Grow Your Online Business With These Offline Marketing Tips

December 23, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Advertising

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Offline marketing shouldnt be seen as outdated, in fact it is sweeping through the online community.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.



How To Market And Make Money Online

December 5, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Sem

Chris Rohrer asked:


With any online business today online and offline marketing plays a big key to either your business succeeding and making a lot of money, or failing and you losing a lot of money. However marketing online is not all that easy as some may make it out to be. If you jump into it to fast you can quickly lose a ton of money if you market wrong. So lets take this time to go over the correct ways of how to market and make money online.

First you will want to set up some type of marketing budget that you can follow for the month. When you do this make sure that you do not to set your budget to high, because you are just starting out so you will want to take your time and test things at first. A good marketing budget to set would be a couple hundred dollars. This will allow you to test a number of things like google awords, yahoo, and maybe even a good press release.

This moves us into the next part of how to market and make money online. You must test your ads first. Not every ad you post or submit is going to work. So make sure you test your ad to first see what kind of results you get from it. At the end of your test if you like your results you have gotten then you know this ad will work, and you can then invest more money into it.

The next most important thing to do with any marketing campaign is to track your ads. You could have the best ads in the world running, but if you are not tracking to see which ads are converting into sales you could be wasting a lot of money and not even know it! So make sure that no matter what type of ad you are running that you have a way to track it, and see if it is worth keeping or not.

Finally you will want to stay educated. There are always new ways to market online and offline. So it is very important to read up and educate yourself on these new ways of marketing. You can do this by reading messages boards, or surfing the web for new ways to market. Always remember though. Test every new marketing spot you find before you go and invest a lot of money into it.



Benefits of Combining Online and Offline Marketing

November 17, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Entrepreneurship

Lucien Bechard asked:


There is a lot of buzz going around the network marketing industry lately about online vs. offline marketing and which concept is better. The top leaders from each industry have been strongly stating their case as to why their concept is better. Both sides have strong and valid points that make it very tough to decide which one is better. But what if you didn’t have to choose a side? What if you could become involved with both of them?

Before we delve into this further let’s take more of a look into both industries.

Offline marketing & Direct Selling companies have been around since the beginning of time. It all started back in the day with people going door to door to pitch and sell their products. Companies such as Amway, and Mary Kay created a massive boom in the industry using the techniques of door to door selling. People in the 80’s and 90’s started learning the concepts of residual income and became really excited about the income potential this could bring to their lives. They started jumping on the bandwagon and began pitching their products and companies to everyone they came in contact with. There were a select few that made a tremendous amount of income from the direct selling craze, but most people ended up with nothing. A lot of people not only lost a lot of money, but they also had their dreams shattered along with it.

That’s when people started having a negative taste in their mouth about the direct selling industry. Terms such as “pyramid scheme” and “scam” began to surface.

The trends started to shift in the late 90’s. People started to become turned off to the concept of direct selling. They didn’t like bothering their friends and family. They weren’t interested in going to seminars and buying products they didn’t need. The direct selling industry now had a bad rap.

But here’s the key thing to remember. The concept and idea of residual income still stayed strong. Residual income wasn’t the “pyramid scheme” and it wasn’t a “scam.” Despite what people thought about the direct selling industry, no one could ever say anything negative about residual income. People still desired to have the lifestyle that residual income produced. They just didn’t like the way they had to go about achieving it.

Residual income never has and never will be a negative concept. The way people go about achieving residual income has become what’s negative. It’s a solid concept that most people still desire to have.

Now let’s flash forward to Internet boom. Ever since the Internet craze has hit the industry people have become inundated with business opportunities everywhere they go. People are being pulled in every different direction and they don’t know which way to turn.

The social media craze is causing such a stir throughout the industry. Sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube are taking over the Internet. If you go on any one of those sites, you will see that they are just one big “pitch fest.” Everyone is selling something, no matter if they are involved in online or offline marketing. They have a message they want to tell and they want you to hear it.

Everywhere people go on these sites they are being sold on business opportunities to “work from home,” “no meetings involved,” “no bothering friends and family,” and “no lotions or pills to sell.” 90% of the work will be done for them they are told. Terms like “pre-launch,” “get rich quick,” ‘join now,” ‘reserve your spot” have taken the industry by storm. Every time people log into their email, they get spammed by every Internet marketer on the planet telling them how great their business is.

