I'm sure that people are doing this already but i will mention it anyway. I recently had some car bumper stickers and windows decals made with my website logo and URL on them I should get them it a day or two. I will try to do some offline marketing and i will place it on mine, wife's friends and relatives car. I will also ship some of the stickers to friends in different states and different countries.Think about it. Every time someone is behind you in a car , they will see your site. I know that every time i am behind someone's car, my eye naturaly goes to the bumper sticker (if they have one). I have seen people selling their time and cars as a advrtising space on ebay for lot of money.Why not advertise for free on your own car (and maybe friends and family's) To go even further i could offer bumper stickers for free on my website, but that will have to wait. Just wanted to see if you're guys have any other ideas that have been tried or even maybe original ideas for offline marketing. I really think that advertising offline is underatted. My though is that most of the online advertising is mostly picked up (read) by other webmasters , more then actual consumers or users. Any shared ideas will be appreciated.
Post Fliers with Business Cards attached in any and all grocery Stores & other Stores that will allow it... When eating out leave a business card at the table when you leave, preferably where it may stay on the table and not get thrown out when it is cleaned.. VistaPrint will print you 250 business cards for free, you just pay the shipping... They are limited on styles & the amount of text you can have but they are FREE!!!!.. I hand then out all the time when someone wants to know about my site or how to get a hold of me for computer work.. http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/ns/default.aspx?mk=vistaprint&GP=1/25/2006+8:44:20+PM
While the advertising means you suggested offline exist, it's also a game of picking the best domain name that individuals would remember offline. Generic names, like purchasefootballs.com, would be considered great for offline. However, if you have your own brand, like bluecoolfootballs.com, users are going to have a hard time remembering it.
if you went this route i would also suggest buying up a bunch of typos for your domain to get that traffic as well. [if you plan to launch a decent sized off line campain]
Flyers are a good idea. I haven't tried them yet. Preferally you want to place them where your target audience would be. A question though: Would gazotto.com be hard to remember? I was thinking that over when reading the above posts. Skinny
It would be difficult for me to remember it. Regarding "free" business cards from VistaPoint, don't you have to pay shipping and don't they have a cheesey VistaPoint advertisement on the back? I don't know why business cards cost so much...if my laser printer could accept stiff paper I could print probably 20 business cards on an 8.5 x 11 (A-size) sheet of paper for just a few cents and cut them apart (with the nice slicer at local Kinkos). Does anybody here print his own business cards?
i have printed my own business cards if you only doing a small number its ok, but even office max and other places can do 1000 for $20 way cheaper and you can give them your design, that you can create on almost any printer software or photoshop
This evening I went ahead and purchased a thousand cards from OfficeMax. The cost for "one step above cheapest" card quality, including shipping and sales tax, was $40 and change.
A offline adverting idea that really has to with choosing a good domain is using automobile magnet signes that have your website address clearly visible. I have seen this type of offline advertising on automobiles while I am stuck in traffic and I have to tell you It works because I have remembered some the websites address and out of curiosity have look them up on the net.
Another offline marketing option thats sounds strange at first is something called pull advertising. It consist of leaving post it notes in public places with a tease line along with your website address. I have not tried this technique yet but who knows it may work, others who have tried are posting how well it has worked.
If you're leaving flyers, etc. around you want to make sure you aren't going to get into trouble with local bylaws...someplaces are pretty picky about leaving flyers on car windshields and other things like that. I believe offline marketing has it's place, especially if your site is of interest to specifically to you local area...people like seeing finding sites that are close to home and have a local interest for them...
In the past I've offered high schoolers $10 bucks to put my sticker on their car. They like it, I like it. If they come back in 6 months and still have the sticker, I'll give them another $10.
On my hobby site - news from my local community - I did a deal with the Sheriff's Department to provide emergency email alerts for hurricane's, missing persons, man made and natural disasters, etc. The Sheriff asked all of the local merchants and government agencies to post a flier about it. He also issued a press release and published an article that I wrote describing the benefits and how to register and it was discussed on TV during the local county commission meeting. We're now in the window's of almost all the stores and government agencies in the county and I wound up getting 300+ backlinks from .gov's, .org's and .edu's . The funny thing is I did it purely for community service and not marketing -jay
For one of my production sites I ordered several hundred window decals and gave them to friends and family scattered all over the US. I have no idea if it was effective or not but at least it got my social network involved in the site.
Another idea for offline advertising may be using the message boards at your local super markets and even laundry mats. They get alot of people coming in and out of there establishments. Just by posting a small flyer may get you some traffic.
Make some refrigerator magnets with your URL and put them on cars near the door handle. The next day pick all the ones that were thrown on the ground in disgust and recycle them on new cars.
My best offline marketing idea is to throw a party! I host a party every year at the Consumer Electronics Show. All of the companies I deal with attend that show and it's a great way to build relationships. This is a write up on the party I host: http://thetechzone.com/?m=show&id=169&page=6