What is Face-to-Face Marketing?

These days, many entrepreneurs spend most of their time online. Many don't have offices outside their homes, and they spend their time pursuing digital marketing tactics and creating digital products.

While running an online business can be extremely rewarding, it can also make you feel like you work in a vacuum. You might not ever see or talk to coworkers or even customers except through email and on the phone.

Does this mean that face-to-face communication doesn't have any place in Knowledge Commerce marketing?

Absolutely not. In fact, digital marketers can benefit just as much from face-to-face marketing as an entrepreneur who runs a brick-and-mortar store.

The difference is that getting in front of your customers proves more difficult when you run your business exclusively or mostly online. It's tempting to remain behind your computer screen, recording webinars, writing blog posts, and responding to customers' emails.

“The reality, though, is that face-to-face communication is extremely important for any entrepreneur. Meeting someone in person is a much different experience from meeting him or her online. #Kajabi” -- Tweet this!

The reality, though, is that face-to-face communication is extremely important for any entrepreneur. Meeting someone in person is a much different experience from meeting him or her online.

In fact, psychologists have discovered that important chemical exchanges take place between people who meet face-to-face. Even something as simple as shaking someone else's hand can create a stronger bond than if you were to send that person an email.

But what is face-to-face marketing? And how can it fit into your Knowledge Commerce business?

Those are the questions we're going to tackle today. By the end of this article, you should be ready to get out from behind your computer screen and connect with people in person.

What Is Face-to-Face Marketing?

Face-to-face marketing refers to any scenario in which you promote your business to another person or to a group of people in person. You get to look the other people in the eye as you deliver your pitch or connect with them on a personal level.

For instance, you might meet somebody at the grocery store. That person asks you what you do for a living, and you explain that you create online courses for aspiring photographers.

At that point, the conversation might shift. However, if the other person is interested in photography, he or she might ask questions about your online course. You could provide a business card or a website address where that person could learn more about your business.

That's an example of informal face-to-face marketing. You take advantage of an opportunity to let someone know about your business and the digital products that you sell.

However, there are also more formal ways to approach face-to-face marketing. You might attend trade shows, conventions, Chamber of Commerce events, and other events to promote your products.

Maybe you rent a booth at a local trade show or offer to speak at a convention related to your niche. Whatever the case, you are putting your digital products in front of real people and you get the opportunity to pitch your products to them face-to-face.

No matter how you approach face-to-face marketing, it should be an important part of your marketing plan. You don't want to restrict your promotional efforts to digital marketing and other online campaigns because you'll miss out on a valuable opportunity to get to know your potential customers and existing customers in person.

Why Does Face-to-Face Marketing Matter? 

Think about the last time you visited a retail store. You weren't sure exactly what you were looking for, but you had a general idea.

This happens frequently among consumers who are shopping for electronics. They might know they want a tablet computer, for instance, but they don't know what specifications will prove most useful for their new gadget's intended purpose.

Let's go back to the brick-and-mortar store. You are surveying the store's collection of tablets, reading details about each product as well as the price tags. Then a store representative asks if he can help.

You gratefully accept the offer and explain what you want your tablet to do. The sales associate points out two or three models that will likely serve your needs. You are thankful for the employee's help and therefore more likely to purchase a tablet right then and there.

Why is that? It's because you made a personal connection with the sales associate. He might have cracked a few jokes, asked you questions to help make a more effective suggestion, or told you how you can save money on the transaction.

All of those things are benefits of face-to-face marketing. It just doesn't always have to take place in a brick-and-mortar store.

Face-to-face marketing matters because it's a completely different experience from online marketing. You can meet prospective customers who never would've found your business online, and you can address pain points and objections in person to increase the chances of making a sale.

5 Reasons You Should Get Face to Face With Your Knowledge Commerce Customers

Now that you're more familiar with face-to-face marketing, why should you take the time, energy, and money necessary to make it a reality for your business? That's easy enough to answer.

Have you taken advantage of Kajabi's new webinar hosting capabilities? If so, you might have seen a dramatic increase in your conversion rate as a result.

Webinars allow your customers to see you in person even though it's through a computer screen. They feel more connected to you because they can watch you speak, hear your voice, and ask you questions.

