aWebBiz Internet Marketing Blog

If you sell physical products or have a storefront, this blog post is definitely for you. Even if you consider your business to be strictly online, there are a few golden nuggets here that you’ll want to pay close attention to.

Off-line promotion is something that many online marketers forget about and neglect. The truth is that there are many people out there who would enjoy being on your list, and who will be very responsive to doing so. However, if you never take the time to reach them — you won’t!

Include Opt-In Forms with Shipments

As you ship packages you should include a postcard or form that makes it easy for your customers to join your list. They can send this form back to you, and you can enter their email address manually. Another option is to explain the advantages of being on your list and direct them to a web site where they can go sign up themselves.

This is a great strategy because you know that the people who are receiving a shipment are proven customers. That means there are a lot more likely to be responsive.

Of course a better alternative would be to invest in a shopping cart that has an autoresponder built in. That way your customers can automatically be added to your email lists.

Visit Tradeshows

The chances are good that there are tradeshows related to your niche in your area. If you go to these you can find people who would be interested in joining your list. People are more likely to trust a face-to-face interaction than an online one. These contacts can turn into lifetime customers for you.

In fact, this tip works well whether you have physical products or you focus your energies strictly online.

Advertise in Magazines

Many people are surprised to find how inexpensive it is to advertise in targeted magazines. You can often pay a lot less than the advertised price in the magazine. All you need to do is ask the ad team what kind of special deal they can give you.

It’s often easiest to find smaller magazines that have a very targeted audience. Write your ad copy to explain that you’re giving something away for free, or talk about a special promotion you’re having. Once again, it doesn’t matter whether you focus your energies online or off-line, this strategy can work for you.

Send Postcards

This strategy is not quite as targeted as including an opt-in form on postcards with shipments, but it can still work. You can send postcards to lists of people that you have purchased, or in targeted geographic areas. These postcards should focus on the benefits of signing up for your list and visiting your web site. This can be a very time-consuming and costly experience, so make sure you’re going to see a return on your investment by doing a small test first.

Display Your Domain Everywhere You Can

This is a great strategy that can really help to brand yourself. You want to include your domain and logo on every package, letter, flier, etc. The more people see your domain name, the more likely they are to visit. As you know, the more people you get to visit, the more sign ups you’ll get.

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I was trying to think of ways to promote an offline business online without having a web site and I listed some of my ideas below. I hope it gets you thinking. 
 
If you have an offline business then you need to bring it online in order to maximize your profits. 
 
Online marketing can work for any type of offline business. I don’t care if you are a lawyer, hair stylist, landscaper, dentist, or any other occupation, online marketing will help you make more money for your offline business. 
 
This system works for any product or service. You don’t even need to own a web site to make this idea work for you on the web. All you need is Internet access and an email account.
 
Let me give you an example:
 
Let’s say you own a barber shop. Now this is a local business and you are probably wondering how you could ever use the Internet to get customers in the door. 
 
Well, all you have to do is get the email addresses of your customers. Then the next time business is slow you send them all an email and you offer them a special discount of 20%-25% off the price of a hair cut. You have to let them know when the discount offer will expire (Make it good for 7 days maximum) and let them know that they will have to call you within the next 48 hours to make an appointment in order to get the discount. 
 
This type of email promotion costs you nothing and best of all it will bring in some customers. 
 
Here’s another example:
 
Let’s say you own a dry cleaning store.  Every time a customer comes into your store you’ll get their email address because you are going to be emailing them discount coupons every week.

This way you will be able to keep in touch with your customers and keep your business name in front of them. Using email is cheaper than running an ad in the newspaper.
 
You could even take this one step further. In addition to collecting your customer’s email address, you could also collect other data from them. 
 
Here’s another example: 
 
Let’s say you own a collectibles store. You might have a free drawing for some type of collectible or perhaps for a $50 gift certificate.

To enter your drawing your customer fills out the entry form with their name, email address and there could be a list of collectibles listed that they would check off to indicate they have an interest in or they collect. 
 
Now not only do you have a database of your customer’s email addresses, you also have the information as to which collectibles they are interested in and you can make targeted offers to them by way of free email. 
 
I don’t care what kind of offline business you have. You can use the Internet to increase your profits. 
 
I hope you have gotten some ideas on how to bring your offline business online. Just be creative and I’m sure you will make additional income and best of all, email is still free!

There are basically two kinds of company names: good ones and bad ones.

Bad names are the ones that are too common, too long, too hard to pronounce or too difficult to spell. Most of the rest are good names if they describe what your company does and the name will allow you to move vertically or horizontally within your marketplace.

When naming your company you should give it a lot of thought because you don’t want to have to change it later because you decide to sell other products or you want to enter other markets.

Here’s an example:

If the name of your business was Rockwell Beds and later on you wanted to sell office furniture then you’d probably have to change your business name. So you would have been better off naming your company Rockwell Furniture from the start.

Here’s another example:

Let’s say you wanted to start an Internet business selling software and your company name was Next Level Software. Then a few months later you decided to also sell books. Well, it looks like it’s time for another name change. A better name might have been Next Level Software & Books.

You get the idea. Don’t paint yourself into a corner when it comes to choosing a company name.

It doesn’t hurt to start your company name with the letter “a.” That way you’ll be at the top of the list in the yellow pages or any online directory you might list your company.

A common, nondescript company name like Avalon doesn’t tell me as much as a company name like Avalon Cleaning Services. It’s always a good idea to use your company name in all your marketing efforts for branding purposes. And it’s going to help if your company name describes what your company does.

Short names are often better than long names because you’ll be able to use a larger text size in all your printed advertising.

You’ll probably want to check the availability of a domain name which is the same as the company name you’re considering because sooner or later you’ll want to have a web site for your business.

And with domain names, shorter is definitely better than long. When it comes to domain names you’ll always want to get a top level .com or .org domain name and not an .info or any of the others.

Finally, you always want to check to see if the company name you choose is available, legal and protectable.