Advertising Your Website Offline

By Author: Ken Builder
Total Articles: 2
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The vast majority of businesses have got involved with setting up a website . In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a business that doesn't have a website. That means that your competitors are likely to have websites too. So how do you get people to visit your site? How do you stand out? These are of course very important questions and are in fact the basis of a multi-billion pound industry worldwide.
The natural thing to consider when thinking about ways to promote your website, is to look online. There are now a galaxy of options ranging from paid search and Search Engine Optimisation to affiliate programs and banner advertising. The solutions are legion and so are the ways of implementing them. It sounds over the top but you should really be investigating them all. After all, you've gone to the effort to make your own website. There are sales to be made and eyes to put your brand in front of. Although most businesses are making an effort to find every option, a surprisingly high number of them are neglecting one huge area; anywhere ...
... outside online!

Old School Advertising
It would seem that the poor old offline advertising channels are being left behind as the new, online kid in the class gets all the attention. Many people think that online and offline advertising are incongruous and therefore don't even consider advertising offline. That is often a mistake. To many people your business is your website. That means that your website is your brand and as such, you should be looking outside the internet to advertise your brand and get it into people's consciousness. Online advertising often comes up short because it is difficult to make your brand stand out in a medium that is confined to the relatively small space on a computer screen. In addition, you are being bombarded with imagery, as you jump from site to site. In branding terms, it would be the real world equivalent of having a stamp-sized ad on the surface of the moon. Having used your website creator, that seems like a real waste!
So getting to the point; do not forget offline advertising! You've learned how to make a website, so now learn how to promote it. Whenever you have an ad in a paper, magazine or billboard, make sure your put your URL on it. Make sure it stands out so people have an easier time remembering what they're looking for when they're sat in front of their computers. It would help if you keep your URL as simple as possible. Simple is memorable. And if your URL is descriptive too, then that's a real bonus.
If you have TV ads running, make sure they end with your URL. The same applies to radio ads - make sure the narrator mentions your website.

Measuring Offline Advertising
When advertising your website offline, don't forget that there are tricks to measure the efficiency of your offline display advertising. One trick is to put a code on your ad, which people will then enter on your website (to get discounts or special offer etc, for example). Every code entered represents eyes that have seen, and reacted to, your ad. Another trick is to set up a mirror site (which is just an exact copy of your existing site but with a different URL) and put its URL in the ad. Simply look at the visitor count and there's a measurement of the impact.
In addition to offline advertising, you mustn't forget the obvious places to put your URL: your business cards, your business stationary and any promotional merchandise you may have.