So here’s where the crazy cycle has begins. Offline & Direct Marketers vs. Online Marketers. The tug of war has become heated.

Offline marketers believe in the old school network marketing principles of “making a list of friends and family,” “contacting them,” “showing them their opportunity,” and then “following through.” They believe in the human touch approach. They still hold motivational seminars, dream building sessions, strategy meetings, and cold call sessions like they did in the 80’s and 90’s.

They do network a little bit on the social media sites but most people don’t know what they are doing. They aren’t receiving any training from their up lines on how to brand themselves and market their business online. Also, most of the top offline companies have restrictions about their distributors using online marketing methods to promote their business. The distributors hands are tied.

Here’s where the struggle is taking place with offline companies and why they are losing most of their distributors to online companies. Most of these companies are on the verge of being wiped out because they are still stuck in the olden days of running a business. They are not with the times. Their philosophies of running a business are sound, they even have strong moral principles, but they are being buried by the Internet. Internet marketers are stealing these distributors away in droves and the people that are left are stunned when their down lines are wiped out.

Online marketers have a laser targeted focus on playing to the emotions of offline marketers. Their goal is to target all offline marketers and play off of the negative emotions they are facing with their current business. “The grass is greener on the other side” is what they portray.

With online marketing everything is automated with very little human touch. Online marketers just want people to enter their information into their “capture” page and then proceed to blast peoples email addresses with auto-responder messages hoping to play the law of averages. They know that if they can get their message to enough people, the law of averages will end up working in their favor.

“The money is in the list!” That holds true in both online marketing and offline marketing. It’s all about “the list.”

After reading this and seeing both sides of the fence, neither side seems appealing does it?

That’s because they aren’t working together! There is no “Synergy” working against each other.

That’s why you should incorporate both online and offline marketing methods into your businesses.

First of all, human contact is still the most important element in both online and offline marketing. Human contact is the key to having long term and lasting success in the network marketing industry. People want to do business with other people, not with a computer.

Online marketers can only hide behind the Internet for so long before their businesses will crumble. If online marketers want to become true leaders and have huge businesses, they have to incorporate human touch into their business.

If online marketers want to truly become successful, they need to still fill their minds with positive information through motivational cd’s and seminars, dream building sessions, and strategic planning sessions with other mentors.

Offline marketers have been teaching these principles for years and they are even more relevant in today’s world. Today more than ever, people want to be in business with someone they can trust. People still need guidance and mentorship from other leaders. Online marketers can learn a lot from offline marketers on how they build a business. The principles offline marketers use to build a business are sound and are still the basis by which a business should be built.

Let’s talk about what offline marketers need to do to get with the times before it’s too late. There’s no denying that the Internet has changed how business is being done. The social media giants are not going away and neither is online marketing. It’s only going to get bigger. Offline marketers need to start learning how to brand themselves and their businesses on the Internet if they want to succeed in today’s world. If offline marketers don’t learn how to market their businesses and brand themselves using the major social media outlets, they are going to get eaten alive very quickly.

There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity that’s come with the social media boom, but there’s a very limited amount of time people have left to learn how to capitalize on it.

If people get the right training they need now and learn how to use the Internet to build and market their business, they will become very wealthy.

It’s important to catch and ride the Internet and Social Media wave now before it’s too late! If you incorporate human touch in the process you will be a top leader that everyone turns to.

If people learn to combine the personal human touch, strong moral principles and philosophies of offline marketing, along with the momentum of the social media giants and the power of online marketing, they will become a part of history.

To learn how to effectively combine both online and offline marketing strategies to create “The Perfect Synergy” visit


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From Print to the Net: The Top Ten Benefits of Online Marketing Verses Yellow Page Advertising

November 17, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Marketing

Assassin Marketing asked:


Advertising today has definitely evolved, just as people and businesses continue to find and discover ways of sharing information with one another. Back then, it was almost imperative for businesses to grace the pages of that thick yellow phonebook more fondly known as the Yellow Pages. The traditional yellow page advertising has been a key promotional tool for businesses to create awareness for their products and services, and sell it to the public.

The advent of the Internet, however, started to alter the way people do things; businesses responded to this by exploring new ways of communicating with and addressing the needs of the people. Today, an increasing number of transactions are already being done online and information-sharing and dissemination over the Net has never been more widespread now than it was before. More businesses are likewise actively promoting themselves online, taking advantage of the growing number of Internet users and wider reach of an online medium. Thus, there came the emergence of online marketing.

