What are some offline methods to market a website?

[Slade]

Ok, so I am putting together a business plan for an idea I have, but as part of my marketing section I want to include some off line marketing to drive visitors to my website.

Can anyone give me some ideas on ways I can market a website off line? Maybe stickers, cards.. gifts.. anything?

[justinsigns]

Pens, mailout postcards, special promo business cards, bumper stickers
depending where you are - mobile billboards, find a sign company that wraps, rents and drives a car on your behalf - we dont do this but there are a few.
Radio advertisement on a local station, etc etc.


Sky is the limit, depending how much you want to invest.

[nedwin]

I just finished putting on a dj night to promote my music blog at electrorash.com.

Throwing a party connected to the blog forced me to really get on top of my marketing activities. If the night wasn't a success it would reflect badly on me and the blog and I would have lost a not insignificant amount of money.

I dubbed the party "Electrorash.com presents" and started posting flyers on myspace and facebook as well as throughout the city, Fitzroy and St Kilda.

I encouraged the DJs playing on the night to bring their friends by offering them discounted entry if they mentioned the DJ's name. This helped them bring all of their friends down with the lure of cheap entry as well as giving me feedback as to who were the most popular DJs.

I got in contact with a relevant radio show and did an interview a couple of days before live to air where I could plug the gig and the site.

Finally I put a full page ad in the street press to get some big level exposure the night before the party.

It all went off without a hitch and was a roaring success. On the night everyone that came through the door was stamped with my web address and I collected information from everyone as to where they heard about the party. Suffice to say I will be using this information for the next party I throw in a months time. Hope to see you there!

Ned

[Brendan]

Hey nedwin,

Wecome to the forums; Great first post and really great way to promote your website and start a great marleting campaign!

Were you able to measure what sort of response your site got after the party? Have you seen a significant increase in visitors / sales / adclicks??

I wonder if we can apply parties or events to any of our sites?

[nedwin]

Thanks Brendan. First time I had read the forum actually, I was telling a mate of mine about the night when he showed me this thread.

I haven't seen a massive increase in traffic coming from Melbourne (which was my intention) but from Australia in general it has gone up slightly. However it would be difficult to pinpoint this specifically to my marketing efforts.

I imagine that by holding a monthly event and constantly having the name out there in the real world then I should see some increases. It was also good to be able to meet more people from Melbourne who read the blog regularly and even post comments.

I will let you know how the next one goes!

Ned

[gerryonline]

When is the next one nedwin?

[rosshill]

Ned did you have little business cards to hand out to people? I know after a big night often people are surprised to have the card of a photography :) Maybe the same applies here.

I wouldn't always expect a direct result in hits to your website after something offline, unless you specifically promote it - and it also depends how many hits you get on an average day and therefore how much you would need to make a bump in it.

We recently had a mention in The Age on a Saturday which obviously has a huge readership, but had a below average day when it came to website hits. The benefit was that a bunch of people saw it who already knew so it was strengthened further to them. No new leads, but strengthened brand to people who were already converted :) WIN!

[Brendan]

Good to hear you got a mention in the age.. what company was that for?