How to spread your online brand offline

If you’re an online brand, most of the content you’ll find will tell you how to better promote your brand online. Common online promotional methods include social media, search engine optimisation and online ads. To break up the routine, maybe user forums or data mining get suggested. However, online brands tend to forget that there is a whole other world out there offline. Here are tips on how to spread your online brand offline.

Old Fashioned Value-Added Paper

What is old-fashioned, value added paper? It could be a coupon that you give to people that may sit on a desk for a few days before they look at it, and a few of them will redeem it. While most of these coupons are thrown away, you know that the customer will at least get a look at it and be reminded by it of your brand before it disappears. Conversely, email marketing may never reach the customer due to spam filters and is permanently lost when deleted.

Referral cards with or without coupons are another option. Someone talking about a business with a friend may make an impression, but if they hand over a referral card with your business information, they don’t have to waste time trying to figure out your web address or remember the full business name the next day. The tangible item given to them also adds legitimacy to your business over an online ad that could be a scam, and it creates a strong emotional connection with the person who handles it.

Don’t forget the business cards. This is true even for bloggers. You could talk to 50 people, mentioning your blog. Of the few who are interested in checking it out later, even fewer remember the address. Hand out a business card with your name, your blog name and URL, and that pass-through rate will be much higher.

Another old-fashioned solution is handing out leaflets. Whether it is a handout that promotes your current sale or informs them of the fact you exist, you’re generating awareness and eventually sales.

Eye-Catching Advertising

One of the best ways to get the attention of drivers and other passers-by is with a flag. Branded feather flags can be planted in front of your store or along the thoroughfare. Unlike large banners, the results of feather flag printing are typically within even strict sign rules, and they are easy to remove or move compared to large, hard signs. 

Very large printed beach flags rival massive billboards while gaining a cheaper, more flexible and storable solution. Cheap beach flags can be moved to wherever your customers are, making custom beach flags the ideal advertising solution for food vans, tourism related businesses and other firms whose audience may be moving. 

For example, a tour guide or photographer could use beach flags to promote themselves without taking time away from customers. Plus, you’ll inadvertently be in a lot of photos shared on social media. Or you may utilise print24's beach flag printing services who use quality materials to create banners that stand out in a trade show, clearly indicating to others where you are located.

Note that you may also be able to put up flags next to other outdoor signage. Whether you can put a branded flag out on the street near your brick and mortar office, or across from a physical store that sells rival products depends on a lot of things.

T-Shirts

T-shirts are a popular form of offline advertising. Give them to your biggest fans as rewards for word of mouth marketing, and they’ll redouble their efforts while becoming a walking billboard. Give them to your employees to create branded uniforms on the cheap. Have giveaways online for T-shirts and other branded swag and you’ll see massive social media sharing because you’re giving something away for free. Free items get shared, too, on social media threads just for freebies, so it will get your company name and website in front of many who would otherwise never have heard of you.

Printed Stationery

Printed stationery can be utilised in several different ways. Branded bills of material, packing slips and invoices look more professional and remind anyone who sees them about your company. Branded to-do lists and other practical pieces of stationery will sit on someone’s desk for a long time, promoting your brand and/or products every time it is used. For example, there are food brands that give away free printed shopping lists, and their item is printed on the list. Now the customer has a not so subtle promotion for the item while in the store where it is sold. Game schedules with menus for your restaurant’s game day offerings are another practical product that promotes your business.

Even if your product is only available online, there are a variety of printed materials you can use to promote your business or service. Focusing all your efforts online is one of the biggest mistakes online business owners make and cuts them off from a large portion of their potential audience. So, if you want to take a different approach and start building brand awareness outside the online realm, turn your attention offline and look at more traditional marketing methods.