Offline Marketing

Thursday night's webinar at The 7 Figure Marketing School was all about offline marketing. While it's true that the school mainly teaches folks how to market online, Vick(the Pres)said that if we market online only, we may be leaving opportunities unexplored. I agree. Say you had a T-shirt shop, or any other business...you'd be a fool not to have a website and do some online advertising. But you'd talk with people walking by on the street outside the shop too. You'd put an ad in the paper, or offer a coupon to bring people in. Even 'online' marketing can use this strategy.

To that end, I am making a plan to do some offline activity. It can be hard to choose what method you like. If you have some extra cash to spend, print ads are a fantastic way to advertise. There are several magazines out there dedicated solely to working at home, and home businesses. A perfect target audience for your ads. Also, newspapers have not yet gone the way of the dinosaur, and are perfect for generating some local buzz. There are also postcards and direct mail to consider, each of them are effective.

All of these options cost money. It's a bear, I know. But consider this...If you were to begin a business...like a sandwich shop..you would have a business plan. You would have some capital and take out a business loan. You'd hire people, advertise, and go out on the street to drum up business. It's always surprising to me when folks expect that you can promote an online business with little effort and NO cash. I think it's an unreasonable expectation. While it's certainly possible to advertise without money, it's important to realize that paid advertising has it's place, and can bring in nice returns.

At The 7 Figure Marketing School,Vick has created advertising co-ops for the members. Basically, we all go in on advertising together. Very cool. So, we'll put out a print ad, and we each get a portion of the business generated by that. Vick is also working on getting us a great group rate for postcards, which will have our unique URL and we can choose how many, and consequently, how much money we are going to spend. Great ideas, and they make the whole thing more accessible for all of us. Love that. There are so many more things we can do if we do it together.

So folks, keep your mind open and your goals clear. And be realistic in your expectations of your own commitment to an online business. Jeremy Brown quoted someone..."The only people who MAKE money are the people who work at the mint." The rest of have to EARN it.

Audrey Thorne
www.7figurestory.com
http://7figurestory.blogspot.com