Web Marketing Vs Offline Marketing
William King asked:
One of the most critical aspects of running a business is marketing. It encompasses every customer related task from creating awareness to customer satisfaction and retention. One may go as far as to say that a business cannot survive or even start up without it. In the current scenario, marketing has become a complex and sophisticated function, especially now that an increasing number of businesses choose to start up online. Now, along with the traditional offline marketing tools, there are a number of web marketing tools and methods available. These web marketing methods must be mastered for any level of success in online business.
The differences that separate web marketing from offline marketing are as below:
• Snail mail vs. email – Email marketing is low cost, efficient, instant and effective means of generating customers. Snail mail is slow, generally more expensive and is losing some of its efficacy with the influx of TV and Internet.
• Limited radius of impact vs. unlimited – The target audience is global in the case of web marketing with the Internet shrinking the world. The radius of offline marketing is limited by physical, political and time barriers.
• Web customers are looking for a product or service similar to yours – The beauty of being an online business is that people log on to look for a service or product that you can offer. Whereas, offline businesses have to rely more on push marketing than the pull effect.
• Long, complex process of making a sale vs. instant conversion – A few clicks of a mouse and the product is sold, in the case of web marketing. Offline marketing process is time and manpower heavy, from generating leads to making a sale.
• Fixed office hours vs. 24 hour store – An online business can sell its products 24 hours a day while an offline business will open and shut at particular hours.
• Advertising in print, TV and radio is expensive – While you can easily offer content, audio and video clips on the Internet for a very low cost.
• Pay for time spots vs. unlimited time and space – Ads in offline marketing mediums are for a limited time only and you pay for time slots and space. In an online marketing scenario, you would keep your ads up for a longer time and pay much less.
• Cost per incremental customer – This cost is very low for web marketing based concerns, whereas this cost is appreciable in case of offline marketing efforts.
• Targeted approach vs. blanket approach – The above reason leads offline marketing businesses to target and select carefully, eliminating a lot of potential customers, who may buy in the future if not the present. However, low incremental costs result in online businesses covering a broad spectrum of the market.
• Segmentation – Preferences are much easier to track for an online business and this means that segmentation is simpler. The web marketing effort has the information it needs to customize its pitch at once.
• Customer contact – Access to customer information is automatic in the case of online businesses and the web marketing process is simplified and made efficient. Databases and mailing lists are created in an instant. On the contrary, offline marketing efforts for the same require time, employees and money.
There are many benefits to both web marketing and offline marketing, and it is best to use a judicious mix of the two.
One of the most critical aspects of running a business is marketing. It encompasses every customer related task from creating awareness to customer satisfaction and retention. One may go as far as to say that a business cannot survive or even start up without it. In the current scenario, marketing has become a complex and sophisticated function, especially now that an increasing number of businesses choose to start up online. Now, along with the traditional offline marketing tools, there are a number of web marketing tools and methods available. These web marketing methods must be mastered for any level of success in online business.
The differences that separate web marketing from offline marketing are as below:
• Snail mail vs. email – Email marketing is low cost, efficient, instant and effective means of generating customers. Snail mail is slow, generally more expensive and is losing some of its efficacy with the influx of TV and Internet.
• Limited radius of impact vs. unlimited – The target audience is global in the case of web marketing with the Internet shrinking the world. The radius of offline marketing is limited by physical, political and time barriers.
• Web customers are looking for a product or service similar to yours – The beauty of being an online business is that people log on to look for a service or product that you can offer. Whereas, offline businesses have to rely more on push marketing than the pull effect.
• Long, complex process of making a sale vs. instant conversion – A few clicks of a mouse and the product is sold, in the case of web marketing. Offline marketing process is time and manpower heavy, from generating leads to making a sale.
• Fixed office hours vs. 24 hour store – An online business can sell its products 24 hours a day while an offline business will open and shut at particular hours.
• Advertising in print, TV and radio is expensive – While you can easily offer content, audio and video clips on the Internet for a very low cost.
• Pay for time spots vs. unlimited time and space – Ads in offline marketing mediums are for a limited time only and you pay for time slots and space. In an online marketing scenario, you would keep your ads up for a longer time and pay much less.
• Cost per incremental customer – This cost is very low for web marketing based concerns, whereas this cost is appreciable in case of offline marketing efforts.
• Targeted approach vs. blanket approach – The above reason leads offline marketing businesses to target and select carefully, eliminating a lot of potential customers, who may buy in the future if not the present. However, low incremental costs result in online businesses covering a broad spectrum of the market.
• Segmentation – Preferences are much easier to track for an online business and this means that segmentation is simpler. The web marketing effort has the information it needs to customize its pitch at once.
• Customer contact – Access to customer information is automatic in the case of online businesses and the web marketing process is simplified and made efficient. Databases and mailing lists are created in an instant. On the contrary, offline marketing efforts for the same require time, employees and money.
There are many benefits to both web marketing and offline marketing, and it is best to use a judicious mix of the two.
The Top Secret, Leave Your Competition In The Dust Way To Market Your Online Business
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.
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.
Promote Your Internet Business Offline!
Jason Wolf asked:
Promote Your Internet Business Offline!
Yes you heard me correctly. Promote your internet business offline. Usually you hear how you can take your offline business and bring it online, but I’m going to show you how to do the opposite. Why promote offline? There are a lot of reasons. Increase sales, reach more people, and grow your websites bottom line. Big businesses are marketing offline and you should be too. Your probably on a small marketing budget just like I am. That’s why I’m going to show you how to effectively market your online business offline with minimal cost.
