Is Now the Time to Reexamine Offline Marketing?

With the online world becoming incredibly saturated, there’s never been a better time to explore offline marketing channels.

The world wide web has nearly two billion websites, and about 400 million of these sites are currently active. The goal of most of these 400 million websites is, of course, to attract users who will buy products, order services, or bring in ad revenue.

How do you compete with those numbers?

The truth is that successful online marketing takes a lot of work and, in many cases, some luck. It’s also becoming prohibitively expensive for many marketers, depending on your niche and the budgets of your competition.

At the same time, the competitiveness and saturation of online marketing have opened other advertising channels that are now underutilized.

By focusing on offline marketing a little more, you can promote your brand at higher levels of engagement and help your business emerge above the marketing chaos of the online world.

If you moved away from offline marketing when online advertising became the norm, now is the time to look at offline again because much of the competition has evaporated.

The problems with online marketing

Website saturation is causing a lot of difficulties for online marketing. It’s making it harder than ever for users to find your website, for one. We’re seeing it become more challenging for marketers to attain high rankings on Google because there’s so much competition.

As for blogging, keep in mind that there are about one billion blogs out there. Many are inactive, but it’s next to impossible for an interested party to stumble upon your blog today without using a search engine. Therefore, the success of your blog is entirely at the mercy of Google if you focus solely on search engine optimization.

Are you relying on email marketing? The average household receives 157 emails per day — how many of them do you think people are actually reading?

In addition to the incredible amount of competition online, some changes are making it more difficult for advertisers to get their names out there.

For example, estimates suggest that 2020 will see 50% of all searches conducted through voice. While this estimate may be too high, more users are adopting voice search every day and engaging in a type of SEO that uses different rules. If your company isn’t set-up to meet these changes, it will cause problems for your online presence.

Other popular online marketing channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Ads are also becoming too saturated for many marketers to use to reach their target audiences.

While all of these marketing methods can and do work to some extent, you shouldn’t rely on them entirely because they will miss major segments of your potential customer base.

Offline marketing channels

So, what’s the answer to these online marketing woes? Try adding more offline marketing to your media mix. So many advertisers have moved their marketing efforts online in search of easy returns that many offline channels are now half empty.

If you’re able to move at least some of your online marketing budget to offline channels, you’ll find less competition and a more straightforward path to your customers and return on investment (ROI).

Offline marketing can mean a lot of things — including billboards, television ads, radio spots, and newspaper flyers — depending on whom you wish to reach and your current budget. There’s also direct mail, which offers a 29% ROI thanks to its ability to reach prospects and customers directly.

Getting involved in direct mail

During the advent of digital marketing, advertisers moved away from direct mail. In fact, according to the USPS, the average household only receives two pieces of direct mail per day. That leaves great opportunities for marketers going back to it.

The numbers support this assertion: According to the USPS, 81% of recipients report at least scan the direct mail marketing they receive and 79% find it more convenient than going online.

Direct mail also allows you to target individuals, groups, neighborhoods, or any other segment that would be interested in your goods or services. Rather than hoping the customers come to you, direct mail allows you to approach them directly with offers they want.

Direct mail assistance is available

The numbers suggest that now is the time to reexamine offline marketing and to give direct mail a try, but where do you start? The good news is that there is assistance out there to guide you through your campaign and to help make the most of it.

Gunderson Direct is one of the country’s largest and most successful direct mail marketing agencies. We can help with every aspect of your direct mail campaign, from building your list to sending the material and collecting data on its ROI. Contact us for more information on how our direct mail services can benefit you.