Overview
There area large number of “off-line” marketing techniques you can use to drive traffic to your Web site. I will list a number of them below – please feel free to email me with any I’ve forgotten to include in this list.
Main Offline Marketing Goal
The offline effort should focus on getting your Web site Home Page address seen and remembered by as many potential Customers as possible. This is a very good reason to try to keep your Home Page address as easy-to-remember as possible. Ideally, it would be your business name.
The best way for small/midsize businesses to do this is to register an Internet domain name for $10-$35/year (price depends on registrar used). “.COM” is the most common domain name extension (top level domain or TLD), but don’t forget the relatively new “.BIZ” top level domain, especially if all of the best “.COM” domain names for your business are already registered.
Once you secure your own domain name, finding an online service to host your site “virtually” is very inexpensive and easy to do.
If your business must be a sub-directory on a mega-site unless (for example, you’re a franchisee of a very popular, well-known brand), then the your task is to make sure that your information is accurate and easy to find on that mega-site (ex. if you operate a bricks and mortar retail location, make sure the mega-site “store locater” information for your location is up-to-date and accurate).
Here’s my list of offline promotion ideas:
- Include the Web site Home Page address:
- On all company printed material – brochures, catalogs (on every page in the page footer info), letterhead, envelopes (example: on back flap of a #10 envelope), fax forms, invoices, direct mail pieces, business
cards, data sheets, annual reports, quotation and proposal forms, white papers, company-sponsored books, press releases (product, financial, etc.), product containers (wrappers, bags, cups, napkins, plates, etc.), POP (point-of-purchase) in-store displays, doorknob hangers, flyers under windshield wipers, etc. - On all pages of company-published magazines (examples include industry-specific weekly or monthly “vertical” magazines)
- On all company garments (lab coats, costumes, uniforms, etc.)
- On bottom of all cash register receipts
- On all company vehicles (include with “800” number info)
- On all product tags – serial number tags, consumable product re-order info, etc. (include it wherever company contact info is placed on the product)
- On all company name signage at company facilities
- In all print ads (newspaper, magazines, billboards, etc.)
- In all TV commercials
- In all radio commercials
- In your automated company phone greeting
- In all signage at trade shows (including the shirts worn by booth personnel)
- On all company giveaways (“freebies”). Examples include mouse pads, coffee mugs, hats, shirts, pens, bumper stickers, etc.
- In all employment ads
- On all company printed material – brochures, catalogs (on every page in the page footer info), letterhead, envelopes (example: on back flap of a #10 envelope), fax forms, invoices, direct mail pieces, business
- Direct Mail Promotions – most helpful to Web site exposure if recipients are given a Web site mechanism to respond to the promotions. Be sure to ask each recipient for his/her email address in the online form.
- Create low cost in-store handouts highlighting Home Page address (business card size, multicolor if you can afford it); have them readily available at all cash register locations, Customer Service booths, etc.; ask that store staff hand out one of these cards with every cash register receipt, charge slip, etc.
- Telemarketing – be sure that your telemarketers (in-house or contractors) do as many of the following as possible during every outbound call: inform clients of existence of your Web site; give them the Web site Home Page address; ask for the contact’s email address (in order for you to contact in future re. new products, promotions, etc.)
- Your Distributors: if you sell your products through distributors, get as many of them as possible to include your Web site Home Page address in all of their printed material, especially in product catalogs.
- If you sponsor a float or a booth in a local Memorial Day, July 4th, etc. celebration, make sure that your Web site Home Page address is prominently displayed. If you sponsor a band or cub scout pack in a parade, make sure your Home Page address is included on the sponsorship banner.
Online Opportunities (low cost/no cost):
- Create a standard company “signature” that includes your Web site Home Page address and add it to the bottom of every email that is sent out from your business
- Distributors: be sure to have them include your Web site Home Page address (ideally linked to your Home Page) on their Web sites
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Note: My name is Dave Ingalls. If you need help with your SEO and/or Digital Marketing tasks, please review the B2B SEO Services and B2B Digital Marketing Services I offer.