Digital marketing makes up the bulk of marketing budgets in 2025. It has done for at least the past 10 years, what with the steady march toward digitisation in every area of life.
And it does pay dividends. Google estimates that for every $1 spent on Google Ads, companies make $8 back.
But digital marketing isn’t the only way to bring your product to your customer. Real world marketing methods still have an impact - especially if you mix them into your digital marketing strategy.
However, you need to pick and choose these physical marketing techniques carefully. You’ve got a limited budget to make use of, and mistakes can cost you heavily.
Let’s break down the ins and outs of a mixed marketing strategy below.
How Digital Marketing Strengthens Physical Marketing
They can be used together, as part of an overarching marketing strategy, to complement one another. After all, they both have their unique strengths and weaknesses.
For one, digital marketing can only be accessed via an internet signal. Even digital billboards in real life locations are subject to wifi interruptions and technical glitches.
For another, the impact of real world marketing can be quite hard to measure. When you put up a sign or a poster in the middle of your town, you can’t ever quite be sure who’s looking at it. And no one has the time to sit there and count the number of people passing by.
But when you have digital marketing interwoven with physical marketing, you can target people in multiple places, come away with more data to work on, and a better potential ROI for your entire marketing budget.
The Real World Marketing Techniques to Consider
Now we’ve gone through the benefits of using both digital and physical marketing in a campaign, it’s time to delve into the best real world techniques.
Some are better than others, and there’s a lot to think about when choosing your real world placements too.
All in all, you need to research your target market, and bring up data from past campaigns to help inform your choices here.
And to help with that, here are the physical marketing methods we think are still worth their salt for small businesses.
Leaflet Drops
If you know where your customers are - or where your potential customers are - you can drop leaflets through their letterboxes.
Of course, data protection laws mean you won’t be able to find actual details about who lives in the area, but you can look at the general demographic data.
If you find that a certain part of town is where people in your targeted age and/or income range are concentrated, that would be the best place to post your leaflets.
Place Ads in High Traffic Areas
Back in the day it was thought that people needed to see an advert 7 times before they took action.
These days we know the actual number varies, but the need for frequency still remains the same.
So when it comes to placing physical ads in the real world, you’ll want to isolate the high traffic areas that your customers are likely to pass through.
To do this, think about their average day. Where do they need to go? How do they get there? And do they pass back the same way?
In general, the areas below are the kind of high footfall places most businesses find successful.
Train Stations
One of the best places to put a real world ad, when you invest in train station advertising, you’ll get thousands of eyes on your business’ name and product every single day.
And seeing as train stations tend to have the same people going back and forth through them, you’ve got a much higher chance for repeat exposure.
Depending on the train station, you’ve also got the chance to place ads both above and below ground. Tube stations, connecting subways, and the actual station above, are three separate areas that count toward your frequency.
Bus Stops
At least 3 and a half billion bus journeys occur per year in the UK. Many of the bus stops come equipped with digital shelters, where adverts scroll over and over again.
Placing an ad of your own on a screen like this can be expensive - especially if you’re going for a city-center shelter in London.
But with such strong footfall, and bus wait times being random at best, even gaining just 10% of all potential prospects could net you thousands in profit.
Shopping Centers
You don’t have to have a store in the shopping center in order to gain customers from it. You just have to advertise your product in the same space, and make sure there’s an easy link to your website for people to follow.
Of course, it would be incredibly convenient if you did have a location in the same space, but this isn’t essential.
Collaborate with Other Businesses
When you collaborate with other businesses, you share your customer base with each other.
Offering exclusive discounts to this subsection of the market only increases your chance of sharing the revenue.
If you can, network with other business owners in your area, and especially with those who run a service that complements your own.
Create a More Cohesive Marketing Strategy
Marketing a business is more than just choosing a method and thinking it will work for you. You need to analyse and measure the results, whether you’re advertising via digital methods or you’re just focusing on real world, local tactics.
That’s what makes forming a more cohesive, mixed strategy such an advantageous choice. Where digital marketing doesn’t quite fill the gap, offline and real world marketing can do the job - and vice versa.
Consider this when you’re putting together your next marketing plan. Any strategy you go for should be a careful balance of your budget and where you understand your customers to be. And they’re both online and off, so it’s often best to focus on both!
