You might be surprised, but one of the best small and medium enterprises online presence return of investment strategies is by converting offline.
When you search online for online marketing and opportunities for small and medium enterprises, you end up seeing loads of information. Most of it is on how to have an inbound marketing strategy to convert traffic and users into real customers and sell whatever you have online.
But we live on both the online and offline world, and you shouldn’t think about it separately. That user that went to your site or social profile page has an internet connection and is active online. Sometimes, this same user doesn’t want to buy without touching the product (if its a physical one) or test the service first or even talk to someone real without a digital shield of automated questions and answers.
The Offline Comes to the Rescue for Small and Medium Enterprises
This is where the offline comes to close the deal. Even though you’re a digital services or products company like we are, there’s still a real office, a real team behind it. Some people prefer to deal with a human being instead of a cold form. Sometimes, talking about our specific needs is what it takes to understand quite quickly if its the best solution for what we’re looking for.
Depending on your business’s core business, you must approach online and offline marketing as a global strategy to complement the other.
Taking that to an even more stretched proposition, if you’re a freelancer or a sales executive, whatever you do online can be converted by offline methods. It can even serve as a business card or branding when we’re visiting a business fair. Someone remembers who we are because we have a reputable brand online or enough credible content to keep a good first impression that opens the first door and get a deal.
We are the Same, ON and Offline
The opportunities are endless, as long as you keep this main idea in mind. We’re not different people on and offline. We still have the same desires, needs and problems in both worlds, so don’t treat people differently. You can benefit more from the online because there are easier tools to engage and avoid some initial blocks or embarrassment from approaching you. They’re more open to interacting with you since a digital screen protects them.
The same situation happens to you as a brand or a profile. To avoid confusion, fear and prevent them from thinking that you have schizophrenia, you must maintain the same communication guidelines, the same approach, the same language. If you create a conducting line, the rewards are better conversions, better deals, and better sales.
Some Small and Medium Enterprises just Can’t Really Sell Online.
As you can imagine, some businesses just can’t complete the sell online. It’s virtually impossible. Even if you have the necessary documents, tools and forms implemented, some businesses cannot be done online. Or at least is so unlikely that it isn’t profitable to work on it with that purpose.
As an example, if you’re a construction contractor and you’re applying to a new business abroad by competition programs, it’s unlikely that you end up with a closed multi-million dollar contract just through your site form. But get this: if you’re competing with other equal companies, every resource you’ve got is a potential “weapon” to win this fight. If you’ve got a more robust, credible, referable website and profiles, you are at an advantage from your competition, don’t you think in these plays, every asset counts. So make it worthwhile.
Your Homework for Today
Yes, you’ve got homework to finish Today:
- Think about how you can use the Offline to convert from your Online presence.
- In what terms are you using online differently from the offline approach?
- What can you do to make your online and offline mix more interconnected?
- Have you set up any way to measure the offline conversions brought by the online activities? If so, are they being effective as a measuring tool?
It’s all for today. Please share your experience with us for the benefit of all small and medium enterprise owners.
