Oli Osorhan asked:


1. Answering Machine – This one is easy for offline marketing, just be sure to include your URL, dot.com in your answering machine messages!

2. Address Labels  – Again easy all your outgoing mail for everything use your address labels for more offline marketing of your business and website!

3. Business Cards – Definitely use them, get in the habit of carrying them with you and pass them out “It Works”, you can even get you cards done on cd-roms!

4. Company vehicles – We all see vehicles with company names and telephone numbers on them driving our streets and motorways. This is a great idea as it gives potential customers the chance while out and about to learn about the company and also learn about how to contact them should they need the service or product they offer at some stage in the future. I often wonder why more websites aren’t promoted in this way by simply adding the company website URL also, you definitely should do this as part of your Offline Marketing!

5.  Flyers – Post flyers on free local bulletin boards (grocery stores, discount chain stores, shopping malls, laundromats, dry cleaners, etc.) print a flyer on bright yellow paper detailing your web address and your company. BE SURE to include your email address, URL as well as your telephone number! Tack the flyer to bulletin boards all over your town. Keep a supply in your car for handy offline marketing!

6.  Freebies & Giveaways – This method is a personal favorite of mine. It involves purchasing and distributing items such as pencils, pens, t-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, calendars, key-chains, bumper stickers, refrigerator magnets and the like. All these items will have your URL, Logo, or Email address located somewhere on them helping to market offline and attract people to your website.

7.  Christmas Cards – Use your Christmas cards to all your customers also for offline marketing with all your info URL, email and phone numbers!

8.  Checks & Coupons – Again use all your information when using coupons and have your company checks printed with this information!

9. Web decals – are a new, inexpensive and fun way to use offline marketing and attract attention to your website. People absolutely love them, and they are very simple to use. Web decals are made of high quality vinyl and printed with state of the art digital equipment. Display your website address and more in bold white or black & white letters. People stick them everywhere. In your car windows, store, office and home windows, any place with glass!

10. Word of Mouth – easiest and a very viral form of offline marketing, your happy customers and friends just pass it on!

11. Fax cover sheets – (many people forget this one for offline marketing!)

12. Personal brochures – about you and your company!

13. Printed Material – Print your URL (Web site address) everywhere you print your business name. Including business cards, fliers, signage, ads, product tags, labels, craft show directories (in shows you may be attending) and anywhere else your business name is printed!

14. Newspapers, classifieds and related magazines – The print media which includes newspapers, journals and magazines is another avenue where your can have your URL exposed for everyone to see. It’s best first to start advertising your products, services and URL in local newspapers and then if successful continue onto regional and national publications. If you can’t afford the common graphical advertisement as seen throughout newspapers and journals related to your industry don’t worry as most of these publications have classified ad sections. Classified ads allow you to reach a targeted audience very cheaply with a simple short message and of course your URL is included in there somewhere too again a great source of offline marketing for your business!

15. Press releases – Press releases using them for offline marketing and promotion. Press releases or news releases as they’re sometimes known are newsworthy stories about your business that you send to various sections of the media. These sections of the media must be related to your industry for you to have any chance of success. Newsworthy stories are stories which readers of the media publications you submit to might be interested in.

If the journalist reads it and likes it he or she may publish it or some of its contents in his or her publication, if this happens you’re on to a winner because the public in general are much more responsive to a news story than a plain old hyped up advertisement. This could mean they’ll enquire about or even purchase your products or services.

Using press releases for offline marketing of your website uses the same principals, if it’s newsworthy release it. Newsworthy events for websites include website launches, website re launches and new online services among other items. Also don’t forget online press releases!

16. I. ID-It Plates – These Elegant mini-Billboards promote YOU 365 days a year, enhance the appearance of your vehicles, last for years and most important, give you literally Millions of Impressions  and affordable offline marketing over their lifetime.

Conclusion – Even if your business only exits in the virtual world you must realize ALL your customers live and always will live in the physical world and therefore can be reached much better from the physical world. The moral of the story is never ever forget about the offline marketing and promotion of your website. Your success or failure could depend on it!

http:www.moneybizhome.com/marketing_articles

 

Deep Arora asked:


Starting an online business is easy, but attracting ever increasing traffic is not! Dont think you are alone in this. The ongoing quest to drive traffic to your site is one that is necessary for all and sundry. The cost incurred in marketing the site with every possible online opportunity can become quite hefty. Sometimes the more traditional offline methods can provide inexpensive and ingenious way is to churn out new marketing initiatives for your online business.