Offline marketing is more expensive than online marketing, but it can be very effective to tie online and offline marketing together. There are a couple of different ways to tie-in offline marketing. What I’m going to cover here is using postcards and/or brochures to increase your sales. I personally use postcards to help promote my website and to sell my products.
Mailing Postcards work great if you have one or two products that you’re promoting. Any more than that and you should be mailing brochures, which I’ll talk about a little later. I like postcards because they are cheap to mail. It costs 23 cents to mail a postcard 1st class. Online marketers will realize that this is a cheap sales lead.
If you have more than one or two products to promote, you will want to use a 2-sided sales sheet or a small catalog. These will cost your 41 cents to mail, plus you’ll need an envelope. Your marketing price will at least double, but it can still be effective. Especially if you’re selling higher priced items.
Where will you get prospects for your mailing? The first place, I suggest you market to, are your existing customers. People who have purchased from you before will more than likely purchase from you again. As long as your selling products they need or want. Example a mail order company can sell mail order programs for their front end products. Then they can mail back end products, like mailing lists, labels, and other items that the customer will need to mail out their program.
After you market to your existing customers and you have a good sales piece working for you. Then is the time to get a mailing list. I recommend you test a mailing list before you do a mass mailing. Order 500 to 1000 names. If you make a profit from your mailing, chances are you have a winner on your hands and it’s time to order 5000 names. Send that mailing out and get ready to process some orders! Don’t stop there. Continue to market on and off line and you’ll have a great marketing mix. One more thing I’d like to mention about mailing lists. Don’t waste your money on cheap mailing lists. It’s Plain and simple. You will not get the results you need. Make sure the names are fresh 30-90 days old. Stay away from companies that offer you free names with your order. Like buy one get 2 free or companies that offer free names if it’s not deliverable. The free names will probably be just as bad as the rest of them.
When you write your direct mail pieces. Make sure you use proven formulas. Get a good book or report on writing direct mail pieces. You can find advertisements in business opportunity magazines that offer programs for free or a few dollars. You can answer a few of those ads. You’ll get some good and bad examples mailed to you. You’ll be able to tell the difference. Pay close attention to the ones that grab your attention. Those are the good ones. The poorly written and the poor copy pieces end up in the trash and probably won’t hold your attention. You’d be surprised at what some people mail.
A mixture of online and offline marketing is a more rounded approach to marketing. Using these two methods for your business can work very effectively.
Promote Your Internet Business Offline!
Yes you heard me correctly. Promote your internet business offline. Usually you hear how you can take your offline business and bring it online, but I’m going to show you how to do the opposite. Why promote offline? There are a lot of reasons. Increase sales, reach more people, and grow your websites bottom line. Big businesses are marketing offline and you should be too. Your probably on a small marketing budget just like I am. That’s why I’m going to show you how to effectively market your online business offline with minimal cost.
Offline marketing is more expensive than online marketing, but it can be very effective to tie online and offline marketing together. There are a couple of different ways to tie-in offline marketing. What I’m going to cover here is using postcards and/or brochures to increase your sales. I personally use postcards to help promote my website and to sell my products.
Mailing Postcards work great if you have one or two products that you’re promoting. Any more than that and you should be mailing brochures, which I’ll talk about a little later. I like postcards because they are cheap to mail. It costs 23 cents to mail a postcard 1st class. Online marketers will realize that this is a cheap sales lead.
If you have more than one or two products to promote, you will want to use a 2-sided sales sheet or a small catalog. These will cost your 41 cents to mail, plus you’ll need an envelope. Your marketing price will at least double, but it can still be effective. Especially if you’re selling higher priced items.
Where will you get prospects for your mailing? The first place, I suggest you market to, are your existing customers. People who have purchased from you before will more than likely purchase from you again. As long as your selling products they need or want. Example a mail order company can sell mail order programs for their front end products. Then they can mail back end products, like mailing lists, labels, and other items that the customer will need to mail out their program.
After you market to your existing customers and you have a good sales piece working for you. Then is the time to get a mailing list. I recommend you test a mailing list before you do a mass mailing. Order 500 to 1000 names. If you make a profit from your mailing, chances are you have a winner on your hands and it’s time to order 5000 names. Send that mailing out and get ready to process some orders! Don’t stop there. Continue to market on and off line and you’ll have a great marketing mix. One more thing I’d like to mention about mailing lists. Don’t waste your money on cheap mailing lists. It’s Plain and simple. You will not get the results you need. Make sure the names are fresh 30-90 days old. Stay away from companies that offer you free names with your order. Like buy one get 2 free or companies that offer free names if it’s not deliverable. The free names will probably be just as bad as the rest of them.
When you write your direct mail pieces. Make sure you use proven formulas. Get a good book or report on writing direct mail pieces. You can find advertisements in business opportunity magazines that offer programs for free or a few dollars. You can answer a few of those ads. You’ll get some good and bad examples mailed to you. You’ll be able to tell the difference. Pay close attention to the ones that grab your attention. Those are the good ones. The poorly written and the poor copy pieces end up in the trash and probably won’t hold your attention. You’d be surprised at what some people mail.
A mixture of online and offline marketing is a more rounded approach to marketing. Using these two methods for your business can work very effectively.
