Press releases

Press releases were touched upon earlier on in this article but now for more in depth coverage of using them for offline promotion. Press releases or news releases as they're sometimes known are newsworthy stories about your business that you send to various sections of the media. These sections of the media must be related to your industry for you to have any chance of success. Newsworthy stories are stories which readers of the media publications you submit to might be interested in.

If the journalist reads it and likes it he or she may publish it or some of its contents in his or her publication, if this happens you're on to a winner because the public in general are much more responsive to a news story than a plain old hyped up advertisement. This could mean they'll enquire about or even purchase your products or services.

Using press releases for promotion of your website uses the same principals, if it's newsworthy release it. Newsworthy events for websites include website launches, website re launches and new online services among other items.

It'll be up to you to decide what might be of value to a journalist and hence his or her readers, however there are hundreds of businesses that can organize what's of value into a professional press release and can then submit it for you. I would recommend the path of using these businesses due to the fact that if you submit a poorly written press release the journalist who receives it will (a) not publish it or any part of it and (b) not even look at your releases in the future so do it right the first time and hire somebody. Googles a good place to start looking.

Others ideas

Other ideas include having flyers and posters printed specifically to promote your URL. Flyers could be handed out locally and posters could be placed at strategic locations such as supermarkets, malls, social clubs and business centers, well you get the idea. Don't forget about direct snail mailing to qualified prospects, bus and building billboards, bus shelters and cinema screen advertising (yes you can run ads before those big movies come on!)

Word of mouth

Last but by no means least is good old word of mouth promotion. This is the most effective method of promotion as a referral from a friend or work colleague creates a highly qualified prospect who is much more likely to buy from you than anyone who wasn't referred to you.

Think about it, would you be more likely to buy your new shiny golf clubs from a company that you first became aware of in the classified section of the 'Timbuktu Express' or the company your best friend told you about, the company he bought the set he loves and uses all the time from?

You must have a good product and website for word of mouth to work, why would people want to spread the URL of a bad website amongst their friends, family and co-workers? Well simply put, they wouldn't.

You however for a start should tell any people you deal with about your website and ask them to tell others, remember they won't want to do this unless they like your setup so make sure your products, website and customer service are top-notch.

Sorry about mentioning this for what now must be the third time, but I feel it's necessary. Word of mouth promotion will be helped dramatically if your domain name is short and easy to remember. If however it's not, don't fret, I would suggest you simply buy a secondary domain name which is easy to remember and simply redirect to your main site. Last time I mention any domain name stuff I promise :-)

Conclusion

Above we've dealt with different aspects of offline promotion for your website, you may have used some or all of them before, then again you may not have ever participated in an offline marketing campaign before. If you're one of the latter read my closing statement very carefully.