They Promote Offline as well as Online…

Highly-Effective Website Owners understand that momentum is what will help you reach the next level so when you’ve got the first 5 Habits in place, your business goals and targets will become more ambitious because you KNOW you are already delivering in all the key online areas.

What Highly-Effective Website Owners then do when they have all these online habits in place is that they apply the same levels of promotional activity in all the offline areas of their business as well.

When we talked about social media in Habit 3, we said the following:

Highly Effective Website Owners understand that you need to be where your audience is and so if a large percentage of their target audience is spending time on social media platforms, then that is where they will be active too.

However, your audience is often physically present around you most days of the week and so Habit 6 is about promoting your business offline just as much as online.

Online promotion is still a relatively recent way of generating leads for your business.

Before that, businesses relied on signage, on networking, on local paper and radio ads, on Golden Pages or other directories, they attended events and sponsored their local GAA, rugby or soccer club.

While we now have a wide variety of online promotional channels and platforms available to us, it doesn’t make sense to ignore all of the offline approaches which successfully served businesses for many decades prior to websites and social media.

So, what offline areas should you consider?

• Can additional building or window signage be added to attract people’s attention?
• Can promotional flyers be left in reception outlining products/services?
• Are there any work vehicles which could carry branding and contact details?
• Could promotional material be included with any posted items such as invoices?
• Why not do a leaflet drop or a direct mail campaign?
• Do you have business cards to hand out when you meet potential customers?
• Can you join a networking group which would introduce you to prospects?
• Do you attend industry events or trades shows where you could meet new customers?
• Do you ever take out ads with local newspapers or radio?
• Can you send out press releases to a local newspaper as they need content too?
• Do you hold sales events or promotions to generate word-of-mouth?
• Can you put on an Open Day?
• Could you offer to speak at a local school or 3rd level institution?
• Can you offer internships which would build up more awareness?
• Do you sponsor any events or sporting organisations?
• Do you have any referral scheme whereby existing customers introduce new ones?

As business owners, we can all be guilty of believing there is much more awareness of our full range of products and services than is actually the case.

If people don’t know you, they can’t do business with you. 

So taking every offline opportunity to make more people aware of your business is an effective way of complementing all your online efforts.

That’s why Highly-Effective Website Owners make sure they pay as much attention to their offline promotional efforts as they do with all their online campaigns.

One Habit to go and then you’ll have a full battle-plan to take your business to the next level!

Mark