One of the many challenges business owners are facing these days when it comes to marketing their product or service is how they could make the most out of both offline and online marketing. There is a misconception among a lot of business owners that online marketing methodologies has completely replaced offline marketing. The ultimate goal of any kind of marketing is brand recognition and bring in as many prospects to the business as possible. Although online promotions make your store or website available 24 X 7 and target a wide range of audience, there are certain advantages to offline marketing, as well. Business cards, banners, and flyers are some of things that come to our mind when we think about offline marketing, but with a pinch of creativity you can easily increase your customer base and crush your local competition.
Sponsor or Support Local Community Events and Contests
You can offer your service or product as prize of a contest. Find the events that are relevant to your business or find the events where you could find a lot of potential customer. Supporting local community events like parish gatherings can be a good place to find a lot of potential customers. You can also sponsor a local sports team to create brand awareness in your town.
Commercial Graffiti & Urban Art
You will sure have pamphlets and business cards, and pull up banners on the inside of your store or office. But you can also do something to kindle the curiosity of pass-byers. You could Hire a local graffiti artist and ask him/her to paint on your door or wall. Commercial graffiti is a big business in many cities around the globe like Sydney and New York. You will not only evoke curiosity but also register your brand in the minds of people increasing your brand awareness.
Customer Delight
Don’t hesitate to go the extra mile to delight your customers. You can contact them after they had purchased your product or subscribed to your service and ask them how they are getting on with your product. Most business owners strive hard to find new customers. However, after they have been converted, they don’t bother to get in contact with them. By ignore their current customers they are losing a lot of free marketing. When someone is happy about a product or service they are likely to recommend it to others. It might not take you a lot of time or money to call your new customers, but it will surely impress them and they will most likely promote whatever you are selling through word of mouth.
Creative Printing
Printing a bunch of flyers and distributing it around the town is a great way to reach your customers. However, it is highly likely that they are not going to keep your flyer with them and will most likely end up in the trash. Make your flyers more useful. Instead of giving away pamphlets, you can give away free handkerchief with your branding. If you run a car workshop you can give away free chamois to your customers. Most digital printing and custom gift making services can create your such promotional things.
Press Release
No it’s not about writing a press release and submitting to all the top press release websites on the Internet. We are talking about classic press releases. If you have reached a major milestone or if you are introducing new products or services you can do a traditional press release. Your press release could be published in regional newspapers. This would work great especially for small and local businesses.
Throw a Party
You could also throw a party for some of your most important clients/customers. This will make them feel valued and they will most likely recommend you to others and also post the event’s pictures and tag you on Facebook and Twitter. Strategically plan the list of people you are going to invite. You can also invite some of your elite prospects whom you think are more likely to hand you the money. When your existing happy clients and your potential clients interact you don’t have to do the selling. Your current customers who are already happy with your product or service will do all the marketing for you. If you can afford several parties, you can categorize your clients based on their age and organize parties and events that will be more appealing to them.
Building Wraps
Use large vinyl banners to put your message out there in style. Large vinyl banner are not that expensive and are proven to be very cost effective to market your product or service. With the help of building wraps you can transform your building into a great advertising space. If you own the building there are literally no limits. If you don’t own the place, talk to your landlord or the concerned person. If you were not allowed to stick vinyl wraps, you can mount large banners or small pull ups on the outside.
Newspaper Pamphlets Insertion
Get in touch with your local newspaper distribution agencies and offer them money to insert your pamphlets in them. You are going to spend for printing the flyers as well as pay the newspaper distributors so make sure that your pamphlets are creative, and appealing with the right message. Always get a printing service near you to get your pamphlets and flyers printed, so that you will be able to contact them easily and also meet them in person if need be. For instance, if you live in Sydney, you can hire for printing services in Sydney like Print2day or you can search the Internet and contact several companies and choose the one that best suit your printing needs.
This is just a few steps that you can do. Here is a 119 creative ways to advertise yourself or your business, you should find interesting way that you can apply.
About the Author
Article written by Kerry Blake – Gamer, geek and Microsoft Office expert. You can find me writing about technology and cars. You can follow me on Twitter at @KerryBlake16.
Photo credit: Joe Newman
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