We’ve covered before how important it is to collect customers email addresses and to have a presence online away from your own website. I was lucky enough to spend some time in California recently, home of “Silicon Valley”, Apple and countless internet startups and technology firms, and it struck me how far ahead of most European companies many US firms were when it came to offline-to-online marketing .
By the way, I’m talking about the non-techie firms here, not those talked about above above. Here are some examples:
- A shop that had a computer terminal set up with their website signup page open so people could sign up for their email newsletter there and then
- A restaurant that had a space for customers to write their email address on their credit card slip, right under where they confirm the amount and sign for their meal
- A hotel that had “Join our Facebook group” in big letters on its billboards
All of these are simple examples of ways to ask customers for permission to keep in touch with them. they are also examples of how these companies are making such a drive an intergral part of the way they operate.
As getting things done in life becomes ever more reliant on online services, it’s the companies with tightly integrated online marketing tactics that are going to win over those who don’t or won’t start to engage their customers online.
by Phil Morse
