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[Adam Strong]

How many people have you walked past today?  How many of them are going to buy something before the day is over?

How many of them are buying from you?

Internet Marketing is fantastic.   It allows everyday people like you and me to start something from nothing and turn a profit wicked fast (provided we actually get off our asses and do something). . .  but it shouldn't be the endpoint of your marketing.

Direct Marketing still works.   White Papers still work.

I was reading a fantastic report by Perry Marshall that talked about the importance of mastering one method of gaining targeted traffic and then moving onto the next.   There's no reason why you shouldn't be garnering traffic from outside the web and bringing them to your site.

The future isn't about online or offline marketing. . .  it's about bringing these two worlds together in the most effective and most profitable way you can.

I interviewed one of the heads of Ogilvy in Toronto a few days ago and asked him what the future of advertising was.   He described Internet Marketing as a Direct Marketer's wet dream (okay, that was my choice of language, but he was damn near salivating).   But he never said it was 100% of their strategy.  It was simply a component.

A large component, but still only a piece of the puzzle.

So here's a question. . .  how many people out there have used offline marketing effectively and bridged the gap between the physical world and the electronic world?  Any good stories you've got to share?

[themenumaker]

Don't forget direct sales. There's still a large segment of potential customers that aren't internet/computer savvy.

Depends on your product. And your target market.

[AndrewCavanagh]

Here's a few examples of mixing online and offline marketing:

I spent my New Year's Eve at a local restaurant PACKED to capacity with diners at a very high price per head.

Here's what may interest you.

I am friends with the owner.

This time last year he had no real internet presence.

This year following a few simple guidelines from me he's beginning to dominate the search engines for his local geographical search terms.

And this New Year's Eve not only did he pack his restaurant to capacity he had so many calls from his website he could have booked every table TWICE over.

We talk a lot about selling ebooks and information products online but I'm looking at both business models and I can tell you geographical marketing of local brick and mortar businesses is easier...competition is low and the potential for profit is enormous.

Best of all the market is so HUMUNGOUS that EVERY member of this forum could be actively working with 10-20 businesses in his local area and it wouldn't even be a blip on the Google landscape.

You can make money from this in several ways.

All you need is some basic SEO knowledge (how to use long tail keywords and get backlinks will do it) and some knowledge of how to get a web page online.

You can:

1. Charge a consulting fee for helping local business owners optimize what they're doing so they top the search engines for terms like "East Brooklyn Coffee Shop".

And show them how to turn that traffic into subscribers and buyers (here's a tip...give away free gifts from the website and use calling a live phone number as a call to action).


2. You can charge for setting up and/or running websites for local businesses.

This is a huge money spinner with many companies paying $5,000 to $20,000 plus to get a website up plus monthly hosting fees.

And the websites they pay for rarely produce real sales.

You can charge an upfront fee plus an ongoing fee to set up a website and add content on a regular basis optimizing the site and whatever offers the business is currently running.

It is VERY, VERY easy to get even a small business owner to write you a check for $1,000 to $5,000.

Let's say you just talk to a local business owner without a website and offer to set one up for $1,500 plus $50 a month.

I would never work that cheap but this is a no brainer for a business owner if you can demonstrate you have a website online that looks anything like decent.


And it just so easy to get business owners on board.

I've found in the last couple of years I have to be very careful how I talk to business owners when I'm out and about because 15 minutes into a conversation with me they're so excited they want to give me money for making over their website and I just don't have the time for it!

What am I telling these guys?

Nothing you can't find free online...target long tail keywords...get multiple keyword phrases to the top of Google...one phrase per page.

Have a call to action on every page.

Capture email subscribers and follow up with them (even while you're sleeping).

You get the idea.

This is really old hat to people who've studied online marketing for more than 3 months but it straight out blows a business man's mind.

Remember he hasn't heard it before.


To test out if what I'm telling you is true just go to any privately owned local business where the owner works there himself.

Maybe buy something or just have a chat to the owner.

Ask him "Do you have a website? Are you getting any sales from your website?"

And then just start telling him everything you know about how he could be getting to the top of the search engines and getting real customers calling him and coming in off the website.

How he could be following up with customers and prospects automatically online, preselling them etc etc.

All the golden information you've learned on this forum.

Once you've established what a great website is worth to him offer to do it all for him at $1,500, $3,000, $5,000 or more.

And see what happens.



2. When I was still active as a health writer I used email and offline press releases to get on radio, television and front page newspaper coverage.

