Due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, most businesses nowadays have an active online presence. However, your business can still benefit from offline marketing efforts—strategies and plans that don’t even cost a lot of money, yet keep the brand’s presence. The advantage of offline marketing is that targeting audiences of a specific region is easy. Offline marketing is more often real and solid, therefore, giving customers an opportunity and understanding to interact with their company and products closely. This is how to market your business while offline; Distribute business cards Charles Shyaka, the general manager of 250 Start-ups Incubator in Kigali, says that the trick is to distribute the business cards with greater frequency and in locations that might not appear as promising venues. He says to leave a business card, especially in public places, either in a restaurant, on training, or tradeshows and so forth. Your business card is an extension of your brand, so it’s helpful if you’re consistent. Don’t use a different logo, font style, or colours from the ones you use on your website or on the rest of your (on and offline) marketing materials. How about offering your product for free? Shyaka says that once in a while, there is no harm in offering your product as a prize in a community challenge, or offer your services for a great cause—this creates good awareness for your brand. For instance, it can be through giving customers a customised t-shirts or any other product, and acts as a natural publicity and marketing agent. Alternatively, you can hold contests to attract more customers and give small customised tokens as part of participation. Send out cards and gifts Send out cards and small gifts to clients and use special occasions and milestones to make your presence known. And you don’t have to spend a lot of money celebrating with your customers, Shyaka adds. “Print advertisements on events. Issuing flyers and posting banners can help in retaining the attention of people, as text with pictures have the aptitude to be fixed in the reader’s mind,” Shyaka says. Write an article for a magazine or newspaper Another way to gain publicity can be through writing and submitting a magazine or newspaper article where you get a chance to mention your website as an additional resource, or mention some of the services that you offer, Shyaka adds. Sponsor an event When you sponsor an event, you are raising brand awareness and building your authority. The people that have attended or participated, including the media, will spread the word about your brand. Get free publicity Shyaka recommends that you can try reaching out to the media, either TV station, radio or newspaper and introduce some innovation of yours that you think might be interesting for people to read, or listen to. It can be the interesting side of the story about how you started—something that might even inspire the public. Networking Shyaka highlights that you can also decide to join clubs, business groups, and associations that attract prominent business leaders. Get a chance to know people who may know potential customers of your business. Cross-promotion This is a form of marketing promotion where customers of one product or service are targeted with the promotion of a related product. “Find companies with related products or services, and then discover ways to promote each other’s business. You can do this in your own business locations, through combined advertising, and with links to each other’s website,” Shyaka says.