Your brand becomes more than just a series of digital products. You become your own brand.

Face-to-face marketing is even more effective than webinars and other types of video marketing. You aren’t separated by miles and time zones, and you can speak to each customer or prospect directly instead of to a large group.

Your market research has likely revealed that your prospects all want different things. Their desires, needs, goals, and pain points might overlap in certain areas, but everyone is different. During face-to-face marketing, you can appeal to those differences on a one-on-one basis even if you only spend a few minutes with each person.

With that said, let's look at a few of the most important reasons why you should try face-to-face marketing. After all, you're an entrepreneur who cares about your business. You wouldn't want to try a marketing tactic without understanding how it will impact your bottom line.

1. Generate Better ROI

Imagine that you are visiting a new restaurant for the first time. The food is delicious, the wait staff is attentive, the entire restaurant is clean and well decorated, and the prices can't be beat.

The next day, a friend asks you to recommend a restaurant for his or her next business lunch. Immediately, you think of the restaurant you patronized the day before. Why? You had an awesome experience and you want your friend to experience it too.

This is commonly known as word-of-mouth marketing. When someone loves a business, product, or service provider, he or she is more likely to tell other people about it.

The same concept can work through face-to-face marketing for your Knowledge Commerce business. When you meet people in person, you can shape the experience to make sure that it is as positive as possible for the other person.

After you turn that person into a customer, you deliver an excellent digital product that meets his or her every need. That customer might then recommend your products to the people he or she knows.

In this way, face-to-face marketing has an extremely high ROI. It's not just because of the value of the transaction you might get from an individual customer, but because of the ripple effect that often takes place through that customer's network. One sale can become 10, and so on.

2. The Event Brings Your Audience to You 

You probably already know that digital marketing becomes more difficult year after year. It's certainly not a waste of time, but marketers and entrepreneurs are finding it increasingly difficult to reach their target audiences organically.

This doesn't mean that they aren't trying hard enough or that they don't understand digital marketing. It's simply a matter of oversaturation. With so much content and so many businesses warring for customers' attention, it's understandable that building a Knowledge Commerce business from scratch can involve slow growth.

Face-to-face marketing eliminates the scalability factor that impacts many small businesses. Instead of waiting for customers to find you via search engines, social media, and customer referral, the event brings customers directly to you.

Let's go back to our example of the entrepreneur who sells online photography courses. He or she could attend a trade show or convention dedicated to photographers. By putting him or herself in that position, the entrepreneur exposes the business to hundreds or even thousands of potential customers.

More importantly, the entrepreneur doesn't have to do any of the legwork. The trade show or convention organizers bring the customers to the business owners. From there, entrepreneurs must only do their best to keep potential customers' attention and interest.

3. Establish Relationships and Credibility

Business is all about relationships. The best entrepreneurs know that they can improve customer retention and acquisition by creating relationships with their prospects and their customers.

Think about your own relationships with local businesses. Maybe you've been seeing the same hairdresser for 10 years. You don't even think about seeking out someone else because you're happy with that person's services and because you have a relationship with him or her.

Developing relationships with your customers online is not impossible. In fact, some of the best brands have found ways to connect personally with their audiences. However, it's far easier to establish relationships when you can look someone else in the eye.

Part of this has to do with trust. If you can't see someone and hear his or her voice, you might not feel completely confident in that person's abilities. Human beings are extremely social creatures, and we rely on body language as well as words to decide whether or not we trust another person.

Through face-to-face marketing, you can build credibility and establish stronger relationships because you're able to not only speak to prospects, but also listen to what they have to say.

Plus, you can establish credibility by demonstrating your command over the subject matter you cover in your digital products. Anyone can throw together some research and write a blog post on a topic, but if you are able to answer your prospects' questions in an off-the-cuff conversation, you instantly become more authoritative.

4. Make Yourself More Visible and Accessible 

People like to learn from other people who make themselves accessible. It's just like back in high school. Your favorite teachers were likely the ones who answered your questions, left their doors open, and admitted when they didn't have an answer.

Knowledge Commerce is no different. The people you serve also expect those things. They know what it's like to learn from others, and they also know what they expect from teachers.

