The Benefits of Advertising Offline in 2020

Over the past decade, it’s become increasingly apparent that advertising is shifting online. The traditional outlets of advertising – such as billboards, radio, TV, and magazines – have given way to their digital equivalents. What this means for many businesses is that they’re competing in a new space for advertising, using digital media to show off their brand and their products and services. Although this rush to advertise in the online space continues, there are unique opportunities to advertise offline that your company should take advantage of. Below, you’ll learn how to do that in 2020.

Basic Online Adverts

Before we look at the benefits of offline advertising, it’s worth giving online advertising its due. In recent years, the amount of cash paid by companies to advertise their wares on sites such as Facebook, Google, and YouTube far exceeded domestic television advertising, which used to be the gold standard in the world of marketing.

What this means is that enough companies feel that it’s online advertising that will be most important in attracting new and diverse customers in the years ahead. They aren’t wrong. In the online world, you’re able to:

• Target your adverts based on user data and demographic footprints
• Post for free on social media sites across the web
• Have your very own home on the web, where you’ll share your products
• Sell your products on some of the biggest e-commerce websites on earth

All of these are beneficial to your company. Nonetheless, they can also be time-consuming, expensive, and without a guarantee of a return on your investment. It’s incredibly hard to measure the effectiveness of some digital marketing campaigns. It’s these flaws that you will avoid when you advertise offline.

Offline Prices

One of the most exciting changes in the modern world of marketing is that it’s finally affordable for smaller businesses to advertise in the spaces that were traditionally out-of-reach for them. Local billboards, for instance, were more likely to show off an advert from a major multinational brand than a local business, and a slot in TV show ad-breaks would cost you a five-figure sum.

Nowadays, these costs have come right down, and even small, local businesses are able to flex their marketing might in order to draw in more customers and gain more brand recognition through offline advertising. The billboard at the entrance to a town is a wonderful place to advertise your shop: every single visitor will take note.

Offline Innovations

That’s not the only reason why there’s a small renaissance in the world of offline advertising. The other is technological improvement: put simply, the digital and the offline have fused into some remarkably exciting advertising opportunities for those businesses who are able to take the opportunity at the right time. One such advertising opportunity is in the world of digital signage – where you can create interactive or video-based – adverts for your company.

In order to help you create your marketing materials for this hybrid medium, you should seek out the services of digital signage solutions companies that can help you curate your campaign in the offline space. With digital advertising boards appearing in thousands of locations across the country – and the ability to install them yourself in specific locations – this is a wonderful opportunity to market in the physical space.

Radio and TV

As alluded to above, the costs of advertising on radio and television have plummeted in recent years, thanks to the rise of digital marketing. What this means for your company is that you’re finally able to reach a mass audience on the airwaves in a way that may have seemed impossible mere months ago. What’s more, by advertising in this once-hallowed space, you’ll bring an element of prestige and status to your brand that consumers will respond to by visiting your store or website.

To begin considering advertising in these spaces, you will need to find the right skills to bring to your team. You will need to devise a campaign that uses voice actors, actors, animators, and editors to produce an advert that will get the public excited about your brand. You’ll also want to select the right time slot, based on research, at which to show your advert. This should be based around the audience data that you’re able to get hold of – and the consumer preferences that these audiences have.

Specific Locations

When it comes to both billboard advertising and the likes of pamphlets, flyers, and posters in your local area, there can be nothing more important than making your campaign location-specific. One of the downsides of advertising a local business online is that your advert may be seen by people who are spread across the country and, indeed, the world. While you may get people interested in your brand, many of them will be unable to visit your store or unwilling to trade with a business located many miles away.

The solution to this issue, of course, is local advertising in the specific locations that you feel will bring business to your store and to your website. You need to think about the spaces that consumers gather in to draw up a list of potential sites to market in. You should then contact the billboard owner, or make your pamphlets, in order to bring in local customers to your local business.

Real Returns

Finally, if you do opt to hand out flyers or pamphlets in your local area, you’ll be able to measure their effectiveness by simply adding a small discount to the shop of those consumers who hand over their flyer at the checkout. This will show you how effective your campaign has been. If you’re able to show that your offline campaign has brought in a significant amount of custom to your store, you’ll have a great excuse to continue working on offline advertising – far cheaper than online adverts – in the future.

While the world of digital marketing explodes, it’s worth considering offline adverts once more as an opportunity to show off your brand and your products to local audiences who will trust your business after seeing your adverts in traditional marketing spaces.