Looking Off-line for Online Promotions
Home > Promote
> Promoting Off-line
by
Eric Wood
Too often I find
that people are looking for ways to promote their products and services online.
The trouble is that this really does not work as well as intended. To illustrate
this even further, one need look no farther than Yahoo, the largest site on the
Internet with over 38 million visitors per month.
How often do
you find Yahoo banner ads? The correct answer is never. They promote their site
off-line. Newspaper, television and radio are filled with "Do you ah.. Yahoo?"
They got smart and figured out that they could get a better response
off-line., so they took out some ads on television. They got terrific response.
While you probably to not have the advertising budget the Yahoo
does, you should still consider some of their techniques and adapt them as your
own.
- Be Creative
Work with local groups
to offer them free use of your product or service while promoting you.
-
-
Think Outside the Box
Forge alliances with other companies to provide them with your services in their
businesses. Look at your local copy shop. The odds are that they advertise their
copiers in the window. Without even walking into the store, the copier companies
get free advertising from several copy shops.
-
Press
Release
Write a well constructed press release and the media will send
you free traffic! Make sure that your press release is news, however, of you will
never get published.
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Neighborhood
promotion
If you are like me, you get coupons every week on your front
door. Look into getting an advertisement in those publications. It is often not
as expensive as you may think!
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Classified
Advertising
Classified ads are the cheapest advertising available. Studies
have shown that they provide the best long-term solution to a small business.
If you have an advertising budget of $2000 for a year, it is far better to run
52 ads at $40 each, than take out a full-page newspaper ad. This continual promotion
of your business will provide you with ongoing traffic to your Web site, rather
than s huge onslaught of business all at once and will allow you to reap the benefits
year round.
Continually working to promote your site
both on and off-line. will create a windfall for your business.