I appeared on one radio show regularly for over 2 years.  That show fed to over 40 radio stations across Australia.



3. I helped one business make a few changes to their website that brought in over $450,000 in business (mostly net profit) in just a few months.

What were the changes?

Adding optin forms on every page, adding a sales letter for one of their high priced services and adding email follow up with free audio samples.

Simple stuff.

And I think that's the biggest key in the online/offline marketing mix.

We try to be too sophisticated but simple basics can be outrageously powerful because they're still not being used in the offline market place.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

P.S. I have many more stories and strategies but I think I'll save them for another time.

[Adam Strong]

Brilliant post Andrew, you touched on everything I was thinking about and then some!

My business partner and I have been acting in that capacity for some time now, helping offline businesses transition to the online world.   Jonah handles the design, I handle the copy and the basic marketing, and then they're off to the races.

I wish that our contracts allowed me to reveal the sites that we've helped develop, but I think this general statement should give a decent idea of what I'm talking about:

At least 75% of the people we worked with didn't have a webpage.   Of the remaining 25%, more than half still used a flash splash page.   We got rid of it, created a landing page, and within days their business reported a noticeable increase in lead generation.

It's simple, and so effective.

[AndrewCavanagh]

Yes anyone with any internet marketing experience could
help the average offline business make good money and
make themselves a nice income in the process.

The real profit explosion comes when you start integrating the
online/offline process.

That takes a little more work and skill because you have to
work with staff in the real world and get them to start following
new procedures.

Most offline businesses can explode their lead generation just
by using some kind of incentive to capture the contact details
of anyone who walks into their business or comes in contact
with their business on a day to day basis.

Online marketers can be idiots when it comes to integration.

Why would you spend a fortune on online lead generation when
thousands of prospects are already walking into a business and
no one is doing a thing to follow up with them?

But if you get their names and email addresses...

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

[Richard Taylor]

I am a strong advocate of bringing on-line and off-line aspects together.   Each supports the other, and together, they provide a different dynamic that can not be achieved alone.

Good posts, good info!

[Jennifer Herold]

I totally agree.   The basics, like web development, SEO, etc are a great convo starter with many offline bizs, (and often times enough to sell just that) but when you get into telling them about setting up newsletters and how they can give away coupons for their NL subscribers or set up shopping carts to take orders for gift certificates, offer drawings for a free 'whatever', etc.  etc.   you see their eyes light up.   

I recently took my husband to St.  George Island, FL last month for a 'surprise' Valentine's Day gift.   While enjoying our vacation, we met our rental neighbor and all headed over to an Oyster Bar.   While eating some of the best steamed oysters I've had in my life (and I live in Bama!) I potentially picked up 3 customers who had bizs with existing websites.   It just never dawned on them on how to monetize their online efforts.

The possibilities are really endless if you apply offline marketing with your online efforts.

[JonahJackson]

Hey Adam

Good post man.  Andrew has clarified some very good points and
I don't see why this approach can't be ultimately effective. 

From a designer's perspective it takes a twist of the arm to convince
offline clients how a site should be EFFECTIVELY designed in regards
to marketing online, rather than merely providing a beautiful presence
that does not get results. 

That being said, I wonder how we bridge that gap between online
and offline in a manner that is understandable to the processes
we use - maybe like Andrew said - it's keeping the simplicity. 

[Lisa Preston]

I find one of the best ways to help an offline business owner to understand better is to relate their web presence to their print advertising. Most businesses understand that an ad has a purpose - to make the reader take action. If you can equate the two in a way that helps them understand that a website has the same purpose, then define it, things tend to become very easy. When all roads lead to the same action, you usually end up with a smiling customer.

[AndrewCavanagh]

To combine offline and online marketing well it helps if you
understand offline marketing which is actually a whole lot
simpler than online marketing (but the core principals are
the same).

You have to keep in mind that most offline businesses are
HORRIBLE marketers.

As Lisa says you could relate helping them with their websites
to their offline advertising which does help.

But keep in mind many savvy small business owners have worked
out that most offline advertising doesn't work.

So you need to take that extra step and explain how you will help
them create a website that creates real results.

A website that helps generate leads, capture leads from people
already coming into their business, help convert prospects into
paying buyers and most important of ALL follow up with clients
and turn them into happy repeat buyers or referral sources.

The bottom line here is just to talk to business owners and get
to know how their business is making money and what you might
be able to do to help them.

