| By :
Ted Holcomb
Do a search on Google or Yahoo for offline marketing. You will find there are dozens of ideas on how to promote a business. Too many choices can lead to confusion and make a person wonder, what is offline marketing? Is it promoting an online business offline or is it promoting an offline business using a combination of Internet and traditional forms of advertising? Offline and online are becoming hybrid forms of marketing strategy. You need both offline and online if you are going to successfully have an effective marketing strategy. It is the internet that will open up the full potential of your campaign and allow you to develop business with new prospect and customers at a reasonable cost. This is especially true if you are in a service business. The product is you and what is between your ears. The trick is making sure the right people know what is available to them and how to access it. Traditional advertising often is a shot-gun approach to reaching the target customer being sought. Traditional approaches have been the yellow pages, radio, newspaper, direct mail etc. Get the idea? If asked, "...are you targeted in on the best prospects for your business when these types of advertising is used?" The answer is ALMOST ALWAYS, no or I am not sure. Take two of the most common forms of advertising. Yellow pages and newspapers. Both are expensive, static, inflexible, and not targeted to your customer. The newspaper is circulated to a specific area, and to a small percent of the population. A recent audit showed that 24 of the top 25 newspapers lost circulation that supports a trend set decades ago. So if fewer than 5% of people in a community subscribe to the paper, you are missing 95% of the potential market. Now it is true, all of those people are not your prospects, but many of them could be...so how do you reach them? One last point on the newspaper... it is expensive. Yellow pages is next. First, the yellow pages are expensive. It's once a year insertion and your ad will not change, even though your business will. Again, where are you in the yellow pages and is there a competitor nearby. How about all around you. If you do not have an ad and only a listing, you are hard to find and not in the group that someone searches to find you. Your business listing or ad is only one of a heard of sheep that is searching for notice and visibility. It is not going to happen in the yellow pages. The Internet has several advantages over both the newspaper and yellow pages. A targeted audience - spend your money wisely on the right people * Low cost- pay for only those that show an interest in your product * Large display banners - Ad color and visibility that can't be missed * Connect with your prospect-Know who is looking for you and reach out to them So the question "is offline marketing right for you, the answer is a definite yes. Because you will be using several offline techniques to market your business online. ALL of those offline techniques are tied to your online website. Knowing how to use them to your advantage is the key.
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