Online Promotions Offline
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.
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.
Offline Marketing Tips for Online Businesses
September 22, 2009 by admin
Filed under Advertising
Cathy Lindsay asked:
Utilizing these few ways of advertising offline can be very beneficial in creating more visitors to your website. If you don’t all ready use this strategy, consider implementing it into your business. There are many potential customers out there just waiting to visit your site. They just don’t know it yet.
Passing out fliers can be very effective and also very expensive to have printed. Creating and printing them yourself can be a tremendous cost saver. Make sure that your fliers will capture someone’s attention and keep them reading. You want them to stay interested. You may all ready know someone who needs a little extra cash that could pass them out for you if you don’t have the time. Maybe even a trustworthy teenager in your neighborhood. (There are places that will pay you ten cents or so a flier. Just to give you an idea of how to pay someone.) A mall parking lot is a good place to go and place them on cars. Think of all the cars that are in a parking lot that size. People do this often and it works.
Business cards can also be very effective. Match them to your fliers as best you can. Pass them out everywhere you go. Be aware of all the people that you come in contact with on a daily basis. Such as the gas station, grocery store, the place you get coffee in the morning, etc… How many of these people do you talk to? Look for the opportunity to hand them a card and tell them to read it when they get time. You can usually find a way in even the littlest conversations.
Postcards are another method that you can use. Again, create your own and save money. These are a little more difficult because they have to be mailed, which means that you need names and addresses to do this. One way to get them is right out of the phone book. There are many people who all ready use this strategy. For bulk shipping rates check your local postal service.
Let’s talk about good, old fashioned word of mouth. This is the first type of marketing ever used and is still going strong.
Did you know that for years GNC’s only form of advertising was word of mouth? They grew to be one of the most popular vitamin chains without any other form of marketing. (They started using other means within the last eight years.) For a business to grow like this with only word of mouth is amazing. This is probably the most powerful type of marketing in the world.
Think brilliance when you are creating your marketing products. You want to capture someone’s attention so intensely that they must read it in its entirety. What would capture your attention? If the person that is reading your flier/card doesn’t need the product or service that you are offering, there’s always a chance that they know someone who does. If they liked what they saw they will pass it on, and then that person will pass it on, and so forth. It will start a chain reaction that won’t stop. You will be smiling all the way to the bank wondering why you hadn’t tried this before.
Utilizing these few ways of advertising offline can be very beneficial in creating more visitors to your website. If you don’t all ready use this strategy, consider implementing it into your business. There are many potential customers out there just waiting to visit your site. They just don’t know it yet.
Passing out fliers can be very effective and also very expensive to have printed. Creating and printing them yourself can be a tremendous cost saver. Make sure that your fliers will capture someone’s attention and keep them reading. You want them to stay interested. You may all ready know someone who needs a little extra cash that could pass them out for you if you don’t have the time. Maybe even a trustworthy teenager in your neighborhood. (There are places that will pay you ten cents or so a flier. Just to give you an idea of how to pay someone.) A mall parking lot is a good place to go and place them on cars. Think of all the cars that are in a parking lot that size. People do this often and it works.
Business cards can also be very effective. Match them to your fliers as best you can. Pass them out everywhere you go. Be aware of all the people that you come in contact with on a daily basis. Such as the gas station, grocery store, the place you get coffee in the morning, etc… How many of these people do you talk to? Look for the opportunity to hand them a card and tell them to read it when they get time. You can usually find a way in even the littlest conversations.
Postcards are another method that you can use. Again, create your own and save money. These are a little more difficult because they have to be mailed, which means that you need names and addresses to do this. One way to get them is right out of the phone book. There are many people who all ready use this strategy. For bulk shipping rates check your local postal service.
Let’s talk about good, old fashioned word of mouth. This is the first type of marketing ever used and is still going strong.
Did you know that for years GNC’s only form of advertising was word of mouth? They grew to be one of the most popular vitamin chains without any other form of marketing. (They started using other means within the last eight years.) For a business to grow like this with only word of mouth is amazing. This is probably the most powerful type of marketing in the world.
Think brilliance when you are creating your marketing products. You want to capture someone’s attention so intensely that they must read it in its entirety. What would capture your attention? If the person that is reading your flier/card doesn’t need the product or service that you are offering, there’s always a chance that they know someone who does. If they liked what they saw they will pass it on, and then that person will pass it on, and so forth. It will start a chain reaction that won’t stop. You will be smiling all the way to the bank wondering why you hadn’t tried this before.
