With the weakened economy as of late cash is becoming a more and more scarce commodity. If you own an online business you may be finding your advertising dollars drying up as conversions are few and far between, profit margins are shrinking and you simply cannot afford to pay for the exposure with traditional online advertising that you once could.
Fortunately most negatives can be spun into a brand new positive, you just have to open your mind enough to find a creative new angle to exploit this new hurdle that your online business has encountered. The answer is simple, offline advertising.
One of the greatest aspects of offline advertising is that you can still reach an enormous number of people, and even highly targeted demographics as you do with online advertising, but it can be done completely free.
The best free offline advertising strategy for your online business is a three pronged approach. Fliers and business cards let you drop the word on a mass scale to find interested persons, proactive advertising where you get out there and sell your business yourself is also very successful, and finally simply creating signs and other forms of advertising for your property, your home, on your car, even at your friend’s home if they’re nice enough to let you, costs virtually nothing and can be done completely for free if you are willing to invest the time.
Fliers and business cards are a great way to passively push your business. You can easily whip up an outstanding looking piece of offline advertising with high quality graphics in just a few minutes on your home PC. You now only have to choose how to use it. Fliers can be great as you can target your specific demographic by posting them on bulletin boards in areas they frequent. You can also use fliers as an excellent source of offline advertising on a more mass scale by posting them on every bulletin board you come across. Business cards are a great thing to have around. A little less pushy in appearance they will still do your online business justice when tacked up to a bulletin board. In addition they’re great to have on your person when the opportunity arises, but that sort of flows into the next point.
A great and very proactive method for advertising your online business offline is to get out there and meet people. Peak people’s interests. Plug yourself, if you will, whenever an opportunity presents itself. Be sure to keep some business cards on you to hand out, remember you don’t have a clickable link in front of you anymore so you need something with your web address written down on it. If you know your target demographic get out there and meet them. Go to local places where they hang out and meet people in a casual manner, when it comes up plug your business again. Make it flow out naturally. You may be surprised but if you are any good at online advertising it is a very easy transition to offline, in person, advertising.
Finally, especially if you have a good piece of road frontage, throw up some signs for cars passing by. People are curious by nature, hint at your topic but leave some mystery. In addition you can see if your friends wouldn’t mind if you throw up a sign in there yard. More exposure means more leads and more conversions. You may be shocked to see how many people will check out your website just because they drive by everyday and see your web address up there and they wonder what it is all about. If you have a few bucks to spend you can get some professional decals done for your car, if not something as simple as those markers you use for writing for sale on your vehicle work wonders. Remember, people are curious, they will check it out.
These are some of the best totally free ways to advertise your online business offline. Remember there are plenty more great techniques out there, both free and for minimal cost, the sky is the limit. If your advertising is limited to an online campaign then it is time to expand.
