subject: Are You Selling Your Online Business Short? by:Todd Thomas [print this page] You are if you are trying to market your online business ONLY with online advertising. Many e-entrepreneurs miss out on a huge advertising opportunity for their online business when they put their sole focus toward internet marketing and advertising options. There is no doubt that there are numerous terrific avenues to market your business online from search engines to blogging and so on. However, you might be leaving out a highly effective and often quite INEXPENSIVE form of marketing if you haven't looked into "offline" advertising opportunities. In the offline area, there are just about as many great ideas as there are on the web to market your online business. Here are a few ideas you should seriously consider to maximize your business' exposure.
Most everyone's first thought when they think of offline advertising for their online business is classified advertising. While this certainly is one option, I put it down the list somewhat when considering effectiveness and cost.
My personal favorite and one I use is a rear window sign on your car. I really consider this a no brainier because everywhere you go your automobile is a moving advertisement to countless people that otherwise would never find your online business on the internet. Car magnets are similar and good, but I prefer the rear window sign simply because more people see it. I get a ton of exposure for my business and get lots of extra hits to my site with this method. Best of all, it is NOT very expensive. You can either have one made at a print shop, which does cost more or you can stop by a local office supply store and get the white stick on letters and numbers you need to make your own. That's what I did. It costs me very little and was only a ONE TIME EXPENSE! Yet, I get exposure over and over day after day after day.
Another great offline marketing tool is with the use of promotional business cards. These are not your typical business card which is something you should also have. These are business card size cards that just have your website(affiliate link, etc) listed on them and a short message that generates curiosity for the person who picks it up so that they hold onto it and check out your online business the next time they are in front of their computer. Something like what mine says. First my website address is bold http://www.ChooseHomeWork.com. Then below that is my message... "For Those who Desire To Choose To work At Home". Using neon colors for these cards are even better. These are hugely successful and again not very expensive. I just leave one or a group of these cards almost everywhere I go. A few at the gas pump, on the counter at the convenience store, at the checkout at the grocery store or at the ATM. The options are only limited to your imagination.
Classified advertising as I mentioned before is another really good option for offline advertising of your online business. This one is the grandaddy of them all. I realize there are many online classified advertising options, but I am talking specifically about offline newspaper and/or magazine advertising which is still a completely different dynamic that it's online counterpart. Offline classifieds in most cases reach an entirely different audience that the same ads you may be running online. The advantage of course over the other options mentioned here is you can cover a much larger area. You can advertise in different cities and numerous different publications that closely isolate whatever your target demographic might be. However, this can prove to be much more expensive especially when you consider the fact that many times you need to test your ad(s) a little first before fully committing to a campaign.
The options and ideas for offline advertising of your online business are many. Really too many to mention here. The whole point of this article is to hopefully inspire you that you should consider offline options in conjunction with the many online marketing avenues that you and I are putting time effort and money into. There is huge opportunity out there offline and the expense many times is very minimal. Couple this with the fact that VERY FEW online marketers take this route and this form of marketing is WIDE OPEN. I encourage you to consider those I mentioned here and hopefully other perhaps even better offline ideas are inspired within you. Brainstorm and let the creative juices flow. You might just hit on a great idea that will send many new visitors to your online business that never would even have had a clue it existed.
