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Promoting your site offline

Article by Rebecca Case

Your offline promotions can be even more important than your online website promotions.

While offline promotion does not provide the ability for your potential visitors to instantly check your website, it does provide a valuable extension to your current promotional efforts.

Most businesses create sites to complement existing promotions for their products or services. Their target market is already established offline, and further branding and efficiency are major goals for this captive audience.

Converting your existing customer base into online users can be achieved with the methods below. Naturally, your results will vary depending on your industry and desired online results.

Existing Advertising

Every business does a certain amount of advertising to let people know what they do. Methods vary from business to business depending on their industry, but every one uses at least one to gather new clients.

Including your domain name address along side these promotions is the best form of attracting clients offline.

Take a look around you on an average day. Website addresses are everywhere. Any business serious about its ecommerce strategy has its domain name next to every logo or listing of its business.

Radio, television, newspaper and magazine ads, emails to clients, and wherever else you can get your domain name is a good idea.

Stationery

Get your website address on all of your stationery. Your letterhead, business card, and promotional flyers can be extended by simply including your online address.

The value here can be seen just in the relatively small amount of text you can place on each of these items compared with your site. How much information about your business can you really place on your business card? Not much. By extending your business card with your website address, your 10-cent card effectively holds an unlimited amount of text and graphics space.

Personal and Phone Contact

It is important that you mention the value of your website to people who make contact with your business, especially when your site is new. A client (or potential client) that comes past your store or makes a phone call to you can easily be informed that more information is available online.

This direct site promotion is best complemented by having special offers for your online visitors. A simple 5% discount (or an extra service) for clients who have visited your site can help you track how well your site is reaching its audience, and provide them with an incentive to visit again in  the future.

While existing customers who have found your business offline will not necessarily buy more initially, they will be further branded and likely to continue using your services in the future. Think long-term.

Event and Store Promotion

Does your business have a store-front? Do you sponsor or hold events? These can be one of your greatest promotional opportunities.

Place your website address in front of your clients whenever the opportunity arises. Position a simple sticker or display in a high-traffic area of your store or office. A small giveaway related to your business, such as a bookmark or fridge magnet, provides an ongoing reminder of, and reference to, your online address.

Most retail businesses are located on streets with extremely high car-traffic with in excess of 10,000 potential customers passing everyday. A well placed "A board" on the sidewalk, in clear view of the traffic, informs everyone that more information on your business can be found online.

A client recently asked about how his live band could best promote using the Internet. The addition of a $100 sign that was placed smartly near the band at gigs, increased their bookings to a point they quit their day jobs.

See further general website hosting FAQs or our FAQ categories for more information.

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