Are Online Marketers Missing The Boat?

Partners In Success Ezine – Issue 15
Monday, June 7, 2004

IN THIS ISSUE:

1. Quote of the Week
2. From the Editor
3. Feature Article – Are Online Marketers Missing The Boat?
4. Ask Susan! – NEW this week!
5. Bonus Goodies

1. Quote of the Week

“Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you
have.” – Zig Ziglar

2. From the Editor

Hello ,

Hello everyone and Happy Monday! Hope your week went well.
We have been extremely busy working on a new project. A
couple of weeks ago we told you to watch your inbox for an
exciting announcement. We are getting close, so keep your
eye out! You won’t want to miss this one!

In this issue we have a couple of NEW features. The new
“Ask Susan” feature will run for the first time in this
Ezine next week. Be sure to read all of the details below.
You may now submit a question easily via our online form.
One question will be chosen each week and featured in the
Ezine!

Be sure to check out our feature article this week and find
out how important it is to advertise your business OFFLINE
as well as online.

This week’s recommended resources are two tools that will
help you tremendously in your promotional efforts. They are
fresh, new and innovative and you’ll love them!

Have a great week and may your business prosper!

Partners in Success,
Charles & Susan Truett
Editors

3. Feature Article – Are Online Marketers Missing The Boat?

Are Online Marketers Missing The Boat?
By Sharon Fling

I was chatting with someone the other day about my favorite
subject — online promotion of local business — and he
said something that made my ears perk up.

“What about the other way — Internet companies using
offline promotions to grow their enterprises and drive
traffic to their sites? Why aren’t more internet marketers
doing THAT?”

I had to admit I didn’t know. Since much of my target
audience is offline, there’s no way I can limit myself to
online marketing only. But what about the vast majority of
online businesses? Are they doing the same thing brick-and-
mortars are doing — but in reverse? Are they ignoring the
offline world the way that some local businesses ignore the
Internet?

It reminded me of an exchange I had a few months ago with
Martin Avis, of Biz Ezine.

Martin’s opinion was that local marketing should be of
great interest to all kinds of marketers as well as web
site designers and consultants.

“For that reason,” Martin said, “I believe that you can
market to any online marketer who has an element of local
business in their portfolio. And at the moment, that is any
online marketer with an ounce of common sense!”

Well. When you put it that way, Martin…

I tucked this nugget away and carried on, still focused on
reaching those elusive small business owners in the outside
world.

But when the subject came up again last week, it got me to
thinking. How many online marketers are maximizing
advertising dollars by integrating online and offline
promotions?

I know it’s hard to believe, but not everybody is online 16
hours a day, visiting websites, reading ezines and hanging
out on discussion boards. In fact, a lot of people still
don’t have computers. Gasp! Can you imagine?

It’s not a coincidence that some of the most successful
online businesses were promoted largely via traditional
media advertising such as newspapers, radio, and TV.

Even Amazon, the king of books online sales, is doing
offline promotions such as catalogs and print ads. And how
many hundreds of AOL CDs have you received in the mail?
Google, eBay, Match.com, Monster.com, Yahoo! — they all do
some form of offline advertising and promotion.

Now, you may not have “Yahoo!” money, but there are plenty
of CHEAP ways of driving offline traffic to your online
site.

As a matter of fact, they are much like the methods you’d
use to drive offline traffic to your local site: your URL
everywhere, word-of-mouth, press releases, free publicity
from being mentioned in a local newspaper or TV news
program, license plate frames, postcards (which can be
handed out like business cards at local events and trade
shows), promotional items, networking, small print ads that
include your URL …. the list is ENDLESS.

Bottom line: the more people you expose to your product or
service, the more business you will get. If you want to
reach the maximum number of people, you must promote your
business both online AND offline. There are too many people
that are in only ONE of those places. Can you really afford
to ignore so many potential prospects and customers?

Sharon Fling is the author of “How To Promote Your Local
Business On the Internet”, and creator of GeoLocal.com, the
web’s largest resource for using the Internet to promote
small local business online. Visit www.geolocal.com and
subscribe to GeoLocal’s free Tip of the Week.

4. Bonus Goodies!

“7 Secrets to Unlimited Traffic”

Click Here to Download:

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