Are You Selling Your Online Business
Short?
by:
Todd Thomas
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 granddaddy 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.
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