Online marketing is fast growing in popularity as an effective advertising tool, and continues to post itself as a viable alternative to the traditional yellow page advertising, especially in a fast-paced and tech-savvy environment. Any avid Internet user today would actually notice that a lot of businesses today have websites where they promote their product and service offerings, and share other types of company information. In contrast, the once very thick Yellow Pages seem to have fewer pages lately, an indication that businesses are recognizing the benefits of increasing their online presence against advertising the traditional way. A thorough comparison of the two modes of advertising reveal that online marketing indeed has a greater number of benefits versus yellow pages advertising. Let me share with you ten benefits which top my list.

First, the Internet allows businesses to share more information to potential customers. Businesses practically have limitless space in their websites which they could fill in and update with information. On the other hand, yellow page advertising has a limit in terms of space that may be utilized to post certain content. The more information is shared in the Yellow Pages, the greater is its investment requirement.

Second, marketing initiatives done online are more easily searchable as compared to those advertised in the Yellow Pages. With the right key words, businesses can easily make their websites accessible to their target market. Information searches done using the Internet is much faster than manual scanning of the Yellow Pages.

Third, online marketing is more cost effective than yellow page advertising. Setting up, designing and running a website could be done for just a small amount of investment. On the contrary, the use of offline medium is known to cost substantially, even reaching thousands of dollars, while being bound by space and time limitations.

Fourth, online marketing makes it possible for businesses to attract hundreds, even thousands, of visitors to their sites, and create two-way interactions with them. Websites can be easily programmed to collect information from site visitors and keep in touch with them. This kind of functionality is not available in the traditional yellow page advertising.

Fifth, customer loyalty is more easily gained via online marketing. The Yellow Pages are simply all about ads, nothing more and nothing less. Meanwhile, websites may contain newsletters, updates and other attention-grabbing information links that encourage repeat customer contact.

Sixth, establishing credibility and gaining the customers’ trust are easier achieved through online marketing than yellow page advertising. Aside from ad placements, company websites can contain a whole range of information that can give customers better knowledge about a company and its products and services. The more customers know about a company, the greater is their tendency to trust it and see it as being reliable.

Seventh, online marketing offers greater convenience and flexibility in terms of updating information, at practically no additional cost. Businesses have total control of the content of their websites and they can modify it at any time they wish. Yellow page advertising does not have this kind of flexibility. In addition, any update done on traditional advertising usually requires additional investment.

Eighth, the effectiveness of marketing initiatives could be measured faster when the online medium is used. Site visits or hits as well as inquiries related to an online advertising placement, for instance, can be readily tracked as compared to calls received in response to a yellow page advertisement.

Ninth, marketing online allows companies to better demonstrate their competitive advantages and support their unique selling propositions. A website highlights the merits of a particular company, while the Yellow Page merely categorizes a company, together with its competition.

Lastly, online marketing has far greater reach than yellow page advertising. Web presence exposes businesses to the whole world, allowing it to tap not only local but international prospects as well. This opens promising opportunities for business growth and expansion later on.

There is no doubt about the power and capabilities of the Internet as an effective marketing tool. No wonder more and more businesses are shifting their budget allocations to enhance their web presence. With the right planning and use of resources, companies can make the most out of online marketing, the next big thing in the field of marketing and advertising.



Web Marketing Vs Offline Marketing

November 3, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Ecommerce

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.



The Top 10 Reasons Why Online Marketing Dominates Traditional Advertising

October 31, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Marketing

Assassin Marketing asked:


Online marketing has become the most successful method of advertising for any kind of business on the planet during the last decade. It is lightning fast and can promote your business to thousands of potential customers daily. As marketing is a primary factor for a long and successful business, the internet facilitates this process in a way that will ensure the maximum exposure to what you are offering.

Traditional marketing is becoming more expensive and slower to produce results. It also requires much more time and effort. It often has to be done by many employees and is restricted by many barriers and regulations which make it hard to get the most beneficial results. Then along comes the internet as it makes the entire globe seem like a short alley rather than a large city where you can reach customers overseas in a matter of seconds. Online marketing is superior to traditional ways of marketing in almost every aspect, and here we list the top 10 reasons online marketing dominates traditional advertising.

1. SPEED

Email marketing campaigns are fast, targeted, cost-effective, highly efficient method of marketing your business. They reach a lot of customers in the shortest time. Traditional mail marketing can take months and a lot of money and effort to generate results.

