During the new year holidays, I stumbled upon an interesting post written by Andrew Cavanagh in the Warrior Forum. The post is about how to make money by selling your online marketing skills to businesses right in you local city. This post went completely insane with thousands of views almost immediately and all kinds of positive comments.

Andrew who has over 25 years of experience in developing small businesses also written a 50-page report called “Offline Gold For Online Marketers”. and sales. When I saw his new report, I grabbed it immediately not because of its introductory low price ($19.99) but the idea of selling our online marketing skills or services offline.

The idea of offline marketing is consistent with my thinking. Like I mentioned in my website before, most online marketers are glue to their PC all the time but there are a few smart ones who also spend their time doing networking offline. Because these people know that there are gold mines in the offline world. But, the question is… how do you promote and sell your online marketing skills offline?

If you’ve experience in building a small business before, perhaps you know that the average business owner is very busy just trying to keep his business running. He doesn’t have the time to take a long hard objective look at the way he could improve his marketing strategy. But he is also acutely aware that anything that can improve his net profits will help to keep his business more stable and put real cash in his pocket! Most small business owners are well aware that they can always find time for someone who’s genuinely interested in helping them to improve their businesses and they’re willing to pay for it.

Now if you’ve some basic online marketing skills and are willing to walk into a business and just have a casual conversation about how they can improve their sales using the Internet, a good percentage of them will listen. Of course, besides having some basic online marketing skills, you also need to learn how to talk to these business owners and understand their NEEDS. That’s why I find the report “Offline Gold For Online Marketers” so valuable because it outlines step-by-step how to approach small business owners so they want to listen to you and how to sell your services to them.

Here are some tips on where to find those small business owners and how to communicate with them…

I’m sure you’ve heard about Business Networking International (BNI). If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s basically a business and professional networking organization whose purpose is to provide a structured environment for the development and exchange of qualified business referrals. It’s the largest networking organisation of its kind in the world. I’m sure you can find them in your city.

They hold regular meeting for their members and if you know someone there, you can ask him/her to invite to join their meeting (for free). It’s a great avenue for you to get to know other entrepreneurs from different fields. Make sure you bring a lot of business cards if you attend one of their gatherings.

Just get to know people and have a casual conversation with them. My favorite technique to communicate with small business owners is to always remember to ask questions! For example, let’s say he/she asks you first, “what do you do for a living?”. My normal answer for that question is… “I have a home-based Internet business. How about you?”. Always remember to end your answer with a question. You need to get to know about your potential client and a great way to do this is to talk less and listen more (ie. ask more questions).

Ask them if their businesses currently have a website? Most of them don’t. For those who have websites, they have no idea what is online marketing and they have never made any sale from their websites. You must always in a position to gather information and seek the opportunity to talk about your services. Remember not to talk too much about yourself. Focus on your potential client. it’s enough to say that you have a home-based internet business and you also help small business owners to improve their businesses through online marketing. Ask them this question: “Do you think your business will do better if you have a website?”. Then LISTEN!

I hope this article has given you some great ideas on how to sell your online marketing skills offline. Click here to find out more about “Offline Gold For Online Marketers”.

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.