July 4, 2007
Benefits of Offline Marketing for your Online Business
When it comes to our online businesses we tend to think in a limited way. Although, online/internet marketing is arguably the best form of promotion for your business, it is important to remember the great benefits of marketing offline as well.
Some Ideas for marketing offline include:
- Register your business in the local chamber of commerce for your city or town. Attend the local mixers and functions that the city organizes. They always have card bowls to toss your card in and many people to promote your business too. You can also ask to be a speaker at these functions ahead of time. This will definately help you stand out as an authority in your niche business. If you do speak, make sure you are providing valuable information about the niche and business you do, instead of pitching your products or services.
As an example, my business Webweaver Designs is a member of the Long Beach, CA Chamber of Commerce. When I first started web design about 5 years ago, I attended a couple of the mixers that the city organized. I instantly had 3 clients and 4 projects just from those functions. They had great speakers and I learned alot about my business and my potential as a small business owner.
- Attend conferences and seminars about online businesses, home-based business, internet marketing, etc.
I just returned from Carl Galetti's Internet Marketing Super Confernce in Las Vegas, NV and the things I learned and the connections I made were absolutely invaluable for my partners and myself. The speakers are amazing but more importantly it is the JV's and partnerships that you form that have the most lasting effects. Teleseminars and phone conferences are no substitute for face to face meetings and forming JV's.
In September my partners and myself are going to attend the Authority Site Center Summit in Las Veags, NV. I am going shamelessly plug this event because we are also coaches for the Authority Site Center, teaching concepts and best practices for profitable authority site development. The partners, Jack Humphrey, Mark Braunstein and Peter Lenkefi, happen to be very good friends of mine will also be speaking at this event amongst a very poweful list of speakers including Dave Lahkani and Rick Butts.
- Put an ad in your local digest or newspaper for your area. These ads can be very inexpensive and can be great for extra exposure. Make sure you include your logo, web address and contact info, make yourself accessible. Better yet, once you register your business in your city or town they ususally announce the newest small businesses in the area for free, make sure you get a photo or logo in the layout or announcement. Putting an image or illustration next to the announcement will help catch people's eye ensuring that it is not skimmed because it is just text based.
- If you have a newsletter online, consider printing it out and passing it around to your neighbors, schools, other small businesses or chamber of commerce. There alot of places in your area who would be more than happy to help promote your business. Think about it, realtors pass out their flyers when they are selling houses, or when they notify you that they are a new realtor in the area, do the same for your business. Most towns would prefer to promote businesses in the area rather than referring the customers to a different location or another town. The point is to make your town and local areas aware of you and what you do, the benefits of this are endless.
- If you have information products, consider offering free chapters or snippets as downloads to the customers of the local bookstores or other related businesses in the area. For example, when someone buys a cup of coffee at starbucks they get your "free download" of your newest report or product. Starbucks is not a franchise are usually very open to info products, books, cd's, etc that would be of benefit to their customers and people in general. One of my very good friends just wrote a book "The 25 Lessons They Don't Teach You In School", self published it, approached the local Starbucks about offering it in their store and they accepted. It is now being sold at the Starbucks in Portland, Oregon where they live. Subsequently, it was also picked by Amazon and can be purchased online.
I hope this gave you some great ideas about noticing the possibilities for offline marketing as well. If you have done something offline that has been profitable for your online business, leave us a comment….Free Promotion!
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