2. GEOGRAPHICAL RESTRICTIONS

The whole globe can be your customer base when you are marketing your business online, as the internet reaches almost every house on the planet. On the other hand, you are often restricted to local customers from a smaller geographical area when you market offline.

3. MARKETING EFFECTS

Online marketing is based on pull marketing effects, which means that online customers come across your website when they are looking for similar products of yours. While offline marketing is based on push marketing effects, which means you have to introduce your business to every single customer that come into your location.

4. SALES PROCESS

When your business is marketing online, you can make a sale in a matter of seconds; where the customer chooses what product or services they wise to buy, they move to the check out page, pays for the product or services on a secure page, and then receives their purchase. Offline advertising is very different as the selling process is very complex and requires a lot of effort and persuasion and sometimes can’t be completed after all.

5. HOURS OF OPERATION

Your website is self-managed and requires you only to make few changes, and after that it can operate non-stop and can be selling products or services while you are sleeping. Offline stores are restricted to the human active times, this means you open in the morning and close in the evening and you can’t make a sale while you are closed. In other words, the offline selling process has a shorter sales life than the online one.

6. COST OF MEDIA

If you want to make a commercial on TV or radio or a newspaper, you will pay a fortune. While online marketing allows you to make a short video or audio commercial and submit it thousands of media communities and it will cost you next to nothing.

7. LIMITED ADVERTISING LIFE SPAN

When you post an ad online about your business or website, with an article for example, it can be online forever and the place where the ad occupies will be untouched for a long time. On the other hand, offline ads can be only active for an agreed-upon period of time and then it will be replaced.

8. COST PER CUSTOMER

These costs are reasonably low with online marketing but relatively high with offline forms of advertising. They are simply the costs incurred to generate potential customers for the business.

9. CUSTOMER SUPPORT

With one email you can solve all your customer problems and concerns. This process is much more time consuming and require more effort offline.

10. ONGOING MARKETING INFORMATION

It is very easy and only takes a few seconds to collect all the information and data about every aspect of your business when you market online. Offline information and data are stored within piles of documents, where it requires a squad of employees to collect the required information.

As you can clearly see, online marketing is far superior to traditional forms of marketing. Online marketing is all about saving you money, time, and effort; yet brings you the required results you seek and most of the time exceeds your expectations.



Online or Offline Marketing?

September 9, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Home Business

onlineoffline]

armando williams asked:

start making money online

online money making oppurtunity

profit monster

The internet has revolutionized the world just like how the industrial age changed the way people work and co-exist. The world has become a much smaller place where anyone from anywhere around the world that has access to the internet can communicate with each other, anytime.

So how does this affect the way we make money? The difference is like riding a bicycle to work and taking a cab there. Business can now have a global audience compared to how far word of mouth can take you. So let’s compare the differences.

Creating a network Offline Like I mentioned earlier, offline business is how far word of mouth can take you. That can mean through your personal network or through advertising (TV, radio, mass media). But let’s assume you’re a person who doesn’t want to invest so much in advertising through the mass media (it’s quite costly anyway) and want to create your own personal network. And let’s also assume that you want to create a huge business to bring in more money.

Through my networking experience, let me tell you how it’s going to be. You will have your own list (how many depends on how many contacts you still have on you) and the chances that someone is going to even take a second look at what you’re doing would be one out of every 5. I did say just take a second look. If you’re serious in what you’re doing, probably a handful of people would be as excited as you are doing what you’re doing out of every hundred people.

Let’s face it. The network marketing boom has come and gone a long time ago. People have heard of network marketing opportunities, both the good and the bad. But since the industry has been out there for so long, more of the bad has been heard. “It’s a pyramid” “they’ll just keep taking money from you” “it won’t work” “I don’t know many people” “I don’t have time” “I’m not interested”. Do any of them sound vaguely familiar? People out there are fearful of new opportunities especially ones they’ve heard many things about.

Now let’s talk about the calls you have to make and how often you have to make them. Basically, you need to pick up that phone and talk to EVERY SINGLE person on your list in order to get a few people into your organization. Hey don’t expect your family to be joining you in an instant. Fellow network marketers should understand what I’m saying, yes? Calls you make means extra numbers behind the dollar sign on your phone bill, especially if you are going to use your mobile phone.

