Offline promotion guide
By: David Callan | Posted: 09th January 2005
By David Callan
Banner ads, search engines and link exchanges. We've all tried them while promoting our sites and online businesses, some have worked more successfully than others mind you but just because you run an online business doesn't mean you've to always promote it online. In fact on many occasions a websites marketing budget can be spent just as effectively using offline methods as it can be using online methods such as the ones mentioned above. Indeed website branding seems to be much more successful using offline methods such as TV and Radio. This article is your guide to promoting your website offline, I hope you enjoy it.
Your URL is very important
The basis behind any offline promotion campaign for your website is of course to get your website visited more often and if your sales letter is good enough to get more sales from these extra visitors. This can only be done by getting the address of your site 'out there' and visible to lots and lots of people. It's for this reason that your URL is very important, it's your lifeline in the offline world, the amount of exposure it receives will make or break your offline campaign. It should appear on any material you send to customers or clients, others businesses you deal with and most importantly potential customers.
More on where you can put your URL offline a little later, but for now here's a little paragraph or two regarding things which you can do online to help your offline marketing efforts. First off your website should always have a banner (a standard 468 x 60 or larger banner works best) at the top of every page with your website address clearly visible on it.
The reasoning behind this it that many people prefer to print out larger webpages with articles, stories, tutorials and the like to read later and then keep for reference rather than read them online as they're surfing. Without your URL on your banner people may re-read your content but never revisit your site due to them simply forgetting your website address and you may have lost a customer.
It's also a good idea to make available online any recent press releases you may have issued. This is due to the fact that many journalists and editors surf the web, if they like your company and product they might be inclined to let their readers know why. A press release will provide them with the latest information regarding your company helping them to do this.
Now we'll go through where you can promote your site offline.
Put your URL on all day to day business items
In the day to day running of your business you'll use many document type items. By these I refer to invoices you send, faxes you send, checks you send, product packaging, business cards etc. Your URL, email address and an attractive website slogan which makes people want to visit should all be present on each of these items either in the form of a banner used with faxes, invoices or other letterhead paper items or simple text which is generally used for business cards and checks. You could even include your URL and if space permits your website slogan on all the simple letter envelopes you send out.
Television
Next we'll talk about the big one - TV. This may well appear to be financially out of reach of all but the biggest websites with very large advertising budgets, but no this is not true. OK admittedly you probably don't and never will have the financial capability to run ads on mainstream Cable such as Fox in America or Sky in Britain and Ireland, not to worry though as such advertising is usually targeted very generally and is useful only to sites with broad appeal such as Amazon.com or Yahoo.com.
Local cable television advertising is much more feasible and effective for the more 'ordinary website'. This type of advertising appears to be very reasonably priced at the moment and is particularly effective if your product or services is oriented toward a specific geographic target market, for example imagine if you were a Detroit web design company, simply advertise your company and URL on a local Detroit channel. Contact a Sales representative from your local cable company to find out more. You should of course mention your URL on numerous occasions within your ad spot.
About the Author
Article by David Callan. David is an Internet marketing professional and webmaster of
http://www.akamarketing.com/webmaster-forums/ webmaster forums. Visit his webmaster forums for the latest discussions on search engines, website authoring and Internet marketing related issues and topics.
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Tags: search engines, website address, paragraph, occasions, banner ads, offline marketing, offline world, promoting your website, marketing efforts, link exchanges, marketing budget, david callan, offline methods, offline promotion, promotion campaign, lifeline, radio