How To Effectively Use Offline Advertising To Build Your Online Business

How To Effectively Use Offline Advertising To Build Your Online
Business
By Jeff Schuman

First of all let me say that having spent the past 20 years
working closely with small businesses I know exactly what
works when it comes to offline advertising.

What I have found today is that online businesses have a built
in advantage when it comes to promoting their business offline.
You already have a website and autoresponder in place to lead
your prospect to. When you combine that fact along with the
traditional capture methods of telephone and snail mail there
is no reason any online business can`t use offline methods to
build their businesses and sell their products and services.

A lot of online based businesses forget about offline
advertising. I know I have. It is important to combine offline
and online advertising together in your marketing campaign.
This will give you to a more well rounded approach to
promoting as well as attract potential prospects and customers
you might not otherwise get.

In all your offline advertising you want to include your web
site address, e-mail or autoresponder addresses, and your
phone number and mailing address. This gives you the
appearance of a real bonafide business.

Another thing is to start selling products for manufacturers
who offer co-op advertising for promoting their products. You
can read a little more about this technique in an article I
wrote titled "Why Are You Wasting Free Advertising Money?"
http://sites-plus.com/articles/article2.html (http://sites-plus.
com/articles/article2.html)

Finally you need to view offline marketing as a long term
committment. I`ve seen businesses over and over run and ad not
get the response they were looking for and quit.

This will not work offline. Or online for that matter. You need
to establish a budget and stick to it. That doesn`t mean that
you can`t change the ad copy if your response is marginal. It
just means if you are going to run classified ads for example
that you run them for a period of time and allow them to do
their job.

Here are 10 offline marketing ideas. Use as many of these as
possible to move your business forward.

Classified Newspaper Ads- Place classified ads in newspapers.
Local newspapers often have great advertising rates that you
can take advantage of to promote your business. Here`s a great
source for running classified ads.
http://www.nationwideadvertising.com (http://www.
nationwideadvertising.com)

Put up flyers. They could be in computer stores, libraries,
restaurants, car windshields, or anywhere you shop that allows
flyers.

Direct mail. A nice direct mail piece when done consistently
over a period of time can bring tremendous exposure for your
business. The biggest benefit of direct mail is it allows you
to reach thousands of people at a bulk mail rate. You could
not do this if you had to mail each piece individually.

Buy time on local cable T.V. It is surprisingly affordable and
if you commit to a block of advertising you can develop Top Of
Mind Awareness. TOMA is being there when they want or need you.
If you are an affiliate or in an MLM consider doing group
advertising and spreading the cost out over several of you.
You can have leads routed into one phone number and divied out
to all advertisers or have each ad display a different phone
number.

Pass out your CD-ROM or diskette business cards at special
events. It could be at trade shows, seminars, fairs, etc.

Get 250 free business cards here and leave them everywhere you
go.
http://www.vistaprint.com (http://www.vistaprint.com)

Hold a free offline class and teach people how to use their
computer or how to use the internet. You could have your web
site on display as an example.

Give away promotional items such as free mouse pads. Put your
advertising on the mouse pads and give them away at computer
or internet events.

Advertise in card decks. The card deck you advertise in should
be targeted toward internet users.

You would also want to target your offline advertising to
groups of people that will actually be interested in your
product or service. If you`re selling business books, you will
want to market to business owners.

In conclusion, if you have a business that`s only based online
using offline advertising to make money online is a great idea
because so many people today go online to get information
about products and services they are interested in.

Craig Valine is the publisher of the The AwfulMarketing Alert
Newsletter, "Where you learn GOOD marketing strategies by
looking at those who do it really BAD."

To subscribe his free newsletter, go to: http://awfulmarketing.
com/ezinesubscribe.htm (http://awfulmarketing.com/
ezinesubscribe.htm)