In recent times, there is a rapid increase in the number of ecommerce business and market has become cluttered with competitors. As a consequence, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the marketers to gain more customers. In order to gain more customers firms need to indulge in offline marketing in conjunction with the online marketing. By promoting the business offline firms can get hold of the customers who are not techno savvy and allure them to visit their website. Offline marketing should not be undervalued as it is a very potential way to attract more customers.
Here, we have discussed 5 ways to promote the ecommerce website offline:
Print advertising:
Print advertising is a very powerful tool to gain more customers. Print ads can be published in newspaper, national or local magazines, pamphlets, billboards, banners and so on. Having creative print ads and business cards can help you to make long lasting impression on customers. Print ads can be more useful while you are offering discounts or sales. However, one needs to be careful in selecting the appropriate medium that would cater to the target audience.
For example: As per the statistics from the 2013-2014 Magazine Media Factbook released by the Association of Magazine Media, Magazine advertising increases sales across multiple categories, particularly in the food and beauty categories. Magazine advertising for salad dressing and lipstick increased sales by 18 and 36 percent respectively.
Creating brand ambassadors:
A firm can benefit the most by having the brand ambassadors. The ambassadors need not to be the celebrities or famous personalities.
Your customers can be your brand ambassadors. Try to gain trust and loyalty amongst your customers and deliver as per their expectations. If they are happy with the services they can spread word of mouth for your website and can help you to gain more exposure. If the customers are loyal than they would recommend your website to others and help you to build the network.
Word of mouth publicity is the best way of offline marketing. For instance, Shofer’s Furniture implemented a brand ambassador program and had phenomenal results that increased their site traffic by 4000%.
Radio and TV advertising:
Radio and TV are very popular form of media and are accessed by people of all age groups. Hence, by using these forms of marketing you can easily reach the target audience. Majority of the popular ecommerce sites are indulged in such type of activities. Radio and TV ads can be useful in communicating special type of offers or while launching a particular type of product. Placing the URL in the TV ad can also help in increasing the website traffic. According to a recent study by Efficient Frontier, Television ads can drive an 80% rise in branded search. In the study, searches during an eight-week Television ads campaign will typically jump between 60 to 80% on the brand name, and between 40 and 60% on generic terms related to the brand.
Sponsoring events:
Try to sponsor local or national college, school or community events as this can help to gain visibility.
Moreover, you can directly reach the target audience. Associating yourself with the educational institute or cultural group can also help you to gain credibility. Furthermore, school and college students are ready to experiment with new products and brands. Hence, by sponsoring such events you can easily connect to the potential customers. Sponsoring the events at national level can help to gain more popularity and fame.
Unconventional ways of advertising:
You can also engage in certain unconventional ways of advertising as it is very helpful in magnetizing the customers. You can engage in activities like mentioning about website and website address on the vehicles of the company. People spend a large amount of time in commuting hence mentioning about the website will help you to gain exposure in the market.
You can also indulge in activities like printing the name of the website in pens, t-shirts and sharing other promotional products having the details about your website. Practicing marketing in unconventional ways can gain you more popularity as they are not practiced by everyone.
For instance, Former Dragons Den contestant and winner of North East Entrepreneur of the Year Ling Valentine adopted a unique method of advertising the car leasing website. Ling Valentine has a unique method of promoting her car leasing website. Ling got a 6 wheeled military truck and her husband built a missile on the top.
The truck was parked next to the A1 motorway in North East England for a couple of years before being moved to one of the busiest motorways in Western Europe, the M62, where it remains. Millions of motorists saw the missile truck every year and it paid to be a better investment than any of the online advertising campaign.
Summary:
Owing to the popularity of internet, there has been a rapid rise in the number of ecommerce sites. It is becoming difficult for the companies to attract and retain the customers.
This can be achieved by indulging in offline marketing and alluring more customers to visit the website. Offline advertising can help in increasing the website traffic ultimately leading to increase in sales.
