Online and offline

Having a Strategy for Growth

I have been online consistently now for more than two years. I have read blogs and ebooks and articles and white papers and listened to webinars and watched videos and …. well you get the picture! I have done everything that I know how to do to create a valuable blog for people who want to design a successful life/business plan.

strategy (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

Since re-focusing the Doulos Group in January my readership and other analytics have gone up and I am grateful. However, I have discovered something that I hadn’t seen before that I want to put into practice here and to share with you as well. I have been studying my blogging heroes (Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, Nancy Duarte, Mark Schaefer, and Scott Stratten, to mention a few) and have discovered that they have something that I don’t have. They have a visible strategy for their posts and the direction that they want their blog and business to go. Nothing seems to be “hit and miss” about their writings. They have a plan (strategy) and they execute it with precision.

I, on the other hand, have written about things that I thought were important for the moment. (Or things that other people said were important to business professionals.) At the end of 2011 I looked back and tried to decide what I had accomplished. I enjoyed getting better at writing, but I didn’t really take my readers anyplace specific. I didn’t have a strategy or plan for what my writing should do or what story I might tell.

I read a lot of blogs and find many like mine. Lots of information that is good, but no real direction/strategy. My goal in the re-focusing of my online venture is to establish and work my developing strategy. I would challenge every entrepreneur and new business start-up to really consider the strategy and direction of your business and create a focused plan for 2012. With a definite strategy and a direction for your business online as well as offline, you can’t help but create something special for your customers/clients.

What is your strategy for the new year? What direction is your business heading? Would you be willing to share some of your ideas about focus, planning, and direction?

Making the most of offline marketing …

Image via Wikipedia

One of the most difficult things for online marketers to learn is how to go offline and use traditional marketing in conjunction with their inbound marketing success. In making the most of offline marketing, the online marketer needs to learn three things:

Offline marketing provides another avenue for you to get your message to your clients/customers. When you develop these offline marketing skills your clients/customers will be excited about the information that you provide them from this platform as well as your online contact.
Offline marketing is about personal contact with your clients/customers. As an online marketer, we are used to emails and downloads. We are used to doing business without any “real” contact. Personal contact can come in the form of a phone call, a personally constructed card or note, or an invitation for coffee, lunch, or and event. This kind of contact creates a level of loyalty that cannot be created with an email or by watching a video.
Offline marketing shows that you care about more than just “the sale.” When you use your offline follow-up skills to engage your clients/customers on a personal level, they will recognize that you really care about them. With this knowledge of your concern for them, they will become more willing to listen to you, take your advice, and/or purchase your product or service.

Even though so much of what is being taught in the area of marketing these days speaks to the things we do online, you cannot afford as an online, inbound marketer to forget the power of blending your online and offline marketing strategies.

What do you think? What kinds of offline skills have you developed? How have you blended your on and offline marketing strategies?

Having a Strategy for Growth

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