3 Ways to Promote Your Online Business Offline

All successful businesses started somewhere. Those online have worked all their might online, promoting their links everywhere and on everything. But I have to ask, what are you doing offline to promote your online business?

Promotion of your business is important. If you are not promoting, you will not succeed. Sorry, but that’s the truth. My background prior to starting my own business was print advertising. I saw many businesses fail because of lack of promotion. Without promotion, whether it is online or offline, no one is going to know about you. There are a myriad of options out there to promote your business. For today’s sake, we are going to stick to online business promotion offline otherwise I could go on for at least 10 pages!

So let me ask again, what are you doing offline to promote your online business?  Whether you are not doing anything or just getting started, here are some ways to promote offline.

1. Business Cards

If you have a business you HAVE to have business cards!  This is you best form of offline promotion. You can leave these at your local coffee house, place on community bulletin boards and depending on the type of business you have, with your bill at the restaurant!

Business cards have come a long way. These days people are putting their pictures on them or adding a QR code to link them to their website or a contact page.  In fact, my new business cards have a QR code on them!

2. Networking

I am a big believer in networking. There are many opportunities in your community for you to network your business. There is your local Chamber of Commerce. At the Chamber they provide networking opportunities.  Ours does a monthly Business After Hours that is hosted by a different business each month. This is a perfect opportunity to take some business cards and talk about what you do.

Another option is join a professional networking group such as BNI. BNI is an international networking organization that has over 100,000 chapters across the globe. I can assure you there is a BNI group close to you. I have the privilege of serving as President of our local chapter. I have seen first-hand how a networking group can transform a business!  For more information on BNI, visit this link.

 

 

3. Advertising

I can hear you now, “I don’t have the money to advertise!”. Anytime you place your business name or logo on something, that’s advertising!  Sponsoring local events is a fairly inexpensive way to promote your business. Doing a small sponsorship to get your name on a t-shirt is my favorite. Come on, having several hundred people wandering around with a shirt with your logo on it? Visibility everywhere!  You can also sponsor something at your child’s school.  Finding inexpensive sponsorships is a great way to promote your business, not to mention supporting your community.

If you do have the money to spend on advertising, find out what your customers are reading or watching and formulate a plan from there. If you need some guidance with this, contact me!

There are thousands of ways, both inside the box and outside, that you can use to promote offline.  These 3 ways I have found to be the most effective. How about you, what ways are your promoting your online business offline?