Old Fashion Still Works

Several years ago I had a website that I wanted to drive online traffic to, but I just could not afford those online fees to be able decently advertise online. Then I thought about doing some of those so called "free" online marketing methods. That was not working either, too very time consuming with too little results. So, I began to wonder -- what would be a tried and true cheap way to advertise/marketing my website, that really works. After a while I concluded that good old fashion "pounding the pavement" could really work. I got out there and spoke to a few people face to face and gave them a flyer and got some contact info from them, mainly phone # and email address and within 4 hours I could get 10 solid leads for my website that I would not be able to get online, paid or free. It is a little extra foot-work but it works very well if you have a nice presentation/confrontation it can really work very well. What do you think?

 

Offline marketing definitely works. Most people are bombarded with advertisements online. Thus, I believe they ignore a majority of online ads. For example, I'm more likely to get hit by a meteor than to intentionally click a banner ad. Offline marketing is fresher now. It makes potential consumers believe that you care. It also stands out. Notice how a lot of successful companies still choose to send postcards and other forms of physical mail?

 

Of course it does but you can't keep at it for long. You have to explore as many marketing avenues as possible in order to topple down economies of scale or give them a good run for their money. The most successful firms use a combination of traditional and digital marketing (oftentimes with SEO). Hybrid marketing is far more successful than either pure offline marketing or mainstream online marketing.

 

Offline marketing is definitely unconventional and time consuming -- but well worth it. Face to face you can engage a person in ways that are impossible to do online. You can really explain to someone what your site is all about and really get them genuinely interested in it. If that one person is the only person that day you get to your site. It is genuine traffic. It is a legitimate person who is there because of what your page is about -- that type of traffic is what we should strive for.

 

I think offline marketing can work great if you have an offer with local demand. On the other side that's the greatness of Internet Marketing. You don't need to have local demand to get conversions because your target audience can be in a completely different time-zone but if what they need matches your offer you are going to make money.

 

Agreed. It's definitely best if you are somehow able to take advantage of offline marketing since presumably not many people nowadays are even willing to still put in that type of effort so your competition there would be slim. I found this to be true for myself as my business cards still seemed to work very well even though I never really expected anyone to really use them as I have them out in the past, but it turns out many people still keep them for when they need a particular service.

 

I totally agree with this. It's just become far too easy for people to advertise on the internet. Which is great, as it gives people more power and the ability to start their own companies online. However, it makes it much harder for you to stand out online too, which is where offline marketing comes in. Everyone loves to put a face to a company and even though we live in the digital age, it helps to know what kind of people you are dealing with.

 

I agree that traditional marketing for a local business can be better than online marketing. Marketing online can take time. Walk-in cold calling, passing out flyers or even direct mail are much quicker. I had a mentor who used to say that money loves speed.

 

Of course it does, and most definitely always will. There is no competition between older and new strategies and tactics. The only difference is time and development and utilization of newer aspects, such as technology. Basically stated, "you can't reinvent the wheel", but, the opportunity for improvement is always present.

 

Yes, traditional marketing still works wonders if done right. Most companies still advertise in traditional ways. Through newspapers, television, etc. Older folks, especially still pay a lot of attention to traditional marketing techniques. And though the internet is definitely important, it's not the end all, be all.

 

I am in total agreement that these 'old school' methods still work if done properly. It is also in my opinion, one of the most overlooked or devalued way to advertise by those new to Internet Marketing. If it didn't still work, you wouldn't see the giants still advertising in newspapers, magazines, on the radio and TV.

In today's techno world, I think it's now considered 'thinking out of the box' and it takes thinking out of the box to last in advertising and marketing. One page, one item ads still work wonders - especially if you remember to expose your message enough (human minds haven't changed just our tools)

 

It works all right, and I wouldn't doubt that you'd be able to get leads, but the problem is that a lot of these people get approached often, so they may not be giving their full attention because once you've started they've already decided that you're just another one of "those guys". That's the advantage of marketing online, because you can promote to so many more people at once. Doing it offline may be a waste of time.

 

I am very happy you had a good response however in my opinion i think that approach may not really work for all business systems it depends on what your entire business model is all about.

 

Hey, it it works, don't knock it! In any case, not everybody uses the internet! If your target audience includes those who are not your typical web users, then offline tactics can be a great boost to sales.

 

It's a pretty awesome idea. I think Offline Marketing works out just fine, specially if you've got lots of friends who would not really mind paying your site a visit. Anyway, site owners need to plan or come up with any innovative way to expose their site to people/audience. What you did is a great job, kudos to you!