Marketing Your Business Offline

Every marketer is searching for the most effective ways to promote their business online. But, how about offline promotion? The answer to that is really up to you. Remember…all your customers live in the physical world and can be reached more effectively from the physical world. With that being said, regarding promoting your business offline…you must start thinking creatively.

The following are just a few examples of various marketing techniques that can be used.

1. Create business cards. This can be done with business card paper which can be purchased at business supply stores. You can make these on your home computer. You will need to install card-maker software to do this. Or you can hire someone to make them for you. Try to make them unique…different than the normal business card.

Be creative, try and capture the attention of prospective customers with your choice of color and design.

2. Pass your cards out at dinner engagements, parties, libraries, schools, colleges, daycare centers,…basically any place where someone will allow this type of solicitation. Leave them in restrooms of theaters, restaurants, department stores, etc…Remember, think creatively and you will come up with tons of other places and ideas. Keep a fresh supply of your business cards in your car at all times. You never know when an opportunity will present itself.

3. Make up some flyers and posters to post on bulletin boards. Again your choice of color and design will be substantial at capturing the attention of prospective buyers. These flyers could be handed out locally and also posters could be displayed at various locations such as supermarkets, gas stations, malls, laundry mats, churches, social clubs and business centers.

4. Talk to your friends and people you come in contact with about your business. These friends and acquaintances will tell their friends and so on. This is called “word of mouth” advertising. “Word of mouth” is by far the most effective marketing technique you can use when promoting your business offline.

Be enthusiastic about your business while you’re talking…get excited about what you do. Your enthusiasm will most likely rub off…and result in sales and/or recruits.

5. Place bumper stickers on your car displaying your business. Include a phone number or a website link so that people can see it and contact you. You would be surprised at how many people look at these. Again, you can make them yourself or hire someone to do it. For this technique, your website URL and phone number should be fairly large so that it can be seen easily.

6. Hire someone to make ink pens and pencils with the name of your business on them. You can leave these at banks, churches, libraries, and various other places. When you start to hand these out…you will most likely think of a lot of other places to hand them out, or discretely leave them.

7. Check out cinema screen advertising at various theaters. Think of how many people will see your ad! The prices will vary. This is an excellent marketing method if pricing is within your budget.
8. Check out advertising in your local newspaper. Advertising in magazines is also another great option. There are many people that are newspaper and magazine junkies. If the pricing is within your budget…go for it!

9. Have t-shirts or hats made with a special logo of your business. Include a phone number or website link to your business. Other personal favorites could be mugs, calendars, mouse pads, refrigerator magnets and the like. And I bet if you think real hard, you could come up with a lot more.

Creativity is key when contemplating innovative offline marketing techniques. Offline promotion is really a trial and error type of thing. If something is not bringing in the sales…try something else. The ideas are essentially endless. Put your mind to it and try your hand at offline promotion…it could mean significant success for your business.

Tip: When using offline marketing techniques, it is better to use a short domain name so that it can be remembered easier.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich
 
Tammy has been successful in the work at home industry for many years. She is an Internet Marketer, Article Marketer, and Ghostwriter. She offers free job leads for the job seeker, as well as other work at home resources, work at home articles, tips, and more at http://www.onestopwebemployment.com
 
You can also find Tammy at http://www.real-wah-jobs.com, offering legitimate work at home companies, more free job leads, work at home articles, and much more.

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Strategies For Marketing Offline

The Internet has become the largest medium of communication; and has presented a lot of business opportunities.  Online home based business owners tend to limit themselves to online marketing methods. Nevertheless, there is a huge potential to promote your home based business through some cost effective offline marketing strategies.  So what are the most effective offline marketing strategies for your home based business?

1. Word of mouth in your circle of influence
Word of mouth is one of the best free advertising channels. We all have people we interact with on a daily basis, and these are potential customers. Make a list of all the people you know or interact with and how can you best tell them about your internet business. Be passionate about your internet business and always be prepared to tell someone about it when an opportunity to do so presents itself!

2. Mail-out newsletters and flyers
Mail-out newsletter or flyers can be effective if you target it to a specific ‘group’. You could create one to distribute to local day care centers just as an example – and in your newsletter or flyer, highlight the benefits of an online business to the targeted group, for example earning money at home for stay at home moms or dads. Posting your home based business URL on bulletin boards can also be effective.

3. Use and give away free branded ‘stuff’
You can promote your business by having your URL on all your stationery, all written communication and other items you can give away for free. If you want to get a lot of people to know about your home based business, you will need to come up with some creative ways of promoting your URL. You can be limited only by your imagination. Have your business cards with your home based business URL. Give them out to people you meet, leave them about where you can, such as in your local coffee shop.

4. Newspapers and magazines
Local newspapers are good for advertising your online business. Most local papers have ‘home business opportunities’ section, so you run a regular classified advert. In addition, contact your local newspaper or business-oriented magazine and let the business editor know you have a new business and web site and what you offer. Local newspapers are frequently interested in featuring local business people and their accomplishments. This is free advertising and should always be used. You can also contact your local magazine and offer to write a monthly or weekly guest column for them, and include your ‘author bio’ and home based business URL.

5. Joint ventures with offline business
You can get into a joint venture partnership with an offline business which sells a complementary product or service to your home based business. If you can identify a partner that best fit your business, this is an important offline marketing strategy that can help you succeed in your home based business by enabling you to reach potential customers that you could not reach before. As an example, if you have a website selling fitness/health products or tips, you could prepare a leaflet and make a deal with an offline local fitness/health shop where they giveaway your leaflet to their shoppers with each purchase.

The offline marketing strategies outlined above can help you grow your home based business.  I have used these strategies alot and they work well.  So what are you waiting for?  Get out there and promote your business offline!!

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