14 Ways that online and offline marketing are the same

I re-read this now in March of 2022 and I don’t need to change anything. Everything is as I wrote it in 2013.

In the early 1980s I was working on my doctorate in Special Education. A friend of mine was working on her Masters in Adult Education. We had discussions regarding how children and adults learned. She (who had not had any experience teaching kids) held the accepted (at the time) opinion that they learned differently. I said they learned the same way except adults have more experience and therefore have to “unlearn” some things.

At the time I co-owned an Apple computer dealership, one of the first in Toronto, Canada and trained our customers in how to use computers. I had taught elementary school kids from 1972 to 1980 and those in special education from 1976 to 1980 so I had lots of “real life” experience.

It’s 2015 and the belief now in Adult Education is that “adults and children learn the same way except adults have more experience and therefore have to unlearn some things.” Hmmmm.

What if online marketing which many believe to be different than offline marketing ends up being the same as the belief that teaching adults and children is now? Hmmm … interesting again.

Here are fourteen ways offline and online marketing are the same

1. they both use advertisements
2. they both use networking to get clients
3. they both  use articles
4. they both use newsletters
5. they both use books or booklets that you sell or give away
6. they both use strategic partnerships
7. they both use “free reports”
8. they both use follow-ups with prospects and clients
9. they both use direct response
10. they both use promotional videos and audio products to promote
11. they both use radio
12. they both use free seminars and demos
13. they both use publicity
14. they both use images/ pictures

Way back (ha! ha!) in 1984, Jay Conrad Levinson wrote a book that has become a bible for small business owners. It was called Guerilla Marketing. Secrets For Making Big Profits From Your Small Business. It’s on its fourth edition now and the term “Guerilla Marketing” spawned a whole series of books that he continued to roll out for 30 years until his death in October 2013. Everything in that book still holds true today. The only difference is that with the invention of the internet and the ownership and use of computers and smartphones it’s now easier and cheaper AND you can promote your business locally and internationally.

So what’s changed? Not the marketing activities themselves. What’s different is just the method. Do you agree or disagree? Tell me.

I’ll write about how offline and online marketing are different.

I’ve done it and the link is 6 Ways Online and Offline Marketing Are Different .

 Originally posted on January 29, 2013