By Alison Brown and Katrina McNeill, Web Success Team

A few weeks ago we discussed the online marketing trends for 2013; now we are going to bring offline marketing into the mix. Let’s analyze trends, identify areas where your marketing strategy can be improved upon, and integrate your offline marketing to make sure that next year’s plan is even better than the last.

1. Email Trends

Why just send an email? Support all your marketing efforts by integrating offline and online. Keep this consistent and follow your traditional mailings with supportive email campaigns. This not only reinforces and strengthens your brand but it also makes sure that those who ignore your emails have another chance to see your message (and vice versa).

2. Mobile Trends

Mobile trends have definitely taken off this last year. With QR codes, website mobile optimization and other visual applications, it seems that mobile marketing will soon rise to the top as being the overall most influential digital marketing platform. We use other forms of media with the knowledge that it will create a search on mobile. Take a look at our article on Mobile Optimization and find out just how important other forms of media are in complementing mobile integration.

3. Digital Marketing

According to research done by 6S Marketing, “SEO and social media marketing currently make up 70% of online marketing budgets.” Companies are definitely realizing that social media and online marketing hold extreme value, and this year was the first year that online ad spending outpaced print advertising (according to industry reports). So now is the time to get your marketing teams on board and working together to keep online and offline marketing synched. Some ways of integrating; have your offline ads encourage continuing the conversation on FB, make a call to action in a promotional flyer to like your Facebook page, or use Facebook to bring customers to a live event.

4. Live Events with Social Media

Your event will benefit hugely by enhancing promotional efforts with extra exposure via webinars, Tweet Chats and even blogs. See more about the specific steps to take to socialize your live event here.

Keeping it Integrated

By researching and learning about your market segment and then capitalizing on the most effective medium, you can ensure that your marketing budget is well spent. Having one half of your marketing efforts support the other will only benefit your brand, so make sure 2013 is the year of integration!

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