Although, most of your traffic will still come from search
engines and various online promotions, a little effort using
traditional media might also bring a large number of visitors
to your website.Reasons, why you should take offline promotion of your website
seriously include:Internet is increasingly becoming a part of our daily life.
However, still a big segment of the society – especially, the
elderly – don’t spend that much of time online. Traditional
media is a good method of getting their attention.If a person sees your printed advertisement with your URL in
a year-old magazine and gets interested in what you have to
offer, he will still be able to check out your website.
Research shows that at least four people browse through
a printed magazine in its life time.With planned media promotion, you can tap into particular
target market, which otherwise might not be that easy to do.
For example: if you sell car accessories through your website,
a good promotional channel would be a specific radio station
that commuters like to tune in.Your offline promotion endeavor should combine advertisement,
publicity and promotional items.AdvertisingOnce you identified the potential target market that you would
like to reach, you can try to communicate with them using
various advertising methods. Advertising is a paid form of
delivering message to broad range of prospective customers
through billboards, posters, print, broadcast media, etc.Each of your advertising campaign should have a clear goal
and carefully crafted plan. Since advertising in some media
forms is quite expensive, without a well-defined plan you
might waste your money for nothing.Your advertising goal might include the followings:- Bring targeted traffic to your website- Stimulate sales- Build brand recognition of your website- Increase public awareness of your product and services- Promote seasonal sales, clearance, etc. conducted throughyour site.Once you established your advertising goal, you need to clarify
advertising budget, timing and media. You should set your
advertising budget based on your objective. In general,
companies set aside a percentage of their gross sales as
promotional budget. A new online business might choose to
spend on advertising, amount allocated in its business plan.
Timing and scheduling are also crucial factors in advertising.Where should you advertise is a difficult decision, which should
base on a number of factors:Market reach
What is the market segment you would like to cover with your
present campaign?Message
Depending on your goal, you have to choose the right message to
communicate with your prospective customers. The advertising
media has to conform to the selected message.Product and service that you offer through your site
B2B and B2C products and services are usually different in
nature and require different media to reach targeted market.Budget
The choice of media depends vastly on your budget consideration.Major offline advertising mediumsNewspapersNewspapers are very popular media forms of advertising. If you
are not planning to reach out to the mass, classified sections
of local newspapers should be your first choice.MagazinesSpecialized magazines are good for targeting particular interest
group. If you sell golf accessories through your site, you
should definitely consider advertising in one of the local golf
magazines. However, ad spaces in magazines are often quite
expensive.RadioRadio advertising is a good option, if your business is aimed at
certain social group like teenagers, housewives, drivers, etc.
This is also a relatively inexpensive way of delivering your
message to a certain community or locality.TelevisionIf the products or services that you offer have mass appeal,
television is an excellent media of advertising. As the audience
of a TV station changes depending on the show aired there is
a limited possibility of target marketing. The ability to use
audio visual scenes helps delivering certain types of message
to the audience more clearly than any other media, which makes
TV advertising highly effective but quite costly.Yellow pages and other directoriesYou should definitely add your business along with your website
URL to as many printed directories as you can. Industry
specific directories are good advertising media for B2B
businesses.Outdoor AdvertisingOutdoor advertising with billboards, posters, etc. are effective
way of reaching out to a certain neighborhood. Since the
exposure rate of billboards is very high – people often take
the same route to work, it is a great medium to create brand
recognition.Transit advertisingAdvertising on various transports, terminals, subway are known
as transit advertising. Like billboards with this type of
advertising you can target a specific route or area. This can
be a very effective way to get your message to blue-collar
workers, if that is your market segment.Direct MailExcellent way of delivering you message in the form of
promotional letters, catalogs, flyers, circulars, coupons, etc.
to your prospective customers. If you choose your mailing list
correct, the exposure rate and the response rate can be very
high.PublicityPublicity is any form of presentation of ideas, products, or
services delivered by the media themselves rather than as a paid
advertisement.
If your website carries a really new message or unique and
innovative products or services, for you publicity will be
definitely more effective than advertising. People, often, trust
news stories and articles much more than they trust paid
advertisements.Press releaseNewspapers, magazines, TV and Radio are the main publicity
conduits. Press releases are the tool to get into these media.
Whenever, you do something with your online business, which you
think is newsworthy you should write a press release and send it
off.The main idea of a press release is to grab attention from a
news editor so that he writes a story on the subject.That’s why follow the following rules while writing a press
release:- Keep it simple, clear and precise- Be accurate in facts and figures- The news highlights should be expressed in the first twoparagraphs- The press release should have an eye-catching headline- Tell your story from different perspective- The press release should have less than 200 words- Mention your website URL at least in two different placesBusiness material and stationeryAll your business literatures, materials and stationery should
have similar consistent logotype and URL address. This is an
extremely effective brand creation method within the group of
people those, who one way or another, interact with your
business.Promotional ItemsGive away items such as Pens, coffee mugs, key chains, coasters,
calendars, sticky notes, etc. should have your company logo and
web address. Apart from building brand this also work as a daily
reminder for users of these items.Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present
CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he
has wide experience in Business Consulting, International
Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace
with solutions to start and run online business.
You can contact him at mailto:nowshade[at]rusbiz.com
http://ezine.rusbiz.com
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