The chemistry that goes into a blended marketing strategy

“It’s not what you sell that matters as much as how you sell it!” — Brian Halligan, CEO & Co-Founder, HubSpot.

In today’s digital age, nothing could be more true. You could have the best products and the best service, but without a viable marketing strategy, you could easily find yourself losing business to inferior brands that are slightly more dialled into the demands of modern marketing. 

Whether you’re B2B or B2C, for many companies, today effective marketing requires the right blend of online and offline marketing strategies. Marketing success, ultimately an increase in revenue, requires a strong online presence, maximum visibility, and exposure used in conjunction with more traditional marketing methods. 

However, this is largely industry and audience-dependent. As for many companies, particularly the smaller businesses that operate solely online, the need for online marketing supersedes the need for traditional marketing entirely. 

With this being said, we’ll focus here on blended marketing strategies, as countless businesses can (and do) continue to reap the rewards of blended marketing strategies. Proving that offline marketing has not lost its place altogether.

What is blended marketing?

When taken separately, both offline and online marketing channels have their limitations. Not least because for the most part, many companies will find that their target audience consumes information in a number of ways. It makes complete sense then, that businesses employ a blended marketing strategy, combining strategies from both the offline and online channels in order to maximise visibility. 

The main traditional marketing methods employed today include television, press, and billboards. These methods reach the masses with huge coverage, however, penetration and conversions are often low. As while they will reach the target audience, they lack the segmentation that is afforded by more targeted, online marketing.   

Likewise, online marketing may struggle to get very high coverage but is adept at reaching the right audience, those who are actively looking for or are interested in the product or services on offer.

Is a blended marketing strategy effective?

Unequivocally yes. If you think of many of the largest, most successful businesses that roll out adverts on TV, or you’ll find as your flicking through a newspaper, the chances are, that if you search for a specific product or service online, they will also be towards the top of the page on your search engine.

For example, if you spend any time watching prime time television, the chances are you’ll have seen package holiday adverts from the leading budget airlines. Then, if you put “holidays this summer” or “flights to…xxx,” the same budget airlines you’ve seen on TV will be at the very top of the page.

Why opt for a blended marketing strategy?

“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” — Tom Fishburne, Founder & CEO, Marketoonist

With 6.64 billion people, around 91.5% of the global population owning and using a smartphone, this has never been more true than in today’s digital age. Whether on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube, adverts are becoming a part of our everyday lives. The online realm is full of advertisements, making it seem less like marketing, and more like normality. 

If you think about it, can you imagine the internet without adverts? It would likely be an unrecognisable place. 

But, as previously mentioned, the rise to power of online advertising has not diminished the effectiveness of traditional marketing methods, provided they are employed correctly…

The basics of blended marketing strategy

Now, obviously, we don’t want to give too much away here… but in essence, it is critical to have carefully designed the process in order to maximise engagement, visibility and reach. This is done by:

Defining the tone of the campaign. Be sure to use the same brand messaging and imagery both on, and offline.
Defining your target audience, segmenting them if necessary.
Selecting the best channels to reach your target audience and creating content in any form that engages them.
Analysing the results in relation to clear objectives, to determine the effectiveness of the campaign.

If you would like to employ a blended marketing strategy for your business and reap the rewards that follow, let’s talk.