A lot of online based businesses forget about offline advertising.
Most online marketers
today focus almost entirely on online advertising.
It must be emphasized how
important it is to combine both offline and online advertising together in your marketing campaign
for optimum success.
You can market offline more effectively by targeting people that actually have access to the internet.
In all your advertising you want to include your web site address, e-mail or autoresponder addresses, and the e-mail address to subscribe to your e-zine.
You would also want to target your offline advertising to groups of people that will actually be interested in your product or service. For example, if you're selling business books, you will want to market to business owners.
Below are 10 offline
marketing ideas that you can contemplate for your online
business:
-
Place classified or full page ads in print
publications. The print publications should be
computer or Internet related, or it could be your
local daily newspapers.
-
Post flyers in stores. They could be computer
stores, software stores, libraries, etc. or those
related to your niche.
-
Buy
mailing lists and send direct mail. Just make sure
that all the people on the mailing list are Internet
users.
-
Pass out your CD-ROM or diskette business cards at
special events. It could be at trade shows,
seminars, fairs, etc.
-
Set
up a deal with another business that targets
Internet users. Pay the business to insert your
business ads in their product packages.
-
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.
-
Do
co-op mailings with other businesses. They should
also be targeting people with Internet access.
-
Give away free products such as a calendar or mouse
pad. Put your advertising on your products and give
them away preferably at computer or Internet events.
-
Advertise in card decks. The card deck you advertise
in should be targeted toward Internet users.
-
And..., if you have the budget, buy commercial time
on TV. They can be during shows that are targeted
toward Internet users.
In
conclusion, if you have a business that's only based
online, you don't want to market to people that don't
have access to the internet. Regardless, I do hope that
you will not ignore the power of offline marketing in
today's ever increasing online sphere.
