Promoting an Online Business Offline
The Internet is a tremendous tool for marketing any business, online or offline. But what if we turned the tables a little and asked, ‘If you run a business that’s primarily online, are you ignoring the offline opportunities to promote your business?’
Why market offline?
1. It’s there. Bloggers still write books. Online marketing gurus still go to conferences and carry business cards. Why? Because it gives them another way to connect. More channels equals more customers.
2. There are customers there. Not every potential customer spends their day hanging about on Digg or reading blogs. Investing some time in offline marketing helps reach out to those customers and widens your customer base.
3. Your competitors aren’t there. Most online businesses invest little in offline promotion. You might not want to spend tens of thousands on a TV spot but simple, consistent efforts will help set you apart from your competitors.
4. It doesn’t have to cost much. A simple direct mail postcard costs less than one Adwords click in a competitive market. Public relations, referral programs and face-to-face networking cost next to nothing.
How?
One of the main benefits of online marketing is that you can automate quite a lot of the legwork. If you’re going to venture offline you’ll want to make sure you develop processes and procedures to do the same. Start by splitting your marketing into two groups.
Process Marketing – Process marketing is the stuff you can every day as part of your normal routine. It’s long term, grows over time and rarely requires you to spend your hard-earned cash. Use business cards, brand all your stationery with your URL, talk to people about your business and look for PR opportunities in the local press.
Campaign Marketing – By contrast, campaign marketing has a beginning and an end. It’s a dedicated, outward effort to attract new business or raise your profile. You could try a simple direct mail postcard campaign with an offer designed to drive traffic to your site. If you operate in a specific niche are there magazines dedicated to that niche? If so, test some small print ads. If networking online helps build traffic, why not invest some time into offline networking events?
Online or off, the principles of marketing remain pretty much the same – focus on benefits, have a clear point of difference and think long-term consistent marketing as opposed to one—off blasts.
If you run an online business, what offline promotional techniques have you tried? How did you get on?
Mark Nagurski is a Director of The Really Practical Marketing Company, who provide marketing advice and resources to small business owners, freelancers and startups. You can read his daily marketing ideas blog at www.reallypractical.com
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June 6th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Good points. I think a lot of companies feel that since the invention of the internet the world outside no longer exists!
June 9th, 2008 at 9:00 am
You are really a great person.Thanks for sahring about this important matter.I will follow you tips.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Most on-line businesses invest little in off-line promotion. You might not want to spend tens of thousands on a TV spot but simple, consistent efforts will help set you apart from your competitors.
June 10th, 2008 at 9:43 am
In my experience working for an online gambling company, press ads were the second most cost-effective recruitment medium.
June 10th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
I like your article and tips. Also I think the conservative business opportunities are more important then e-commerce options (though the power of the Internet is brethtaking).
June 11th, 2008 at 3:35 am
Good ideas about promoting your online business offline. If you have an online business, you put all your attention promoting online because your target customers are almost online. And I think, to make your business more effective it should be a combination of both online and offline promotions.
June 11th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
We are members of two business networking groups. It’s a great way to get out into the community.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Nice and cool header.Thanks a lot for the post.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Really good ideas..i liked your article and your tips about the business..Thanks for sharing these great informations..
June 13th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Great..simply great. I have always think about online business and not even had a thought on offline business. This is simply exciting me so as to promote my website in a offline way. Thanks for sharing this information.
June 14th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I worked for a company that would send free t-shirts with orders over $30 and to all employees. On the shirt was the company name and logo and contact info, so if ever they wore the shirt in public they were a walking billboard.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment and I’m glad the post struck a cord.
@gwen - I agree about networking. It’s something we do a lot of and the key for us is to change the focus from getting sales to looking for potential partners.
@Patsy - I really like the t-shirt idea, it’s one I might have to copy
Thanks again for taking the time to comment
June 17th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
A few years ago I had to sit through National Assoc. of Realtors e-Pro course and this was something they stressed to all agents. Put your emial and url on everything! Business cards, letterhead, pens, wherever you can. They referred to it as branding. The more successful people on the web (not just realtors) do this all the time.
June 18th, 2008 at 1:31 am
I think another reason this is an excellent idea is the fact that most people still operate in a very traditional environment. Most are not comfortable floating about in cyberspace. The offline advertising provides easy to find pointers, in a traditional format that will help point people to your content.
June 19th, 2008 at 2:40 am
Offline marketing for online properties is a great when a business targets the local market.
About a year ago, I started seeing lots of advertisements for a local classified ads site, and since that time, they’ve become a real competitor to Craigslist.
