If You’re A Marketer, Going Offline Still Has Its Benefits

“One technology doesn’t replace another, it complements. Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators.” – Stephen Fry

Sales and marketing is a fun and upwardly-mobile career choice that allows you to learn about various industries and meet new and interesting people. You can approach and tackle the career in a wide variety of ways, with the goal of ensuring your clients get the publicity and return on investment they need. This can be through emails, social media, print media, online advertising and more. However, nothing will ever replace face-to-face human interaction. The Internet may have its advantages, and it may be temptingly efficient to type out emails and stick to social media, but technology will never be as personable as someone standing right in front of you or on the other line. If you’re in business that means you’re dealing with clients, and clients have a tendency to be human. So put down your tablet, come out from behind keyboard, turn off the computer and just talk to people.

Working With Clients

To start, try to think about how you find your customers. If you’re trying to get their attention online you’re going to have a tough time competing with the plethora of other websites that are already there and throwing out advertisements at anyone who goes near them—but even if you do advertise it’s still hard to make sure that your potential customers see them or pay any attention to them. Now imagine trying to get the attention of passers-by on a street. Not only could you walk right up to them, but you could use billboards, bus stops and posters to your advantage, rather than restricting yourself to online traffic passing through particular websites.

Over The Phone (Getting The Right System)

Marketing over the phone is far from dead. In fact, it is one of the most cost-efficient ways to share your products and services. Sure, it can seem daunting to pick up that phone and start smiling and dialing. However, once you start, you’ll get into a groove and your efforts will soon start to pay off. It is the step in between social media connections and in-person meetings. You are putting a voice to your name, and you give your current or potential client the ability to ask you questions in order to get your responses in real time. You can also gauge their reception to your offerings by their pauses and voice intonations.

On the other hand, you might not always be available to answer the phone. But, you don’t want to leave your clients hanging. This is where telephony reviews can come in handy. You’ll find features, benefits and screenshots to help you make your decision. First of all, you want to make sure incoming calls are directed correctly. In addition, you want a clear and concise transmission! The last thing you want is to lose the potential for your next great deal because a client doesn’t understand you.

Face-To-Face

You can also make a huge impact on a customer with your physical appearance and body language as well as your sales talk. It’s easier to build up a friendly conversation and form a positive connection with someone if he or she likes the look of you and can see how enthusiastic you are about your products. It’s also remarkably easy for people to not read something. Just because you’ve written it doesn’t mean that they’ll remain interested and finish reading it.

But you can capture and hold their attention if you’re actually talking to them. They’ll be less tempted to walk away and they’ll finish listening to what you have to say. With face-to-face selling, according to the Direct Selling Association, “The 2013 estimated retail sales of USD 32.67 billion for the direct selling channel were up 3.3% in the United States, from USD 31.63 billion in 2012.” In addition, you can adapt whatever you say to how they react, making your marketing strategy more personal and unique to every single customer.

The Human Connection

But don’t think that online marketing doesn’t have its place, of course. It’s all about seamlessly weaving together your human personality with your internet presence, allowing people to feel personally connected to you and your business at all times. Make sure that your clients feel as though they know you’re on the other side of their computer screen, and they can also walk right up or call and speak to you if they need to.

Your online marketing and identity must become the partner to your offline marketing. Both must be clearly related to each other. Keep the designs and catch-phrases in sync and recognizable so that all viewers see the same company when they find you online, as well as offline. The more similar your online and offline presence is, the more familiar the business will become, and the more connections your customers will make. You want all viewers to remember your products and remember you—after all, how can they buy something they can’t remember and from a company that they’ve forgotten about?

Selling and marketing isn’t just about an attractive product, it’s also about how your customers feel. So don’t rely on the efficiency of technology to sell your product for you—get to know your customers, meet them, talk to them and understand them. And most of all, form a connection with them.

So, are you ready to take your marketing efforts to the next level? Let us know how in the comments section below!

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