So what happens when your list runs out? You will either have to get more referrals or you get out there and find more potential network marketers! That means you have to literally talk to strangers whether you like it or not. You can’t tell me that everyone out there would talk to complete strangers anytime and anywhere. I have met several people who absolutely WILL NOT talk to any strangers or make any cold calls. (At this point, I’d like to recommend a book written by Florence Litthauer entitled “Personality Plus”) So I guess network marketing is not for everyone.

Online To create a network online, it would need four VERY IMPORTANT things. A computer, an internet connection, an email account and you. As compared to offline network marketing, internet marketing needs a fraction of your time for commitment with minimal effort. Introducing people to your online business does not mean you have to be physically there all the time. Think about it. If you’re in Singapore and you have a prospect in the US, you would have to forgo your sleep in order to talk to this person. But with the internet by your side, the world can connect anytime, from anywhere.

Now lets talk about the effort you have to put in. But first let me ask you this question. Do you chat with your friends on messenger? Do you check your mail? Do you surf the net from time to time? If the answer is yes then that is how much effort you need to put in! Just as much as you’re doing now or maybe just a bit more. (It IS a business you’re doing by the way) The word is LEVERAGE. With the same amount of effort you put in doing your offline business, you can potentially get a hundred or even a thousand times the number of prospects you can get!

HOWEVER, the numbers game still applies. In an online business, for every 100 clicks that you get to your page, ONE will opt in. And out of 100 opt-ins, ONE will join the business that you’re doing and out of the 100 people who join, 24 will do it as seriously as you (that is if you’re doing it seriously). Don’t expect a huge sum of money to be falling on your lap with whatever business because if that happens, it probably is not a legitimate business.

But don’t forget that with an online business, you are leveraging your time and effort with almost the same amount of results. I was running a traditional offline business for about 8 months and the most I received was a couple of a hundred dollars. With an online business, I received five times the amount of money within a month! And it was all legitimate. I was always looking for ways to earn fast money and I guess I found the best that the internet can offer!

Offline Gold for Online Marketers – How to Sell your Online Marketing Skills

September 1, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Internet Marketing

Leon asked:

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”.

Marketing Budgets Move From Offline Marketing to Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation

August 9, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Internet

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Jon Harrison asked:

Companies have and are increasingly moving their marketing budgets to internet marketing and search engine optimisation. The main reason for this is natural progression due to people using the internet more and more every year.

Due to the large increase of broadband users last year and the predicted increase over the next 5-10 years people are taking search engine optimisation and internet marketing more seriously and spending more money on it. The main cause of this is the competition between the big broadband suppliers driving down the price. With more people having fast internet access it allows them to spend more time on the internet going from site to site in minutes seeing dozens of sites. It is also proven that most of the users go through search engines to find their results so it is important to have your site visible there.

Offline marketing is becoming less effective due to several reasons. One of the reasons is the over use of telesales, this has happened over years which has meant that they are less effective now as people are less willing to listen to what the sales person has to offer. People are also purchasing more online so are not going to stores and shops, which means that no matter how much you advertise for a store offline it is losing sales to online websites.

The older more traditional techniques like using leaflets, newspaper advertisements, billboards etc are becoming less affecting due to; people not reading them and reading online newspapers, people not seeing the billboards due to not going near the shops and purchasing online and putting the leaflets straight in the bin with out reading them due to so many irrelevant ones.

As more and more sites go online and the more complex the search engines get, it is harder and harder to rank on the big search engines which also means more time and money has to be put into getting high rankings. However, this pays off as there are more users so you should see more sales for your money. Companies are realising this and concentrating on gaining and not losing trade to online competition.

Search engine optimisation has developed over the years in line with the development of the search engines. This means more research has to be done by the search engine optimisation consultants to allow them to provide the best results for their clients. This can only be done by people investing more money into it and this would only be provided if their where customers to purchase goods and services to make it worth while. So this shows that people are moving their marketing priorities to online.

Some companies split their budget in different ways for their internet marketing and one way is to pay search engine optimisation consultants to deal with it for you. This is affective when using the correct company and you will see results but the problem is there are a lot of con artists also offering the service. The other option is to employ an in house search engine optimisation consultant which will run things from inside the company. A lot of companies have chosen to do this as this allows them to keep control. The problem with this is that the in house consultant may soon get out of date with their techniques if they don’t get enough time to do their research.

Can You Make Offline Advertising Work For You?

July 14, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Internet

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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.