I have read through the forums with regards to offline marketing, and I feel this is where my success may lie this summer! I have had a decent amount of success just advertising my web design business through craigslist (and in turn word of mouth), but I am going to be taking the summer off university (criminology major...) and would like to take my business to the next level. So far I have been running my business out of my house (... apartment actually), so I will be renting an office in a shared office building (ie: you share a receptionist with a bunch of people, and you get an office with your company name) - I feel that this will help me secure larger clients because I have lost a few big ecommerce jobs because of the "So should we meet at starbucks to discuss the deal?". There is one of these shared offices literally across the street from me so this will be perfect, with a cost of $500 per month. I had tried some direct mail in the past (post-cards) without much success. I am a fairly outgoing person so I am really wanting to just walk into local business and present my company but am not sure how go about this - I guess the first step would be to make up a nice brochure that I can leave with them. So do you feel that going business to business with a pitch would be successful, and if so do you have any tips?, or should I just use a different method. If anyone has any experience with offline marketing for a web design business it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Agree with Maanjoy, offline marketing does cost more money than online marketing. Why not try facebook, forums, blogs first before expanding to offline marketing? Its not a bad thing to do things differently, but that is if you have a workable plan. From what I can see you have not thought much if your plan will fail or not. Do online promotions first since this is where your market is from anyway. Then think about how you will execute your next offline marketing plan. Rain
Thanks for the help all! I am trying to target locally and I figured my best bet was to go with offline because I haven't quite figured out the magic behind Google and Facebook advertising (I have used the free $100 promo without much success). But thanks for the advice!
Thanks for the information. I agree with Endless Rain. Offline marketing costs a more than online marketing.
If you are targeting a local market, then offline marketing methods are the way to go. A brochure is a great idea, and so as distributing leaflets in high traffic areas in the community. Since you are a fairly outgoing person, you may also want to network and get in touch with a local chamber of commerce.
Many work with offline businesses. What they do is be the "Frontman" finding the business then outsource the "Back-end" stuff like, changing websites, or building websites and the monthly SEO. You need to make sure that you get enough clientele to make it worthwhile to pay the $500 which frankly I see as a waste. I see nothing wrong with having an office at home, many businesses do that now. After all you would be meeting your clients in their place of work. I would target ALL local business, not just the big companies. Big companies are something else all together. Small to med business should be your target. Starting with the small, get a few of those on board and use their reviews and testimonials to spring board from. Unless you are used to working with the "Big Boys" in business, you could fall flat on your face. To work with large companies, you need to have years of sales experience on your side, with a string of happy customers, they want proof, that is why you should start small and building from there.