Marketing, Small Business

6 Ways offline and online marketing are different

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Photo taken by me in early 1993

I wrote the following post in February 2013, nearly 10 years ago. My nephew Jake is now 32 and is a senior art director and my other nephew Josh is now 41 and a senior IT guy!!

The facts I wrote about then are still true today.

…….

The world is always changing and we in business must keep up if we want to be successful (no matter how we define success for us).

Technology has REALLY changed. I remember (I’m 62 now in 2013) co-owning one of the first Apple computer dealerships in Toronto in the 1980s and helping to create and run a conference company in the 1990s where we held events for people who used what were then called hand-held computers (PDAs). I’ve always been at the “bleeding edge” of technology (just before the “leading edge” which means being in the red and not making money but always being the first to know about new technology).

We had/ were:

  • one of the first fax machines in 1984. It was as big as a small photocopier but since very few others had one there were few to send things to!
  • one of the first cell phones in 1985. The battery for this was the size of a car battery and the handset like that of an older dial phone with buttons. I called it a “luggable” phone.
  • one of the first to use the internet to market with our “email blasts” in the conference business in1995. They were “fax blasts” using email addresses but we could send them from our Mac (our potential conference attendees had email addresses but most companies didn’t have websites yet).

Times continued to evolve and with this came what was in 1984 a revolution (we even produced a print booklet called A Revolution in the Making which in 1984 took 6 weeks to produce even though we had the latest desktop publishing software at that time) that caused all of us to transform ourselves and our thinking.

In fact my nephew who is 22 now and studying at Ryerson University and producing art (by paint and on computer, films on his Macintosh and photos with his digital camera) is a great testament to this transformation. He is of the generation who grew up with and used all technology. He even had access to my brother’s Macintosh when he was a baby.  (From left to right: my brother Phil, his son Jake who I wrote about here and my other nephew Josh who’s 30 now and has been using computers since he was 4 and has been in the computer business since he was 17. He’s now 32!)

But I digress.

There are at least 6 ways in which online marketing is different from offline marketing.

One needs a computer, a hookup to the Internet and a browser such as Firefox or Chrome.

  1. Speed  One can do EVERYTHING faster. Once you have set yourself up, just input some data and you can send it at the “touch of a finger”.
  2. Cost  EVERYTHING costs less or is free (do you know of the book published in 2009 by Chris Anderson  Free: The Future Of A Radical Price )   – audio and video production and even payment processing.
  3. Reach  One can connect (for free) with contacts both locally and globally.
  4. Measurement & Tracking  One can easily get access to key metrics with ad trackers, newsletter openings, website analytics etc.
  5. Easy to do marketing   One can “do it yourself” (if you’re not a technophobe AND have the time).
  6. “Abundant”  information at your fingertips  With most search engines like google or Ask one can search for and find anything – anywhere in the world. (Remember that this info has the caveat of buyer beware as does any info you find online)

How has this blog post made you think – whether you use technology a lot or you’re a  “technophobe” who didn’t grow up with technology?

Here is access to the other post I wrote 14 Ways Offline and Online Marketing Are The Same

Compare the two and tell me what you think. I’m VERY interested in what everyone has to say!

 Originally posted on February 6, 2013

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Marketing

14 Ways that online and offline marketing are the same

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Photo by Merakist on Unsplash

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 

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