Brynn A asked:


Many industrial and B2B companies are taking steps to add or enhance online marketing. Online marketing encompasses search engine optimization, article marketing, blogging and other Internet activity. As companies branch into the digital marketing world, it is key to evaluate current marketing initiatives and ensure that they blend with any new online marketing tactics. In fact, some online and offline marketing can work together for an added boost.

To align your marketing efforts, it is important that they follow a similar path and message. Your online marketing campaign is now as important, if not more important than your offline marketing. So, the message you send online should be planned and considered as thoroughly as the campaigns you already have in effect.

To make your digital promotion correspond well to your traditional marketing, you should ask a few questions:

1. What is your message? What are you promising? Is your website offering the answer to your message, does it guarantee to fulfill your promise?

2. Do your traditional marketing pieces have your web address place prominently on them?

3. Do both your online marketing & traditional marketing efforts provide a number, email or different ways to create action and convert customers?

To understand the importance of aligning marketing campaigns, realize that a potential client will always look to gain more knowledge before purchasing. After promotion of any type is seen, a client will do further research, if the advertisement captured their attention. One of the best ways to catch consumers is to educate them during their research stage. Providing a web address within offline marketing materials like business cards, sales books and trade show booths helps to further the “conversation” from paper to computer. Providing a web address is a powerful marketing tool, as it is not overly aggressive, yet provides you with another opportunity to catch their information like name, number and email address.

So, as you begin to flow your customers from your offline marketing to your industrial online marketing landing space, create your website to be a one stop information shop about your company, the products or services you provide, what you have given to the community and what others have to say about you. You can help a potential client have a positive impression before they even pick up the telephone or submit an online inquiry.

Every so often it is important to step back and think about how you proceed as a consumer. What actions do you take? What information are you looking for? Ask those in your company those questions and brainstorm about your ideal consumer’s buying process. It will likely include offline and online marketing channels, and a migration between the two. That is why it is important to have online and offline marketing emphasize the same message, and to have the two channels complement one another. You will be pleased with how powerful your marketing can be as the leads increase.

Joseph Ratliff asked:


We live in a world of borders, don’t we?

There is a border between the USA and Canada…between the USA and Mexico…and so forth. Yet we continue as a society to visit both of those countries all the time.

So let’s apply this to today’s lesson…

There is a border between an online business and an offline business. This exists because of a variety of factors like the types of products sold, the people who sell them, and other factors.

But should there be a border at all?

Let’s share an example…

An online membership site sells its memberships on the typical “Free, upgrade to silver or platinum membership” model. Upfront, this membership offers a free 50 page report on a niche industry to generate leads through an opt – in page. This membership site offers this report plus the “free” membership with limited benefits.

Then it sells it’s upgraded memberships with all the bells and whistles like business packages specific to the niche industry, audio’s that give the “golden nuggets” of info, and maybe even video to “take you by the hand” and walk you through business improvement techniques.

To market this…the membership site owner might use article marketing, Pay Per Click, forum marketing, etc…

All the online marketing techniques we are familiar with.

But there is a better way, and I suggest you add this methodology to your online marketing model today. Notice I did not say to stop marketing online at all, as all of the aforementioned techniques work great when done correctly.

But the most productive way to market your online business is… offline!

That’s right, offline marketing. Direct mail, newspaper editorial – style advertisements, word of mouth offline, face to face networking, public speaking, print newsletters, etc…

I cannot go into detail about how to use each one of these techniques in this one post…but look for future posts to cover these topics.

But one question that is probably rattling inside your head is…

“Why do these techniques work better than online marketing?”

Well…that answer is multi – part to which I will present three ideas here:

1. Typically, online business owners view the Internet as the end – all of marketing their online business…and it simply isn’t. It is only one media used to market a business.

2. Audience. One example…the majority that read the newspaper do so with a different mindset. They are not the typical freebie – seeking, distracted, multi – tasking (when surfing the ‘net), individual that is using the internet. Instead, they are more focused on what is in front of them.

3. Distraction. I mentioned this in part 2 of my answer, but in detail…there are a number of distractions that present themselves on the Internet that simply are not present when someone is reading the mail, the newspaper, attending a face to face conference (congrats to those online marketers that figured that one out) etc…

There are certainly more reasons in support of offline marketing for your online business. I would encourage you to leave a comment to this post one way or another.

Ronda Tuckness asked:

If you are wondering whether to go with offline marketing or online marketing, the answer is up to you. I would venture to say that many network marketers use a little of each. Both methods can bring promising prospects your way.

Let’s take a look at some of the offline methods first. Leaving business cards, catalogs and brochures at places you frequent; placing a web decal or magnetic sign on your vehicle; newspaper ads; flyers; business stationary; free product samples; wearing apparel that features your company logo; home parties; craft fairs; flea markets; door hangers; postcards.

