Effective Offline PromotionWritten by Nowshade Kabir
Although, most of your traffic will still come from search engines and various online promotions, a little effort using traditional media might also bring a large number of visitors to your website. Reasons, why you should take offline promotion of your website seriously include: Internet is increasingly becoming a part of our daily life. However, still a big segment of society – especially, elderly – don’t spend that much of time online. Traditional media is a good method of getting their attention. If a person sees your printed advertisement with your URL in a year-old magazine and gets interested in what you have to offer, he will still be able to check out your website. Research shows that at least four people browse through a printed magazine in its life time. With planned media promotion, you can tap into particular target market, which otherwise might not be that easy to do. For example: if you sell car accessories through your website, a good promotional channel would be a specific radio station that commuters like to tune in. Your offline promotion endeavor should combine advertisement, publicity and promotional items. Advertising Once you identified potential target market that you would like to reach, you can try to communicate with them using various advertising methods. Advertising is a paid form of delivering message to broad range of prospective customers through billboards, posters, print, broadcast media, etc. Each of your advertising campaign should have a clear goal and carefully crafted plan. Since advertising in some media forms is quite expensive, without a well-defined plan you might waste your money for nothing. Your advertising goal might include followings: - Bring targeted traffic to your website - Stimulate sales - Build brand recognition of your website - Increase public awareness of your product and services - Promote seasonal sales, clearance, etc. conducted through your site. Once you established your advertising goal, you need to clarify advertising budget, timing and media. You should set your advertising budget based on your objective. In general, companies set aside a percentage of their gross sales as promotional budget. A new online business might choose to spend on advertising, amount allocated in its business plan. Timing and scheduling are also crucial factors in advertising. Where should you advertise is a difficult decision, which should base on a number of factors: Market reach What is market segment you would like to cover with your present campaign? Message Depending on your goal, you have to choose right message to communicate with your prospective customers. The advertising media has to conform to selected message. Product and service that you offer through your site B2B and B2C products and services are usually different in nature and require different media to reach targeted market. Budget The choice of media depends vastly on your budget consideration.Major offline advertising mediums Newspapers Newspapers are very popular media forms of advertising. If you are not planning to reach out to mass, classified sections of local newspapers should be your first choice. Magazines Specialized magazines are good for targeting particular interest group. If you sell golf accessories through your site, you should definitely consider advertising in one of local golf magazines. However, ad spaces in magazines are often quite expensive. Radio
| | Learn the Secrets of Print InterviewingWritten by Susan Harrow
***Permissions*** You have permission to publish this article in its entirety electronically, in print, in your ebook, or on your web site, free of charge as long as no changes to content are made and you include my byline, copyright, and resource box. Please notify me of publication by sending an email with a copy of your publication to: mailto:newslettereditor@prsecrets.com Thanks!===Article Follows=== Learn Secrets of Print Interviewing 1. Remember you're always on record. Even when tape is off, even when reporter has put away his pad, even when you think that reporter thinks you walk on water, you are on record. One of my clients who knows better, gave an interview to a columnist at a prominent national paper. She thought they had a jolly rapport and became a bit loose lipped about fortune business had amassed in a hard-won deal. The interviewer positioned her as a spoiled and arrogant twit who had, to a certain degree, lucked out. She called me fuming, and at same time knowing it was her fault. The reporter is not your therapist so this is not time to discuss your innermost workings. I remember a friend of mine saying that there was nothing so mesmerizing as having a therapist listen to her in total attention. It's seductive to know that a person finds you fascinating. While you're not paying a reporter, their job similar to a therapist's, is to be a skilled listener. The reporter is there to do one thing-get a good story. If you don't want to see it in print, don't let those precious words leave your lips. Period. 2. Don't beg. Your lips are made for talking. While it's imperative to be attentive don't bow, scrape or otherwise raise your lips to posterior of reporter. You are there because you have valuable information to impart. Much as some reporters pretend they don't need you, you're a critical part of their job. Focus on their questions and your message and you'll make a good interview. 3. Ask to verify your quotes. Author Bill Barich describes his first media encounter for his first book *Laughing in Hills.* So I flew off to New York in February with a borrowed suitcase, feeling for all world like John Boy Walton, would-be-writer of television fame. The magazine (The New Yorker) put me up at Algonquin Hotel, directly across from its headquarters, and soon I was seated in regal lobby bar and conducting an interview with a journalist from (of all places) Women's Wear Daily, who'd been dispatched by The Viking Press for some advance publicity.
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