I appreciate that we are an on-line business and should be using every on-line facility at our disposal to generate visitors to our site, but there are a number of off-line solutions that we could use to generate more visitors to our sites.
BUSINESS CARDS
We should all have a business card for our site which gives our name, phone number, e-mail address and, of course, our web site, but I have been to many events and have handed out my card to new contacts only to be told that they don’t have a business card and they end up sribbling their details on a scrap of paper which soon gets lost in your bag.
With companies like VistaPrint offering 250 cards for virtually nothing (maybe £2.95 for postage) there is really no excuse, if you are a serious business owner, for not having some. I have a number with me at all times in case I meet someone who might be a useful contact and, if attending an event, I take extra with me for handing out!
CLASSIFIED ADVERTS
You could put a small classified advert in a niche magazine with an intriguing headline to draw in new contacts and you can give out your web address and phone number for follow up.
This can be particularly valuable if you are working in a specialised market such as bee keeping, etc where interest is high and information is relatively scarce! You can increase your list and sales by using this technique although you should do this gradually with, say, a quarter page add to begin with and if it works, do more!
INSERTS
Adding a small insert (or flyer) into packages can be a great way for you to attract new customers from another sales source.
For example, if you are in the fitness niche, you could speak with a local sports shop who do a lot of package shipping and swap a link to their website from your site in exchange for them adding an insert into every package they send out to their customers
I have some other ideas that could be off-line methods for your use and will post these in a later post
I think we are all experienced enough to have the business card option covered by now, or at least in process, but has anyone thought about using other off-line methods to increase their on-line business. Let me know please below and whether it worked for you or not!
2 replies to "Three Off-line Methods to Promote Your Site"
Hi Dave,
Interesting blog post of discussion here and indeed offline methods are still a great way to generate sales and customers. I find postcards and sales letters still work to great effect as there are still a lot of people who are still getting use to having computers, or have not yet explored the online world of marketing and its potential but would love to do so, but don’t know how to.
Talking of which, recently at a local supermarket, when I returned from shopping, I had a flyer clipped to my car wiper for a online website selling compostable bin liners, and in our area, there are lots of mailing companies distributing flyers through letterbox, so the offline methods are still working.
Looking forward to reading more about offline methods that you will be sharing with us all Dave,
Kind regards
Sky
Hello Dave,
I can totally relate to the first method you discussed, business cards. The first ever marketing event I went to I was one of those very people who was scribbling down my contact details onto a scrap bit of paper 🙂
I don’t have much experience with offline marketing, but its not to say I haven’t noticed what goes on. When I used to work in an office you would get new companies bringing in goodie bags filled with things like pens, calendars even coffee mugs.
This promotional method seemed to be quite popular at the time so I dare say they must have seen decent results and I wouldn’t
have thought their advertising budget would have taking a heavy hit.
Can’t wait to see what other offline methods you have in store!
Many Thanks,
Graeme