If you are unable to deliver on their expectations, you'll likely lose a customer. That's the last thing you want for your online business.

You can use face-to-face marketing to help put your prospects' fears at ease. Show them that you are both accessible and trustworthy so that they feel more comfortable handing over their hard-earned cash.

Face-to-face marketing also makes you more visible. This is especially true if you speak at an event or otherwise participate in its organization.

You can publish your affiliation with these events on your website to boost your visibility in online searches. Plus, while you're attending an in-person event, anyone can come up and talk to you. You put yourself out on the line in the hopes that prospective customers will see you and want to know what you can offer them.

5. Communicate More Effectively 

For many entrepreneurs, communicating in person proves far easier than communicating online. After all, we spent most of our lives communicating with people we know, from our friends and neighbors to the barista who prepares our morning coffee.

While meeting new people can seem intimidating, especially for introverts, practice makes perfect. As you get into the flow of meeting people and pitching your product, each new encounter proceeds more smoothly and the words come more naturally.

By the time you've done it a few times, communicating with prospective customers becomes as easy as asking your next-door neighbor for a cup of sugar.

When we communicate in person, we come off as more natural and more sincere than when we communicate online, especially in text. Others can see our facial expressions, our body language, and the way we present ourselves. Furthermore, they can hear our voices and better understand what we're saying based on inflection.

You have probably misunderstood somebody on the Internet more than once. It's difficult to convey sarcasm, jokes, and personality when you are answering a comment on your blog post. Those same things become second nature when you're answering a question in person.

How to use Face-to-face Marketing for Digital Knowledge Commerce 

You might still be wondering how you can translate face-to-face marketing to Knowledge Commerce. It's not as difficult as it sounds, though you'll have to make the effort to find opportunities to get in front of your audience.

Start by researching local events where your target market might be in attendance. These could be trade shows, conventions, conferences, meet ups, or anything else related to your industry.

If you're successful with local face-to-face marketing, you might want to consider traveling in the future. Many entrepreneurs participate in and speak at events all over the world.

Once you've identified places where face-to-face marketing will benefit your Knowledge Commerce business, come up with a game plan. What type of attendee do you want to be? Would you like to take out your own booth? Are you interested in speaking at the event?

Get in touch with the event's organizers and find out how you can be helpful.

Then you need to come up with a plan for pitching target customers and attracting people to your booth, table, or other presence there. Decide whether you want to give away free branded gifts, such as pens or magnets, and how you will demonstrate your knowledge to the people you meet.

To make the most of face-to-face marketing, follow these tips during your first and subsequent events.

Tap Into Emotions

Emotions are the cornerstone of any marketing platform. Without emotion, you can't evoke a visceral response in your prospective customers.

What do we mean by emotion?

Think about some of the Super Bowl ads you might've seen last year. Many of them likely tugged at your heartstrings or made you laugh until your sides hurt.

That's emotional marketing. You want people to feel connected to you and to your brand based on their emotions. For instance, in the case of the photographer who create online courses for budding shutterbugs, appealing to emotions involved with capturing family images might help sell more online courses.

It's essential to create an emotional connection between you and everyone you meet during face-to-face marketing. Ask them about their hopes and dreams. Figure out what they want to accomplish. Learn about their goals and their setbacks.

You might be surprised by what complete strangers will share with you if they think that you can help them reach a goal or solve a problem. Meet those disclosures with empathy and kindness to show that you care about the customer as more than a potential number behind a dollar sign.

Leave the Hard-Sell Tactics at Home

Face-to-face marketing isn't like selling used cars. Nobody likes a hard sales pitch, especially at an event like a trade show or convention. In fact, using hard sales tactics is more likely to earn you a negative reputation and to convince people that they never want to buy from you.

Of course, you want to sell your products during face-to-face marketing. That's why you're engaging in the practice. You just have to learn how to subtly introduce your digital products in conversation.

Start by asking questions. Figure out what the customer is attempting to achieve and what drew him or her to your business at the event.

From there, focus on helping a person with whatever problem he or she is facing. You can make suggestions that have nothing to do with your online course and other digital products, but you can also mention that you sell online courses are run a membership site.