Believe me they WANT to talk to you if you have some good
online marketing ideas for them.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

[Adam Strong]

I'm really glad to see all the response that this thread generated, because I often find that offline marketing keeps getting ignored by internet marketers.

Or at least, it gets discussed about as often as a top marketer describes in detail his/her various niches (i.e. never).

Andrew brings up some brilliant points. I especially support the view that most offline businesses have no clue how to market themselves.  In fact, I would go on to say that many feel down right GUILTY doing it!

But Andrew made one point that I disagree with, if only slightly...

He said that most savvy business owners have figured out that most offline advertising methods are duds.  I think that the sentence should be rewritten to say:

"Most savvy business owners have figured out that the way they're DOING offline advertising is a dud".

Fact is, offline advertising can still work great, but most entrepreneurs wouldn't know a good ad if it jumped up, punched them in the face, handed them an applicator stick and said "Head On- Apply Directly To The Forehead".

Worse, most entrepreneurs have no idea that their website should be managed by a web-marketing specialist.  They treat their site like a business card...

And the thing about business cards is that they are POOR ways to create leads.  Think about it: business cards talk about "me".  My name, my number, my email, my business name, my credentials.

Rule Number 1 In Sales: Unless you've got one helluva story, avoid the word "I".

Stress the other person.  THEIR importance. THEIR needs.  If your website is nothing but a brief description of who you are, where you're from, chances are you're losing leads.

Common sense to us, jaw-dropping to most small businesses.

So yeah... oh one other point... if you ever decide to try helping a small business out in the way we've been talking about here, let me offer one important piece of advice...

Research your client's current offline marketing strategy, and if it's working, make sure your online marketing strategy complements and adds to it.

Make sure to form a CAMPAIGN, not just random blips of advertising.  Campaigns lead to branding, branding leads to reputation, reputation leads to increased trust, and increased trust leads to greater sales.

Hope that's good food for thought!

[AndrewCavanagh]

Understanding what's actually making money in an offline business is crucial.

And you're right. I should have been more specific.

Many savvy business owners know that the kind of offline advertising being
recommended to them by ad reps (generally "image" advertising) simply isn't
profitable.

Direct response advertising that is tracked and tested can be VERY profitable.

And having an integrated campaign for online and offline marketing also
multiplies the effect of both.

Some things are very hard or not cost effective to do with online marketing but easy with offline
maketing and vice versa.

And business cards can be exceptionally powerful tools if you simply put a
targeted incentive or gift offer on there somewhere (usually on the back.)

Especially if you combine the business card with your advertising and marketing campaign.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

[Adam Strong]

Yep, that's very true Andrew, and I agree.... Business cards can be done right... but most people just never do it properly.

[marciayudkin]

I'm a big fan of postcards, which are inexpensive and help you reach people who have bought from you in the past yet are not responsive to email.

I just sent out a batch of postcards to all my customers who spent more than $100 with me in 2007, and had an immediate return on investment.

I used PostcardBuilder. com - highly recommended.

Marcia Yudkin
www. yudkin. com

[DA]

You mention "selling websites for $1500 & $50 a month";

From my experience, most small businesses in small towns. . . don't have or don't want to spend. . . $1,500 on a website!

However. . . . there IS one niche market that DOES have this amount of money AND. . . can be "sold" on spending it ($1,500) on a website.

That niche is;

"USED CAR DEALERS!"

I've found that 100% or New Car Dealers have websites with paid "WebMasters" on their staff BUT. . . out of 37 Used Car Dealers in my area (rural). . . 3 have websites.   Talking with a couple of them the other day (each had about 30 cars on their lots). . . . they BOTH felt they SHOULD get a website and expressed an interest in having ME give them more info on what "I" can do for them. . . and the cost.

Well. . . THIS market (Used Car Dealers) appears to be an "untouched" market.   Probably because MOST website builders do NOT want to make "Personal Contact" with prospects.   And. . . "personal, Face-To-Face" contact is what MUST be done to sell these guys!.   You have to "see them In-Person"!

Now. . . let's say "I" and others like me, with much Direct, In-Person Sales experience. . . want to attack this Target Market. . . . WHAT do we do about actually "Building" websites for these used car dealers?

What do YOU suggest?

Do you know of "website software" for Car Dealers?
or. . .
Would you suggest we hunt down a "web person" in our area who can design & build these sites?

Thanks,

Don Alm
Roseburg, Oregon