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Offline advertising should be a part of your online strategy By Jakob Jelling Day by day, online business has become more & more complicated and competitive. Every site wants to stand at number one. To achieve this, the webmasters do everything and anything. They start from posting flashy banners on public domains, and then continue the marketing journey by adding interactive trivia, puzzles, and contests, try to gather big subscriber lists (or even buy traffic) and finally even contribute to SPAM. However, they forget a very famous saying – OLD is GOLD. It is now necessary to shift on to the older ways of advertising viz. offline marketing. By this, it is not meant that the webmasters should leave all the online affairs & shift to putting on roadside posters. I mean that online and offline marketing should be ‘merged’ together. During the offline marketing, we have to attract only those audiences who have access to the Internet or at least have knowledge about it. Given below are some of ‘those’ offline techniques, which can be more effective than expectations. Though some of them might be too costly, it is the result that should be taken into consideration. - One can take help of print media. Publish the advertisements in local newspapers and magazines (if possible, full page advertisements), weekly newsletters and journals, Yellow Pages (or the telephone directory), etc. Do not forget to put your website address in the advertisement. - Try to impress the reader by giving him free ezines, newsletters. - Also, provide him with discount coupons or freebies or sale offers. You can also advertise in the form of banners at relevant shops, libraries, fairs, seminars, etc. - You can also distribute your advertisement pamphlets at cafeterias or relevant places or can hang them at doorknobs. It should be remembered that he advertisement should not only make the reader get attracted to your product but should also tempt him to visit your website. - You can distribute the advertising CD-ROMs or disks at seminars or even in happening places like schools and colleges. - You can even hold seminars or some sort of ‘free’ classes in which you can teach people something about the field in which your product falls and indirectly advertise your product. You can give away freebies such as mouse pads, pens, and bookmarks. Make sure that the website name printed on your freebies or as for that purpose, any media, is clearly readable, else everything goes in vain. - Another method, which is costly but sure working, is to advertise on Television. You should remove the thought that television publishing is only possible for big companies. With the help of your cable operator, you can get a good negotiable package. Publish a commercial of your product on the ‘relevant’ cable channel. Another option is to publish a 15-20 minute infomercial (also called as telefilm), in which you can provide each and every detail about your product with its advantages. However, do not forget to mention your contact information, stretched for at least 5 seconds so that the audience can take it down. - You can also advertise on radio. This, too, isn’t that costly
if you negotiate a bit or buy commercials in wholesale. Make sure you
advertise on the ‘right’ channel. Good utilization of your
airtime can work wonders for your company.
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