Offline marketing shouldnt be seen as outdated, in fact it is sweeping through the online community. If you are looking for something innovative to add to your marketing mix, then focusing and developing an offline strategy may be the solution you are after. Firstly, know your target audience and then work out on the modes of communication that they remain in touch with, in their daily life. Once you know these modes are available to you for offline marketing, you can develop attractive advertisements and calculate the cost incurred in carrying this out. To consider a few offline marketing modes, read on!

o Radio Shows. Amidst numerous radio channels on air, theres no such thing as information being obscure. The advantage with the radio advertising format is that listeners tune in regularly, while on the go, in shops, their car, at work and so on. The broadcasters are constantly searching for fillers in their shows, hence providing you the opportunity to slot your advertising in. With radio make your ad short and crisp, memorable is the key with this advertising format. Radio is still one of the most effective and relatively inexpensive advertising formats; and there is always space between shows for the advertisers to speak on.

o Print Media. Putting out attractive and creative ads in magazines and newspapers can truly work wonders. The print media reaches out to more people than you might expect. Hence, your message, and in this case your website can be more effectively promoted. When developing print advertising, make the language very target centric, you want to really grab the attention of the target audience. In particular you should look out for publications that are related to your field and the segment of people who read them.

o Mail Packages. Developing a list of people who may find your site interesting is the key to this step. Once you have the crucial element, then the next step is to design an attractive envelope for your mail package, or go for a postcard. Think of exciting offers that may intrigue the receiver to investigate your products and services further, after all these are what will get people to visit your website. Offering easy ways to reach you and learn more about your business is the key here. Let potential customers discover the benefits of going through you and not through your competitors. Create the whole package as consumer centric. This means demonstrate that you understand and know your audience, interesting them and drawing them in so they want to know more of the details on your product and how it benefits them. The cost incurred in the mail campaign may be no more than the cost of printing the materials and the stamps. For this reason the postcard style option has become increasingly popular.

o Event Promotion. Invariably, there is always one event or another taking place in the metropolitan cities at any time. Be on the look out for ways to use these events to your advantage. Be focused and select an event that will attract more of the audience you wish to target. Once you have narrowed down the event you feel is relevant, prepare a marketing strategy that correlates to the event activities. Perhaps you could get leaflets printed with details of your site, in particular, the URL or the link you want them to visit. Get articles like pens, diaries or magnets printed with your website URL on them and distribute these. Human nature is such that people cant resist these things, and they can very quickly put your brand in the mind of the target market, when the person sees the message every time they write or look for a piece of paper and so on.

You should develop a strategy for offline marketing just as you would with online marketing. The elements are more or less the same, lets face it offline marketing is where these elements originated. So take the time to utilize these opportunities and target the potential market you want to get to your online site. Making the effort will pay dividends, and placing your business so that you get more traffic is the whole point of getting your marketing strategy rolling.

temp_168807 asked:

If you own and operate an online business, it would be quite myopic to exclusively focus on online marketing methods to promote your enterprise.  Granted that the World Wide Web is home to some amazing and cost-effective ways that can help spread the word about your business, the World Wide Web remains as just one avenue for you to exploit.  There is a more promising avenue that has been neglected since the advent of the internet.

 

This is the offline market.

 

Below are 5 simple but highly effective offline marketing methods that you can implement for your online business.

 

Distributing items that prominently display your URL.  Coffee mugs, caps, shirts, and even bumper stickers.  Surely, you’ve seen such items that displayed a particular URL, right?  Can you remember how intrigued you were when you encountered them?  Perhaps you may still remember the URL you saw back then?  Such is the power of this method.

 

Distributing media kits for the press people.  Press people are always on the lookout for things to write about.  Make things easy for them by distributing press kits that consist of: an expertly written press release about your company or about an event that affects your company, a profile of your business, a list of prominent clients/customers, a list of awards received, your complete product line, and other similar details.

 

Conducting seminars, symposiums and workshops.  What better way to promote your website – something that is often viewed with the negativity caused by the prevalent anonymity on the internet – than by providing the public with the face of your business: yours.  By making yourself visible and displaying your expertise in events that call for the same, such as seminars, symposiums and workshops related to the field you are concentrating on, you’ll be able to build your name in the industry, and consequently, you will be able to build the brand of your business.

 

Advertise in your dailies and magazines.  Yes, it will cost some money, but advertising on print publications is not as expensive as it may initially seem to most folks.  You don’t need full page ads or double-paged spreads.  You won’t even need a quarter of a page.  You will need an eighth of a page at the most.  Based on experience, the best type of print ad that you can run is a simple display of your website’s URL.  Imagine white font on black background and you’ll see how such an ad will stand out.  Because of the dearth in details, people will be intrigued and they will log online to check out your site to see what it’s about.

 

Sponsor charity events.  Most of these events will prominently display their sponsors’ logos on the advertising materials they will use.  Instead of your business’ logo, ask that your website’s URL be displayed instead.  The exposure your link will receive via this method can potentially be immense.  Imagine a charitable event on a national, if not a global, scale, and you will begin to imagine the sheer potency of this technique in action.