Does anyone do offline marketing i.e. approaching small businesses and offering to make them a website. You might think that a recession is a bad time but think about it: small businesses use traditional advertising like direct marketing, print advertising. In terms of bang per buck, having a website is much more cost effective. Here's my plan: - get the yellow pages - look for businesses who take out a premium ad - see if they have a website - approach businesses without a website - offer to make them a website for a small fee or nothing (to build up my portfolio) - build a site using revolution WP theme (I have a developer license): http://www.revolutiontheme.com/business/ This way I don't have to build a custom site and spend a lot of time. - install it on shared hosting - offer additional services for a fee: weekly backups, article marketing What do you think? How could I improve this?
I don't know if I would offer your services for free, even to build your portfolio. It will be very hard to get a client to bite on paid services once you've offered them for free. You would be better off deciding how much you need to charge and then offering each client a "first time client discount." I do this with my clients and I've found that it is very effective. The client appreciates that I am trying to win their trust with a discounted price for the first project and I am protected when the rates are raised to the normal level on subsequent work. There will be some who think that this is a bad idea, but it has worked very well for me in attracting new clients and getting repeat business.
my question is how will you approach businesses without a website? Email you cant as most are bomberd with bulk emails already Telephone You cant. As that will be very costly. Postal Mail will be costly as well. Can you describe where you live and how you will market to business listed in yellow pages
The problem with emailing business is that if they have email then they probably already have a site, sure it may not be a good site but they do have one. The other problem is that they will just see and think it is spam and delete it. I used to get so much spam to the company wide email everyday at work. Always deleted it.
hmm, I'd like to also know where you planning on doing this at. What will your pitch be to make the sell? WHere are you located?
That's a common idea for a lot of new web designers... they approach local businesses etc, and they do that... the problem is there are too many people doing it, that it's becoming saturated and the software is available for these people to make their own sites too :S
Offline advertising works great but it's all who you know or the contacts you gain. P.S. I have made lots of money from building website for small business all you have to do is show them the befits and having a website and they will pay you well.
Go to InfoUSA and purchase a list.. start cold calling it.. also, you can send an email blast and see what type of response you get..
If you get a Skype account you can save a fortune on phone calls. I have a Skype account and a Skype certified headset, and I can make and receive unlimited calls, and it only costs me about $40 per year. Yes, per year. They even have caller ID for it now. Of course, you need to have a high speed internet connection to get the best sound quality. Skype for Business Click here to get your unique SkypeIn number
Actually local calls and local mail shouldn't be expensive. As long as it is snail mail. Again local calls shouldn't be expensive. Where is the OP at? This is an interesting topic. I just wanted to know what area he lives and where he plans on doing this at. OP come back!
A lot of online marketing is done offline as well. Have you ever seen ads/signs for __(yourcity)__singles.com?