The point about advertising (offline) where there are less competitors is really quite true. People take notice when something peaks their interest and there’s a followup URL to check out. This isn’t always true when you’re surfing online and there’s always 10-50 links within your screen space.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Hmmm, I guess I never even thought about real world offline marketing as a strategy. It does make sense though. Is it cost effective though?
June 19th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Good tips. Here is a great way I have found to offline market. Give professional business cards to your family and friends, and ask them to put them somewhere visible at their work. That way, customers trust where it is coming from so you are more likely to get their business.
June 21st, 2008 at 12:21 pm
In my thoughts Offline marketing was almost dead but you raise some very valid points which urge me to think about it again.
June 22nd, 2008 at 7:51 am
After reading this article I will aslo promote my business both online and offline. This is really a wonderful article. Thanks
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:16 am
Personally I haven’t tried this but suggested on my friends doing following:
1. Make a nice logo, slogan and print it in T-Shirt and distribute them.
2. Place a website URL in small bracket that could go with backside of Car.
3. Send SMS to friends,and friends of friends etc.
4. Visiting Card would always help.
5.If you run some contest, you could give ads in newspaper, radio stations, magazines ( weekly or monthly).
etc..
So basically I am still looking on how to do this in more effective way.
Thanks and looking forward to see more tips from bloggers here.
Chris
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:07 pm
good points but one needs to understand that they first need to analyze IF their business needs offline marketing…..
else it will be true waist of money..
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:16 am
I did some work online but didn’t try offline. I shall try offline. I think that will be good for me too.
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Thanks everyone for commenting and Mark for writing a fantastic post. One thing for sure is that whether you are an online of an offline business, you really need to consider your marketing as having multiple levels i.e. taking into account a variety of different marketing communications vehicles.
As Mark suggests and as many of you agree, that will most effectively be a combination of both online and offline - which is exactly how I have been growing my own business and that of my clients.
Please keep posting your ideas and examples. I know a lot of people are getting a lot of value from this discussion.
June 25th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Thanks for sharing..
June 26th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
This is something I keep on thinking about with my online business. Many aspects of promotion can be used offline to boost by online business, from something as simple as newspaper advertising. I have a couple of websites that would probably do very well at attracting new business if I target offline marketing, but I focus a lot (probably too much) actually online.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
I actually get many of my online sites from magazines. I love reading about new ideas and sites when grabbing a magazine to take for coffee or to read during a office visit. I find it’s a very effective way to market.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:57 am
Very Interesting perspective and something most online businesses neglect doing. Nice Read, Thanks.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:16 am
We work the business meeting circuit here and it works very well!
June 30th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Your point on process marketing is a good one. I’ve need been as consistent with this as I should, but when I’ve spent even a small amount of time with process marketing, the benefits have been well worth the effort.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:14 am
An valuable article. The best way to make your business more effective is to target on both online and offline market.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
The most successful companies are those who have used what was successful offline and tweaked the process slightly to create the results they get online.
I believe promoting your business offline should be approached the same way with online methods. Just getting the know how to use the offline media like you have online. Its a combination of both that creates immense results.
And one quick way to get your feet wet, is to send a postcard to your list using their physical address. It may even be a birthday card or thank you card. You will be amazed at the response you get. There are websites that offer sending postcards cheaply even at $1.
Give it a try.
July 1st, 2008 at 9:49 am
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July 1st, 2008 at 9:56 am
I love reading about new ideas and sites when grabbing a magazine to take for coffee or to read during a office visit.
July 1st, 2008 at 10:14 am
I have always think about online business and not even had a thought on offline business.
July 4th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
It is nice to hear a couple of good ideas on how to promote online business offline, I think we do not always realize that our promotion efforts are incomplete if the offline ground is not covered. Thanks to make me remember that!
July 7th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Especially in developing countries like Phillipines, India etc promoting the business thru offline is much more beneficial as only few folk have access to internet. Nice post.
July 9th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
True, we get so caught up in the web and online promotion that we forget that there is life outside Google. Like in the investment world, diversifying will likely be of benefit.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Good advice to remember. The trouble is many online marketers have never been involved in traditional marketing and as a consequence, they’re generally pretty bad at it! Not to mention the time it can take to do both online and offline marketing. Decide what works for you and do that! Experiment, but not to your detriment.
July 19th, 2008 at 6:54 am
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July 22nd, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Nice article. I think this is commonly overlooked. I have found offline marketing to work very well in Asia and its quite cheap.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Having a balanced mix of online and offline marketing helps you to promote your business.
July 26th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Without the proper techniques offline you’re going to have a hard time selling online - not IMPOSSIBLE, but difficult!