Do you, like many business owners, focus too much of your website marketing to strictly online tactics?  Getting traffic coming to your site from offline sources is not only easy, but there is very little competition, comparatively.

Implement these 3 simple techniques and you’ll see your offline to online website traffic increase quickly.

Tip 1 – Classified Ads

Well written classified ads placed in the right newspapers and magazines can generate veritable floods of traffic to your website when done correctly.  The key is to draw your prospect in with a catchy headline then immediately identify the problem you have a solution to.

With a strong call to action, simple classified ads would quickly become your primary source of online traffic!

Tip 2 – Business Card Call to Action

Take out your business card and have a look at the back of it.  If it is blank you are missing out on one of the most overlooked – yet most easily leveraged – forms of offline advertising… the back of your business card.

You should have a strong call to action for a free gift of some kind that you offer through your website.  Since your web page is a 24 hour sales person who never gets tired, when they request your free gift, be sure to make them a special offer for one of your products or services.

Tip 3 – Post flyers in public places

Local libraries, grocery stores and even your local coffee shop all probably have some kind of public space where you can post a flyer advertising your website.

The key is to stand out from the crowd and provide a compelling call-to-action that will motivate your prospect to visit your site when they return home.  To find out what works, simply look at the other flyers being posted, particularly those that have many or all of the info-slips ripped off the bottom.

Then simply model them with your own marketing message and watch the new traffic start to roll in to your website!

BONUS TIP!

In order to track your offline marketing sources, consider getting vanity domains for each of your marketing efforts.  You can then place tracking codes on each of them in order to know what is working and what isn’t.

Have more marketing questions?  Then now I would like to invite you to get your questions answered for FREE each month during our live marketing Q&A.  Ask your question today at http://www.MyMarketingQuestion.com.

From Paul Keetch – Co-Author of Make My Marketing Work

It seems the very things that make you a successful entrepreneur – creativity, willingness to try new things, etc – are sometimes the very things that keep you from achieving all that you want.

This is especially true in an age when new marketing tactics are springing up faster than you can say “Pop goes the weasel!”

Pay-per-click, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, WordPress, Blogging, Vloggging, Podcasting, Squeeze Pages, Opt-in Forms, Slide-Ins, Hover Pops – the list of new marketing tactics is growing at an ever-faster pace.

Here are 3 tips to stay focused on marketing activities that work best for YOUR business:

Tip 1 – Pick 3 Marketing Activities

There are now literally hundreds, if not thousands, of tactics you can use to market your business both online and off.  If you want to avoid being overwhelmed, I suggest you pick 3 and focus on learning how to do them really well.

Ideally you’ll select a combination of online an offline tactics, but what you select should be specific to your industry and your specific business.

Tip 2 – Master Your Selections

Select marketing tactics that you already have some idea about – you know how to do them and you know that they work for your business – and then set about mastering them to gain the maximum amount of leverage.

Leverage in marketing tactics comes from producing a profitable campaign first, then leveraging the profits from the campaign to expand it and refine it even further.  As you leverage each campaign up, your business will grow.

Tip 3 – Add New Tactics One At a Time

Once you have your three tactics running profitably month in and month out, you don’t need to spend as much time refining and tweaking them (although you should always be watching them closely).

Then you can determine the next tactic you want to test out.  You’ll start implementing this by learning everything you can about and running some tests to see what results you get.  Then you’ll refine your tactics based on new knowledge and more data until you have a profitable campaign that you can leverage up again.

When you follow these 3 simple steps, you’ll stay focused on marketing activities that work for your business, maximizing their return on investment and growing your business.

Have more marketing questions?  Then now I would like to invite you to get your questions answered for FREE each month during our live marketing Q&A.  Ask your question today at http://www.MyMarketingQuestion.com.

From Paul Keetch – Co-Author of Make My Marketing Work

Everyone knows that the best form of advertising is word of mouth.  The reason this is true is because the marketing message is coming, not from a “greedy company” but from a trusted friend, family member or advisor.

Its one thing to see a movie trailer with the deep-voiced narrator intoning how exciting and adventurous the movie is; but it’s another thing altogether when your best friend calls you up raving, “You have GOT to see this movie, it’s SO GOOD!”

Here are 3 tips to encourage and inspire people to talk about you and your business.

Tip 1 – Be exceptional

This is the most important thing you can do to encourage word of mouth and it should be your primary focus if you want to leverage your existing customers.

Having an exceptional product or service (like the iPhone) or providing an exceptional customer experience (like Virgin Atlantic) or providing exceptional results in a specific area will naturally get people talking about you.

Tip 2 – Give away free samples or trials

If you want to attract new prospects and get them talking about you right away, try giving away free samples or trials of your product or service.

Just like taking a new car out for a test drive gets you literally “behind the wheel” and feeling what it’s like to drive the car, so too will giving your customers a taste get them feeling what it is like to do business with you.

Tip 3 – Provide mechanisms for easy sharing

Social networking sites have got this one nailed.  When you sign up for a social networking site like Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, you are encouraged to “invite your friends”.  And they make it very easy for you to say yes.

You can make it easy for your customers and prospects to tell others by leveraging similar “invite a friend” technologies, including referral cards with your freebies or by creating your very own social networking site where your customers can congregate together.

Have more marketing questions?  Then now I would like to invite you to get your questions answered for FREE each month during our live marketing Q&A.  Ask your question today at http://www.MyMarketingQuestion.com.

From Paul Keetch – Co-Author of Make My Marketing Work

People are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages every minute of the day, from all angles.  Making your message “stick” in their mind seems like a challenging task, but it’s quite simple if you follow 3 simple rules.

Rule 1 – Empathize with their pain

The more you can show you understand the specific pain, discomfort or problem that your prospect suffers from, the more they will be inclined to believe you when you tell them you have a solution.

A weight loss coach shouldn’t ask, “Tired of being overweight?” because this doesn’t touch the real pain.  Instead they might ask, “Are you afraid that your kids might grow up alone, without their father?”

This is much more direct and shows that you truly understand the challenges of being overweight.

Rule 2 – Identify their “Perfect Picture” of the future

The “perfect picture” stems directly from the pain that they feel.  This helps them move from pain to desire and hope.  It also reinforces that you actually understand what they want to achieve.

Using the weight loss example above the “perfect picture” might sound something like, “When you’ve shed those extra pounds you’ll not only feel lighter, you’ll also have more energy to do the things you may be missing out on now… like spending quality time with your kids while they’re still young enough to want to spend time with YOU.”

Rule 3 – Identify your solution

Only once you’ve shown your prospect that you really understand their pain (not just their “problem”) and have created both hope and desire by painting them a “perfect picture”, it’s time to connect the dots with a solution.

The key is to show how your particular solution is the best, easiest or most appropriate way for them to move from pain to perfect picture as quickly as possible.

Have more marketing questions?  Then now I would like to invite you to get your questions answered for FREE each month during our live marketing Q&A.  Ask your question today at http://www.MyMarketingQuestion.com.

From Paul Keetch – Co-Author of Make My Marketing Work