Just make sure that it flows with the conversation and that your prospect doesn't feel uncomfortable because of your suggestion.

You can also hand out literature that includes your Kajabi website's URL as well as and other information about your digital products. Let the words on the page, whether physical or virtual, actually sell your products while you focus on creating an emotional connection with your prospect.

Reinforce Your Brand Identity Repeatedly

During face-to-face marketing, you don't want anyone to wonder about your brand identity. On the contrary, you want everyone you meet to understand why you're in business and what sets you apart from the competition.

Maybe it's your humor. You don't have to tell jokes every other second, but you should make your interactions as informal and enjoyable as possible. In other words, give your prospects a taste of what they can expect from your digital products.

Additionally, if you have a booth, table, or speaking engagement, make sure that all collateral reinforces your brand identity. This includes using your personal logo, your tagline, and hints about why you're the perfect choice for someone who wants to learn what you teach.

Bring Digital Communication Into the Conversation

Just because you're engaging in face-to-face marketing doesn't mean you have to leave digital marketing in the dust. In fact, you shouldn't.

Whether you're meeting somebody by chance in line at the supermarket or attending a trade show, make sure that the other person knows about your online identity. Hand out business cards or other literature with information about how to contact you on the Internet.

Social media is a great way to bridge the connection between face-to-face marketing and digital marketing. It's easy enough to throw a single line into the conversation: "Feel free to follow me on Instagram." Then follow up with your @username.

If you aren't active on social media, you can mention other ways to get in touch with you online. Just make the connection as simple as possible. Nobody is going to remember if you say, "Check out www.myknowledgecommercebusiness.com/products/courses/buynow." It's just too confusing.

For entrepreneurs who want to direct people to their website, consider setting up a page specifically for this purpose. Make it easy to remember, such as by naming it after the event (e.g. myknowledgecommercebusiness.com/thisevent).

Use Kajabi To Turn Your Knowledge And Content Into Products You Can Sell

We are passionate about digital marketing here at Kajabi. After all, we spend most of our time creating resources and tools for entrepreneurs who want to sell their knowledge to as many people as possible online.

This doesn't mean that we aren’t advocates for face-to-face marketing. We attend events and meet people in person to make our platform more visible and more accessible to our target market.

We recommend that you do the same. Running an online business can feel solitary and isolating at times. Getting out into the world and actually meeting prospective customers can ward off those feelings and help you feel more connected to your community.

Furthermore, you can build your brand faster, generate more ROI, and meet people who might not have otherwise discovered your business. For those reasons alone, face-to-face marketing is worth its weight in gold.

Start with Kajabi. We make it easy to set up email marketing, blogging, webinars, online courses, membership sites, and other digital marketing strategies. You can use those resources to not only reach people online, but also to make face-to-face marketing more effective.

If you're planning on attending events in the future, let your audience know in advance. Invite them to attend, as well, and to approach you if they see you at the event.

You'll come off as extremely personable and relatable.

In the meantime, continue to use digital marketing to build your Knowledge Commerce business. That's what Kajabi is for. Focus on being the best in your particular niche and industry so you can capture more market share and make face-to-face marketing more effective than the future.

Conclusion 

Face-to-face marketing involves meeting people in person, whether one-on-one or in a group, and pitching your digital product to them in a subtle but convincing way. Many face-to-face marketing opportunities take place at events, such as trade shows and conferences. However, you should take advantage of any opportunity to get your product in front of more people.

You can benefit from face-to-face marketing in numerous ways. You can generate more ROI, benefit from an established audience, establish relationships with prospective and current customers, build your credibility, and communicate more effectively.

When you're ready to try face-to-face marketing, create a game plan. Figure out how you're going to reach your audience in an effective way.

Remember to tap into emotions. Use your brand story and your audience's pain points to help solidify that connection.

Forget about hard-sales tactics. Instead, just be human You can pitch your digital products, but you don't want to make people uncomfortable by pressuring them unnecessarily.

Consistently reinforce your brand identity and remind people about how they can get in touch with you online. Once you master these skills, face-to-face marketing will come extremely easily.

Do you engage in face-to-face marketing with your target market? What strategies and skills have been most successful for you? 

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