Increase Your Profits by Coordinating Online
and Traditional Offline Marketing

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by Bob Leduc

Most small business owners I know fall into one of three categories in their attitude toward online marketing:

1. Those who market online exclusively and don't consider using traditional (offline) methods. Usually they mention the expense of traditional marketing and the length of time to see results as their reasons for ignoring offline marketing.

2. Those who are not online yet but plan to get online sometime in the future. Usually they mention the initial expense of computer equipment and software or the learning time required as their reason for not being online.

3. Those business owners who use both online and traditional offline marketing methods. Usually they coordinate both methods to maximize their profit from each.

According to a recent article in the "Wall Street Journal", fewer than 40% of American households own a personal computer. If you're a small business owner operating only online, you're bypassing over 50% of the US population that doesn't even own a computer. Even worse, you're missing the huge majority of computer owners who say they never used a computer to conduct business. Do you really want to cut yourself off from so many potential prospects and customers?

On the other hand, if you're a small business owner who hasn't explored online marketing, you're depriving yourself of the benefits of a very cost-effective and time-effective business tool.

You don't need a Web page to reap benefits from online marketing. All you need is an email account and access to the Internet. The following illustrates one example of how you can coordinate online and traditional offline marketing to maximize your profits. The example we'll use is based on the popular two step selling process of (1) placing classified ads to generate inquiries and (2) replying to those inquiries with a powerful sales letter motivating the prospect to buy.

Test Online - Expand Offline...

Classified ads can be tested quickly and cheaply online. The Internet. and online services such as America Online and CompuServe provide numerous locations to post classified ads at very little or no cost. These ads appear almost immediately and you know within a few days whether or not your ad is getting results. If your ad isn't getting results, change it or test another one and keep testing until you develop an ad that produces an acceptable number of responses. Be careful to place your ad in locations and categories likely to be read by people in your defined target market.

When you have an ad that works online you can start testing your sales letter online by e-mailing it to the people who reply to your ad. Follow the same procedure of revising and refining your letter until the conversion rate to sales is acceptable. After you have a proven ad and sales letter that work online, you can expand your promotion offline using the same ad and letter.

You can start your offline promotion by placing your new proven ad in selected print magazines read by people in your targeted market. Be sure to target the same category of prospects offline as you did online. You want to use the same sales ad and sales letter with the same category of prospects offline as you used online. That's the only way you can be assured of getting the same successful results offline as you received online.

If you prefer direct mail to classified or display advertising, you can save time and expense by printing your proven ad on postcards and mailing the postcards to a targeted list of prospects. You may even want to use the subscriber list for the same magazine you considered for placing your ad. Your ad on a postcard will be seen by almost 100% of the recipients. There's nothing to open or unfold before the message can be read. Postcards are delivered ready to read.

In this application, the postcards perform the same function as your ad. They generate inquiries. Obviously, you respond to all inquiries the same way. Send them your proven sales letter.

This article revealed how you can reach the maximum number of likely prospects for your product or service with a proven offer, regardless of whether those prospects are online or offline. The more people you reach in your market, the more business you'll get. The more business you get, the more profit you can withdraw from your bank account.