I was speaking with one of our newest members in our high level executive mentoring program just the other day. This conversation was interesting, because this client is very successful in the offline world, but was having concerns about bringing her business online.

She was concerned that she would need to give up what was working offline in order to concentrate fully online.

I told her that there was a better way to think about this. Rather than considering her business offline OR online, why not see how she could do both? This would be an example of maximizing her marketing. She could take and use whatever was already working well, and then add on new strategies which would work even better.

Using an integrated marketing approach is the smartest way to leverage your time, efforts, and marketing costs. Examples of integrated marketing would be using direct mail, as well as email to reach out to clients. It would involve sending out press releases, but linking these to your blog, and/or posting the same press releases online and syndicating these to your social networking profiles.

Once you get started, you”ll find that there are multiple places where you can integrate your marketing for better results. You can see examples of this on TV now, where TV commercials are sending viewers to a company’s Facebook fan page. Or, conversely, if you are a Facebook fan, you might get a coupon for a discounted meal in real life.

It can be a lot to try and manage, at first, but you always want to be looking for ways to extend your business positioning and using as many marketing channels as possible, especially if they are low cost and effective.

This is why, even though I am quite busy, I make time to speak to my local groups and associations, and to hold live events periodically. I have made some of my best business contacts and gained several excellent clients right in my own locality.

When you look at your marketing, start to find ways that you can get more value from the marketing that you’re already doing anyway. In most cases, you can find multiple points of leverage to link your online methods with your offline ones, and vice versa.

The strongest businesses are built on multiple marketing channels, and you’ll become a more confident and successful entrepreneur when you focus on maximizing your marketing.