Is offline marketing dead?
No, it’s not.
Despite the hype over the metaverse and online marketing, offline marketing will never truly fade away. As long as people still need to physically eat and sleep, then they will have to go about some aspects of their day in the real world. Which is where you, the intrepid business owner, have the chance to market to them IRL!
If you’ve been focusing your efforts on email campaigns, social media, search engine optimization (SEO), and other online marketing techniques, your knowledge of offline marketing tactics may be a little rusty. In that case, you’ll find this blog post the perfect refresher.
Read on as we share how you can market your business offline using tried-and-tested methods—and with the help of our PosterMyWall flyer maker.
1. Produce professional business cards with business card templates
When you meet with a potential customer, give them a business card that summarizes your offerings and how they can get in touch. You don’t want to have a great meeting, only to lose the sale because they can’t contact you afterward.
If you’ve got great drawing skills, you can try your hand at drawing images for your business cards. This is especially if you’re a professional artist or graphic designer, like Instagram user @cocoglez:
But even if you can’t draw to save your life, don’t worry! Thanks to PosterMyWall’s business card templates, creating beautiful business cards is still a possibility.
Simply browse through our selection of business card templates, choose your favorite, and then use our drag-and-drop editor to customize it. Be sure to add crucial information such as:
- Your name
- What you sell
- Your business address
- Your phone number and/or email address
(Learn more about designing business cards on a budget here!)
Find more business card templates here.
2. Create flyers with a flyer maker and flyer templates
As people get on with their day, chances are they’ll pass through places with high human traffic, such as:
- Bus stops
- Metro stations
- Lift lobbies
All these are great places for putting up and distributing flyers, and getting the word out on your business. As an example, here’s a video of Mythology Candle Store doing a flyer distribution trip:
But don’t just load Microsoft Word, type up your flyer in black and white, then print them out for distribution. Your flyer will get lost in the sea of flyers from other businesses that are doing their flyers in the same way.
Instead, make your flyers attention-grabbing. You could:
- Insert images. Edit and use filters.
- Experiment with different flyer text fonts and sizes
- Print your flyers in color
You’ll also want to use a flyer maker that includes dedicated flyer creation features. With our PosterMyWall free flyer maker, for example, you can jazz up flyer templates with fancy image effects and filters that fit with your brand’s look.
3. Design stunning digital signage from digital signage templates
If you’ve got a brick-and-mortar shop, it’s time to upgrade your physical signs. Because once you’ve put up signboards, you can’t change them unless you throw out your existing signs first.
The smarter approach is to invest in digital signage, which involves installing monitors to display electronic signage content. If you have a playlist of multiple signage assets, you can also have these assets rotate among themselves in a preset frequency.
By using digital signage, you can:
- Save on the costs of printing and replacing physical signs,
- Show customers a wider variety of marketing content, and
- Insert dynamic video content to really draw in the eyeballs!
Just check out Dolce Candy Boutique’s store, which has installed a digital signage menu behind its counter:
PosterMyWall has a wide range of digital signage templates you can use to design your own digital signage in no time at all. After that, sign up with one of our digital signage partners—such as PosterBooking or Raydiant—to integrate your digital signage designs with their platform.
This way, whenever you edit your signage designs in PosterMyWall, your changes will be directly synced to your digital signage platform, ready to be displayed to your customers. Talk about saving time and effort! Become an expert on digital signage.
For more inspiration on digital signage creation, visit our guide on building the ultimate digital signage playlist.
4. Send thank you cards
Are you shipping out orders to customers? Then slip a thank you card into their packages.
That’s because unlike sending emails, customer packages and parcels pretty much have a 100% open rate. In other words, if you add in something special (like a thank you card), your customers are almost guaranteed to see it! Maximize this opportunity to facilitate a 10/10 customer experience, and encourage customers to place repeat orders with you.
Your thank you cards don’t need to be over the top. A simple, heartfelt message thanking your customer for their business works wonderfully. You can also include an exclusive discount code for their next order.
The best part? Using PosterMyWall’s graphic design platform, you can create and print thank you cards for free.
Here is TikTok user @frompretty2perfection doing just that for her business. We love how she’s printed her thank you cards on sparkly paper for that extra-special feel!
5. Participate in trade shows and conventions
While virtual conferences and webinars have grown in popularity, they still can’t beat the experience of mingling, interacting, and networking with others in person. Hence, if an offline trade show or convention for your industry is coming up, consider taking up a booth to show off your wares!
When you do so, not only might you be able to raise awareness of your business among your target audience—you may also be able to rake in sales from people already primed to buy.
As an example, here is a tweet from Transformers collectibles store TFSource promoting its booth in the 2018 edition of Transformers convention TFCon:
Participating in a trade show can involve quite a bit of logistics planning, so discuss manpower allocations with your staff. You’ll also need to plan how to transport your goods and/or marketing collateral (such as posters) to the venue.
And for networking purposes, don’t forget to take along your business cards—see point #1 above!
How will you market your business offline?
Offline marketing does involve producing more physical assets, such as printing business cards and small business flyers. As this blog post has shown, however, this doesn’t mean you have to use completely offline methods to produce your offline marketing collateral.
Tap on the various online tools available to help you create beautiful offline marketing content with ease. And if it isn’t clear by now, we’re talking about PosterMyWall!
Offering a wide range of marketing templates, and a high degree of customization with a drag-and-drop editor, PosterMyWall is the perfect partner for small businesses looking to get their offline marketing going.
You can download your creations for free, then sign up for one of our affordable subscription plans if you need premium features such as custom fonts and PDF exports. Click here to explore how your business can benefit from using PosterMyWall today.
Qasim is a senior editor at PosterMyWall. Qasim is a reader and writer during and after work, and likes to explore a wide range of topics and niches. Outside of work, he likes to meditate, listen to good music and journal.
