Promoting Your Web Business Offline


Guy listening to radioAdvertising for small businesses in the 21st century can sometimes feel like an overwhelming task. Technology has brought us into the age of information exchange and knowledge is being accessed at accelerated rates.

Online advertising might seem like the obvious solution for the small business owner, but one shouldn’t overlook the importance of offline advertising mediums such as billboard signs and mail distribution lists as well as the placement of local flyers.

The internet is a big place, and there is a lot of traffic, but getting prime advertisement placement on high traffic sites can end up costing big bucks. An advertisement for your small business placed on a billboard near a local highway on the other hand could afford you the confidence that your ads are reaching their intended local market.

E-mail in the 21st century overshadows the classic snail-mail of yore, but snail-mail has its advantages. Modern email services and browser settings heavily limit the amount of “spam” users receive. A mailing list on the other hand guarantees you’re getting the information out to a customer who cares in a flyer they can hold in their hand and bring to your business with them on their visit.

Well-placed local flyers can also voice your message effectively to consumers as they regularly frequent other businesses like grocery stores and shopping centers. A posted flyer on a telephone poll next to a busy street can produce more traffic for a small ad as well.

If your business is working a kiosk at an event, a vinyl banner is always a crucial part of your business’ image. Banners also work great for advertising on the sides of buildings where there is a lot of consumer traffic. There is also a market for vinyl wraps for automobiles.

One of the most timeless methods of classic advertisement lies in radio. Don’t just choose any old radio station to promote your ad; find out what your customer is listing to, who is your target market? Place your advertisements accordingly and you’ll be sure to have them find ready ears in listeners commuting to and from work on a daily basis.

Advertising couldn’t be discussed without mentioning television. A television commercial is one of the most effective and experienced forms of advertisement familiar to man. As with radio ads make sure you find the right station or channel to advertise with. There is no point in putting a car insurance ad on during a cartoon marathon. Think about your target market.

  • http://www.making-your-own-website.com Nabeel | Create Your First Website

    Yeah OFFline advertising is still effective. That’s why we so many advertisements offline, be it billboards, tv, radio etc.

    We could promote our online business through offline methods too, and many indeed do this.

    Nabeel

    • http://www.startupbizblog.com Kevin Kaiser

      Nabeel, thanks for commenting. Many people think offline advertising is for cavemen but the best marketers now that you need to at least try it before throwing it out the window. You never now, it might end up having a better ROI than online for some niches.

  • http://www.youngprepro.com Onibalusi Bamidele

    Really great post,

    I have never thought of offline promotion for my blog and now this post has enlightened me and make me more interested in it.

    Thanks so much for the great post,
    -Onibalusi

    • http://www.startupbizblog.com Kevin Kaiser

      Thanks for the kind words Onibalusi!

      Many people think that the only way they can gain exposure if through online techniques but printing out flyers and passing them around to your friends and family who in turn pass them around can help spread the word. Also sponsoring some local events can also give your web-based business some spotlight. It probably isn’t practical to get a commercial running on TV, but some simple local advertising is cheap and can really help.

  • http://cashwithatrueconscience.com/rbblog Ryan

    Hi Kevin

    Great insight here concerning offline advertising.

    It’s easy to get caught up with the ease of online marketing methods to the exclusion of offline techniques. They are a strong driver too because they are traditional. Many people have yet to take to the internet. We also are conditioned to check out billboards, street ads, etc.

    Ryan

    • http://www.startupbizblog.com Kevin Kaiser

      It is true that we are conditioned to see advertisements and respond to ones we like. We’re bombarded with them everyday. And if you see an ad online, sometimes people are weary of clicking for fear of being attacked or spammed, but seeing an offline advertisement usually means its more legit (I know there are exceptions) and they’ll be more likely to follow through with the increased brand exposure.

  • CJ

    Nice stuff man!
    So many people forget that before the internet, there were “physical” ways to promote a business. And those can sometimes be the most effective.

    I’ll be honest though, I tried the physical thing once and it just wasn’t for me. Haha

    CJ

    CJ’s last blog ..5 Bad Ways to Make Money Online… Including Twitter

  • http://www.dennisedell.com/about Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing

    I couldn’t agree more. Being in direct sales all my life, I see a huge decline and getting bigger since the intro of online marketing.

    One of the blogs in my upcoming network will be entirely devoted to offline marketing. :)

  • http://www.joelane.com/ Colleen

    “One of the most timeless methods of classic advertisement lies in radio. Don’t just choose any old radio station to promote your ad; find out what your customer is listing to…”

    We are still using radio to a small degree. We’ll use radio to advertise a client’s property for them. Funny thing is our customers want to see us advertise for them on radio, but radio is not working very well for them.

    • http://www.linkedin.com/in/zachmachado Zach

      What kind of radio stations are you advertising on? From what I can tell, your Real Estate website http://www.joelane.com is getting far more website visitors than the News Talk and Sports Talk stations in your area. Unless a radio listener goes to the radio station website so they can click to see the house it probably won’t be all that successful. Obviously I am commenting without knowing anything about the type of ads your run, where you run them, when they run, etc., etc. I’d be more than happy to give you some feedback if you’d like to contact me.

  • http://www.usedtiresdealers.com used tires

    Offline advertising can be very affective, one huge lesson I learned when I tried to advertise offline was about domain names! I used to have a domain name with a dash in it, what a huge mistake that was! I had such a hard time getting across to people that there was a dash in the domain name, that I wound up sending traffic to my competition. One of the biggest lessons form that is to think about your domain name and the importance it may have once you try to go outside of the online spectrum.

    Till then,

    Jean

  • http://www.netchunks.com Shiva | Web Magazine

    Offline advertising can be a great idea for getting our business to front foot. I would also like to add a point: One can also get T-Shirts of his website printed and then give it away or either wear them selves. It can get them more readers

  • http://www.bidetinternational.com Bidet

    Offline advertising is always good to do, it can be done in the form of flyers or business cards. Also television ads are sometimes a good way to promote your site. All of these methods are good but since its coming from offline, you can’t track it well.

  • http://www.murlu.com Murlu

    Although you don’t have a lot of the benefits of advertising online (instant feedback, extreme amounts of testing and targeting); offline methods do still work – think geurilla marketing: be visible in the mediums which your customer base flocks to.

  • ahlaksiz

    So many people forget that before the internet, there were “physical” ways to promote a business.

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