Does offline branding have a space in SEO?

With the JIO revolution, the internet users in India are increasing rapidly. So the business owners today focus much on online marketing to promote their products. Reports say that the number of internet user in India is increasing very rapidly but still this is only 35 %( approx.) of the total population.

So the business owners shouldn’t only focus on online marketing. Still there is a huge scope of offline branding or Offline marketing. Offline marketing refers to the use of offline media channels such as hoardings, posters, pamphlets etc to create awareness of your products among public.

Offline Marketing VS Online Marketing

Offline marketing is much expensive as compared to online marketing because it involves printing of posters, installing billboards etc, in several areas. In offline branding, you install the billboard at a place and just expect a huge public to be interested in the product that is being advertised. But not always a huge public is interested in the product and this is a drawback of offline marketing. Giving your product advertisement in newspaper also costs more.

On the other hand online marketing is very cheap; at most you have to give sponsorship fee to sponsor your product or sometimes you have to give some fee to get a SEO friendly website for your business. But if online marketing is efficiently done, you can market your product absolutely free. This also helps you do hyper-targeting i.e. it targets only those who are particularly interested in the product.

Offline Marketing + Online Marketing

So the best tactic is to combine both online and offline branding efficiently. When implemented together, online and offline branding word hand in hand; support each other and also amplify each other and thereby creating a unified strategy. Studies show that offline marketing if properly done can boost your online performance by 40%.

How can Offline and Online branding together produce best results

1. Suppose that your business has different stores located far from each other. Then there might be problem in maintaining business as there is barrier of distance and this is practically not possible to visit all stores.

So, in this case what you can do is to construct your website such that it can give the user information about how far he is from the nearest business branch. By doing this you are reducing the bridge gap between online and offline stores.

Starbucks has done exactly this for their business. They connected their online and offline stores via locations and they also used reward system to impress the public to make them visit again.

2. Power of logos and tagline

Don’t underestimate the power of your logo and tagline. Logos and tagline catches attraction of the consumer more than anything else. If both are well designed, then there are many chances that the brand will stick into the memory of consumers. For example; whenever you will hear the phrase "taste the thunder", then the only brand coming to your mind will be Thumbs Up.

3. Brand Search Benefit

Now, whenever you will search this brand name in Google, then this will be considered good for your website’s rank. This is because Google take brand search into consideration. This is where offline branding makes a huge impact in the online marketing. But for this you should construct your brand name, tagline and logo so that it will be stuck in consumer’s mind. The more brand searches, the better will be your ranking. This forms a small part of the Google’s Panda Algorithm.

4. Collaborating with companies and online promotions

Collaborating with various companies, promotions on TV series or YouTube channels definitely increases the market for example the business model of Ola Cabs.

Innovatively thought concept ideas and ads of the company such as Ola Share pass, Ola outstation, shuttle and Ola peddle has helped the company in being ahead of its peers.

The Company has been promoting itself with new age popular production houses and short films such as TVF’s Permanent Roommates, All India Bakchod (AIB), Rear View.

Offline it has collaborated with companies like Nestaway, Sony, Mojopizza, Trident Hyderabad, Central mall, fitternity etc.. Ola allows other brands to promote their own business using coupons to maximize its reach and market.

5. Integration improves ROI

As the marketing process goes, consumers do not make purchase decisions based on a single advertisement or message alone. Buyers gather bits of information from various channels either offline and online or both and put them together, in making their decision. Data gathered, from multiple channels, through multiple stages of the buying process, are the building-blocks of sales. Integrated messages that are built upon each other make a compelling case for purchase. Consistency across channels renders messages more impactful and increases the probability of conversion. As such, integration is not just about brand synergy – it is about improving ROI.

• Before one integrate online and offline marketing strategies, it is important to plan a profitable marketing strategy. This is essential as the distribution of tactics and plans depend on the mail strategy’.

I am a blogger, I have been working since 4 years.