Off Line Marketing for On Line Results

By Will Dylan
Posted Monday, August 30, 2004

So you’re all “Googled” out, are you? You’ve been working feverishly placing e-zine ads, paying for placement and position with search engines, buying online classifieds, and trying to optimize search engine rankings for your website.

All of that effort and money may be paying off for you, or it may be your greatest source of frustration. Most new businesses on the Internet quickly discover that there is no magic formula to driving website traffic higher.

If you’re looking for innovative methods of marketing your on-line business, start thinking like an off-line marketer. The tried and true marketing practices employed by traditional businesses represent significant value to your on-line venture. Before placing your next bid with a Pay-per-click engine, consider some of these marketing initiatives:

Off-line Advertising

Yes, they still have advertising off-line, in things like newspapers and magazines. If you have an intriguing website name that is focused on one particular industry or profession, you have access to highly targeted publications that will do an excellent job of reaching your target market.

Imagine that you operate a website that sells an amazing new product aimed at the plumbing market. You can stretch your advertising dollars by placing ads that contain only your URL in recognized plumbing publications. An ad that reads (http://www.besteverplumbinginvention.com) would attract plenty of traffic from curious plumbers and industry suppliers.

While other companies are using their ad space to explain to plumbers why they should call them, you’ve provided a compelling reason (curiosity) for plumbers to hit your site. Since you only advertised the URL, you don’t require considerable space to explain your idea, hence the cost of your ad will be very reasonable.

Get Published

The mantra these days is to “get published” in various e-zines and e-newsletters by writing articles from your expert point of view and including your byline. The byline, or “resource box” acts as an ad for your company by providing your URL and e-mail address. Getting published is a highly effective, low cost method of promoting your on-line business. The question is: why stop at e-zines?

It seems everybody has forgotten the huge number of magazine and newspaper publications available in today’s marketplace. Getting published in print is just as effective, if not more effective, than on-line publication.

Let’s say that you offer a business to business service through your website. Almost every major city in the U.S. has a local business publication that discusses local business news and covers topics of interest to business owners. How many major cities are there in the U.S.? An informal analysis reveals that there are at least 50 (one for each state), plus many more….there are 5 in California alone!

Since you are on-line, geography is not an obstacle, so get your articles and news releases out to these publications no matter where they are published. There’s a magazine for just about everything these days, so whatever your area of expertise is, you’ll find an editor who might be interested in running your article.

Targeted Event Promotion

No matter who you are targeting, there is some type of annual event for them held somewhere in the U.S. From dental assistants to senior citizens to country music fans, there is a conference or convention that attracts thousands of them.

Promote your on-line business with an advertisement in the convention program, or better yet, distribute some promotional materials at the show, such as pens or note pads with your URL printed on them. If the event is out of town, don’t worry. Contact the facility where the event is being held. They will usually help out with this type of promotion for a small fee.

The on-line world is a tremendous place to market your products and services. But don’t forget about the rest of the world, or you’ll miss out on some tremendous marketing opportunities.

About the Author
Will Dylan is the Author of "Small Business Big Marketing" and owner of (http://www.marketingyoursmallbusiness.com) . Will also offers article and news release writing services through his website. You can contact Will at askwill@marketingyoursmallbusiness.com