Recession Marketing Guide

There is a great deal of opportunity when it comes to marketing in the real world in order to drive traffic and targeted leads to your online business.  Today, web site addresses are almost as common as phone numbers.  You’ll see them on billboards, buses, vehicles, tv commercials and hear them in radio commercials.  Many people see the Internet is the cornerstone of their entire advertising campaign.   Getting consumers and businesses leaders to their website is an essential part of the sales process.

Here are some tips and techniques for generating offline marketing for your online business.

Guest star on a radio talk show

Radio talk shows are hot these days and make a great platform for you to get your name out there.

Get yourself on television

Do a local television show as a guest. If you have the money pay for a local commercial spot. Television is an amazingly effective medium.

Be a guest speaker

Got o local clubs or organizations and volunteer to be a guest speaker for their next function. This works best if the group is somehow related to your product or group members are a part of your target market.

Make yourself into an expert

Being an expert gives you status and makes people believe in you. Start establishing yourself as an expert in your community so you can have people start vouching for your expertise.

Advertise in a local magazine

Local magazines are affordable and a good way to get your name to the public.

Get in a newsletter

Many local organizations and groups publish newsletters that go out to all their members. You need to get your name in there. Write a guest article or do an interview.

Put up a billboard

Billboards are attention grabbing and they send your message out to a large number of people.

Place newspaper ads

Newspaper ads are surprisingly effective and affordable. Use them to your advantage.

Hand out flyers

Flyers allow you to target customers and add that personal touch because it gives you face time with them as you are passing them out.

Use direct mailings

Direct mail is a proven method of advertising. You can make highly targeted mailings and reach your customers with a fairly inexpensive method of marketing.

Start up a telemarketing campaign

Telemarketing is a very effective. It is also something you can do on your own so it is cheap.

Print up business cards

Business cards are great tools that can be used in many different ways. You can hand them out, leave them at local stores and even send them with orders.

Sponsor a contest

Offer your products as a prize for a contest. Be sire to include your label or business card with your URL in the prize package.

Sponsor a sports team

Local non-school associated sports teams rely on sponsors to fund their programs. In exchange for sponsoring the team you get your business name displayed on their uniforms. It is a great trade off.

Give to charity

Give in the name of your business and you will help your business reputation.

Get in the church bulletin

Church bulletins are well read and they are a great place to get your business name published. You should contact the pastor to see how you can get in the bulletin.

Develop an offline affiliate program

Affiliate programs are not just for online. If you have a product that can be easily carried around and showed off then you can make an offline program.

Become a news story

Do something newsworthy or become part of a news story and you will get free publicity from the news.

Host promotional product giveaways

Giving away promotional items is a great idea because you are giving away something free and people love that. Plus you are giving away something that advertises your business, so that is good for you. It is a win-win situation.

Print up tee shirts

Tee shirts are great advertising tools. Think about how many times you have stopped to read someone’s tee shit. Now think about how amazing that could be for your business.

Pass out bumper stickers

Bumper stickers are a cheap way to get your business name out there. You can give them away with orders or just hand them out to people who already have one on their car.

Use the old stand by of word of mouth

Word of mouth has been a great tool for building many businesses. Put it to work for you by encouraging people to tell others about you.

Set up shop at fairs or festivals

Fairs and festivals allow you to reach a large group of shoppers. You can set up a booth for a small fee and sell quite a bit of product.

Print up pamphlets

Pamphlets allow you to put all the important information is an easy to read package. People do not usually mind taking a pamphlet and looking it over. Plus it is a nice reminder of your URL and business name.

Send out text messages

People use text messaging as a main form of communication these days. Get into the trend and send out text messages like you would email messages. People like to forward messages so make yours catchy enough to be something they will forward and get more mileage out of your efforts.

Post ads on bulletin boards

Bulletin boards are underused tools. They are simple to use and free. Post a flyer on one for a boost in sales. Make sure you get permission, though, and follow the rules.

Be a part of the Sunday paper

The Sunday newspaper is the most popular newspaper and the prime market for advertising. You can either put an ad in the classifieds or you can add a flyer to the loose pages of the paper.

Team up with a local business

Find a local business that complements your business and see if the owner wouldn’t mind working with you. You can give the business an online presence and you can use them offline. You can trade business cards and even team up for package deals.

Create a phone book listing

The phone book is still a great place to get found. You can even buy an ad where you can put your URL.  Some people still use the yellow pages a lot to find businesses so this makes this a natural place to put your web site address (URL) if you’re goinng to spend the money to advertise in printed yellow pages.

Think outside the box

Try off the wall ideas. See every situation you encounter as an opportunity. You might just be surprised at the results.

Originally posted 2009-05-28 03:49:40.