Online methods can include article marketing; forum participation; online ads; social networking; pay-per-clicks; Google adwords; blogs; purchasing leads; etc.

Each and every method is not listed here, but you get the idea. I believe that every method which gets your business website out there is beneficial. Network marketers will favor some methods over others, but it essentially comes down to you.

You will learn which methods you prefer after a little trial and error. There are a few that I simply detest only because they do not suit my personality. It is important to use the methods that you enjoy and are comfortable with.

If you force yourself to use methods that you don’t like because you think you should or because someone advised you to, that will be a mistake. You will **** every minute of it, and your disdain could cause you to leave your network marketing dream behind.

Your business belongs to you. You should seek advice and counsel from the gurus, but only use what interests you. Any method that gets your name and company to the masses in a positive way is a useful promotion tactic.

Offline marketing or online does not have to be a choice. You can easily use both for favorable results. Some people use online methods exclusively and have no desire to try anything offline. That is certainly their prerogative. However, something as simple as a web decal on their vehicle is seen daily by dozens of people.

Why not employ both methods for maximum effect? I admit that I do not use many offline methods because I truly prefer working online. However, I would not discount anything that appealed to me just because I prefer working online.

The more people that are exposed to your website or your business, the faster things will go. It is all about numbers, or as some would say, “It is a numbers game.” I do get tired of that cliché, but it is true.

So, the bottom line is, “offline or online”, it is all good. Any method that suits your style, used consistently, will produce results.

M.L. Petersen asked:


I’ve always been impressed with those who could who could find ways of doing things other than the traditional ways. I’m referring to the promotion of an internet business or affiliate marketing business. No, I’m not going to discuss blogging, web 2, or article marketing, although they are excellent ways of marketing you online business. Some marketers are actually using offline marketing to promote their online business.

Two questions surface immediately.

1. How can offline advertising be as effective when online marketing can potentially reach many thousands more people than offline.

2. If offline promotions work, what do I do? How do I start. TV advertising reaches a lot of people. TV advertising is also very expensive. We probably won’t start our offline promotions with TV.

The first method of offline promotions and quite possibly continues to be the best is word of mouth. We still give a lot of credibility to what a friend says and tend to be more comfortable with a recommendation from someone we know.

Actually we are bombarded with hundreds of offline advertisements daily. If we watch TV we see ads, if we listen to the radio we hear advertisements. The news paper is full of ads as well as any magazines we read. If we park at a shopping mall and enter the mall there is a good chance we will be handed a business card by someone and then when we return to our car there may be a flier on the windshield. Driving home we see billboards calling our attention to a particular business asking us to visit their URL for more information. When we open our mail we see a postcard urging to us to visit a special site online. We open a envelope and find out how easy it is to restore our credit.

The reason we get bombarded like this is that ofline advertising still works.

Given the many forms of offline marketing, we will consider 4 ways we can effectively use offline promotions. Keep in mind that how you market and who you market too has a lot to do with the results obtained. You may not want to put advertising signs on your vehicle and park it at an old folks home.

1. The first way to consider promoting off line is with business cards. You will probably have business cards even if your aim is not necessarily off line promotions. A lot of information can be placed on a business. After listing the benefits of your promotion state that a free report can be obtained by visiting http:// www.mypromotion.org and that would lead to your splash page.

2. Fliers are another excellent and low cost way of promoting your affiliate program offline. It is probably best to stay with the standard 8 ½ X 11 colorful sheet. A lot of information can be placed on this size paper with room for some images. This may also be an opportunity to be creative. You want to attract enough attention for the recipients to look at it. If you intend to distribute the fliers to cars in a parking lot it is always best to find out if that is ok. Locate community bulletin boards in your area and place a flier there from time to time. With fliers you can keep the cost down by printing only the number you plan to use at that time.

3. Consider placing small ads in the local newspapers. The area I live in has several limited circulation news papers often directed to different interest groups. In some rural areas these free newspapers may be the only ones read. Using small classified ads it is important to find a way to track response. Different ads need to be test for effectiveness as a “good” ad can make a big difference. This holds true for all forms of advertising, test to determine which ad wording gives the best results.

4. Post cards are used by many offline marketers very effectively. A well designed post card sent to an address that could use the information will bring results. I know with printing costs, addressing and postage costs using post cards is more expensive than the other methods we have been discussing. Using post cards for your offline promotion you will need a mailing list. There are many list brokers available. Selecting a list is very important. Find out as much as you can. For instance, you would want to avoid sending to a list of people that did not have computers.

The above is only some of the ways offline promotions can assist your online marketing. You may not want to use all of these methods. Pick one or two that you enjoy doing and give you good results.