Jeff Casmer asked:

The Internet has become the largest medium of communication; and has presented a lot of business opportunities.

Online home based business owners tend to limit themselves to online marketing methods. Nevertheless, there is a huge potential to promote your home based business through some cost effective offline marketing strategies.

So what are the most effective offline marketing strategies for your home based business?

1. Word of mouth in your circle of influence Word of mouth is one of the best free advertising channels. We all have people we interact with on a daily basis, and these are potential customers. Make a list of all the people you know or interact with and how can you best tell them about your internet business. Be passionate about your internet business and always be prepared to tell someone about it when an opportunity to do so presents itself!

2. Mail-out newsletters and flyers Mail-out newsletter or flyers can be effective if you target it to a specific ‘group’. You could create one to distribute to local day care centers just as an example – and in your newsletter or flyer, highlight the benefits of an online business to the targeted group, for example earning money at home for stay at home moms or dads. Posting your home based business URL on bulletin boards can also be effective.

3. Use and give away free branded ‘stuff’ You can promote your business by having your URL on all your stationery, all written communication and other items you can give away for free. If you want to get a lot of people to know about your home based business, you will need to come up with some creative ways of promoting your URL. You can be limited only by your imagination. Have your business cards with your home based business URL. Give them out to people you meet, leave them about where you can, such as in your local coffee shop.

4. Newspapers and magazines Local newspapers are good for advertising your online business. Most local papers have ‘home business opportunities’ section, so you run a regular classified advert. In addition, contact your local newspaper or business-oriented magazine and let the business editor know you have a new business and web site and what you offer. Local newspapers are frequently interested in featuring local business people and their accomplishments. This is free advertising and should always be used. You can also contact your local magazine and offer to write a monthly or weekly guest column for them, and include your ‘author bio’ and home based business URL.

5. Joint ventures with offline business You can get into a joint venture partnership with an offline business which sells a complementary product or service to your home based business. If you can identify a partner that best fit your business, this is an important offline marketing strategy that can help you succeed in your home based business by enabling you to reach potential customers that you could not reach before. As an example, if you have a website selling fitness/health products or tips, you could prepare a leaflet and make a deal with an offline local fitness/health shop where they giveaway your leaflet to their shoppers with each purchase. The offline marketing strategies strategies outlined above can help you grow your home based business.

Scott Lindsay asked:

The popularity of the Internet changed the face of advertising forever, but it did not completely replace the more traditional, offline advertising strategies. Though these may not be of use to all types of work at home business it can prove to be a cost-effective way to gain new business in a regionally intense business.

Primarily, offline advertising would be best suited, but not limited to, businesses that offer a local service. This would include such businesses as an at home day care or computer servicing business. For both examples the customers you would be aiming to attract would be local or regional in scope. Parents may even choose a day care by the services that are closest to them to minimize travel time for young children, or choose a day care that is conveniently located on their way to work.

One of the methods people may be familiar with would be a classified ad in your local newspaper. There is usually a fee associated with this service so you will want to monitor how many customers it brings over a period of time. It would not be wise to cease using this form of advertising if they do not bring customers immediately, but you also would not want to continue them indefinitely if they fail to bring in a single customer.

Similar advertising space is sometimes available in the front of shop windows. Again for a fee you are able to post an advert for a purchased period of time. Your business phone book entry can also be upgraded for a fee to something more visible to information consumers.

Business cards are an inexpensive way to advertise. They can be handed out to people you meet as you go about other tasks. Similar results may be achieved by posting flyers in prominent places, where it is legal to do so. Many churches and community centers have a bulletin board and allow individuals to post information there.

For those who wish to branch out or try something different there are two other options. TV and radio advertising is not as inexpensive as taking out a classified ad, but it may not break the bank either, and you can target your audience more specifically and have the chance to reach more people. The drawback here is not only the cost, but also the fact that you would need someone to produce the spots and someone to appear in them although many broadcast facilities provide services with low cost or no cost options.

There are certain pieces of information that are essential in order to carry out your offline marketing strategies. You need to list a website address if you have one, as well as your phone number so people can contact you. If you don’t have a web site it might be appropriate to include a mailing address, or your home address in the case of an at home day care.

It would be foolish to completely ignore online advertising. Some people will use the Internet as their first place to search for services or products. Work with all of the tools available to you. Maximize all opportunities to make a success of your new business.