graphic design isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. Look at any kind of marketing campaign, whether it be an e-mail blast or direct mail promotion. The graphic design that shows up in the mail are normally pretty good, but if it’s completely generic, it can be annoying. Customers are expecting a professional brand to match their high-quality work. Creating a perfect logo isn’t easy or cheap. But when you hire a pro, you’ll get one that stands out and feels professional. Content-1 is your resource for professional graphic design services and so much more. We’ll help your organization attract, engage and grow its customer base with a full range of marketing and advertising capabilities.

Why You Should Update Your Website?

There’s a lot going on with your website and an update can provide numerous benefits to your business. Here are four ways you can update your site and improve your online presence. Almost every website in the world has some form of search engine optimization (SEO). It’s not only about building your website, but also getting it indexed and ranking. An update to your site and blog is a great way to optimize your search engine visibility. Align your site with current and relevant terms and phrases you’re using in your content. Give your website a better look and feel by focusing on color and simplicity.

What Will You Change?

The first step to improving your website is to identify what needs changing. There are countless other websites and technologies that will improve your site. Do you need a new server or database? Maybe you need to upgrade your content management system or some other piece of software. This doesn't have to be expensive. To jumpstart your project, see if your service provider is willing to help. Whose Database Are You Using? Consider your current database. Who is using it, and how are they using it? Make sure it's set up correctly, or find a resource to set it up for you.

How to Get Started

Are you a referral resource? Can your site assist you in making sales? Are you promoting your products and services? These questions are important, but if they don’t answer the question “is my website a functioning source of revenue?”, then there is little point to making it better. It’s not the website itself that is the issue; it’s the relationship it has with the business. If it’s not doing much at all, it has to be changed. So first look at your conversion. See what pages, from which pages, are driving the traffic. Then you can make decisions based on the data you find. If you think of visitors to your site as “customers” and not “members,” for example, you will come up with a number of solutions.

Creating a Plan

Perhaps the biggest impediment to a more active online presence is a lack of a strategy. It's often the lack of strategic planning that holds businesses back from taking advantage of the capabilities of the Internet. The hard part is knowing how to turn vision into action. Fortunately, many businesses are taking their time to plan for success. You can also turn to professionals like Content-1 for help. Having an experienced partner will help you to plan an to avoid pitfalls along the way with your website project. We can assist every step of the way from planning to completion.