Offline Marketing

Offline Marketing
Perhaps the most important piece of advice we can give you in this guide is this: Don’t restrict your advertising and promotional efforts to the Web. Online stores often rely too heavily on online advertising at the expense of more traditional advertising vehicles that may actually produce better results.
Throughout this guide, we’ll review a number of different ways for you to promote your online store on the Web. But it’s important not to get too dependent on online marketing for your success. Think about the types of customers you are trying to attract and what the best methods would be to reach those customers. Rather than spending your money advertising on the Web, you may find that a more effective strategy would be to place advertisements in a couple of well-targeted magazines.
For example, Noggintops (www.noggintops.com), an online hat retailer, has spent very little on Internet advertising. Instead, the company did some marketing research and identified a number of magazines that appealed to the company’s target market: outdoorsmen. Ads featuring the company’s Web site address were then placed in those magazines. In fact, the bulk of Noggintop’s marketing budget has been spent on offline ads. Our point is that you shouldn’t ignore traditional advertising
vehicles. Think about how you can use both print (e.g. newspapers, magazines, journals) and broadcast media (radio and television stations) to reach your target audience. Be realistic with your expectations. In years past, many Internet companies invested millions in television ads with often disappointing results. Many companies quickly learned that brands can’t be built overnight. It can take years to build a successful and recognized brand name.
That being said, if you develop any print or broadcast advertising, make sure that your Web address is featured prominently in your ads. You may want to even consider purchasing advertising for the sole purpose of promoting your Web site.

It is important to use your imagination when looking for ways to raise awareness of your Web site.
Don’t limit yourself to radio, television, and print media. Why not advertise your Web address in buses or subways, or on the transfers handed out by your local transit authority? How about on newspaper polybags (the plastic bags that newspapers are wrapped in when they are delivered to your front door)? Or in movie theatres? Some organizations have even gone so far as to include their Internet addresses on bananas! The possibilities are endless.
In many respects, marketing a Web site is no different than marketing any product or service. The challenge is to find innovative ways to get the word out.