This is a guest post by Aditya Mahesh. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.
I invite you to all take a look at your marketing efforts. I am guessing that most of you are dedicating 100% of your marketing time and resources to promoting your blog online.
While this makes sense since it is easier for someone to access your blog from an online advertisement or link, I think that all of you should also try to promoting your blogs offline as well. Offline marketing tactics might not drive as much traffic as an online marketing campaign, but they will prove to be a very cost-effective way to build credibility.
Here are a few efficient offline marketing tactics I have used to promote my various blogs.
1. Business Cards
For anyone to take you seriously, you need to have a business card. Bloggers are not exempt. Having a business card is a great way to introduce people you meet in day-to-day life about your blogging activity. Business cards are also very inexpensive to purchase with most costing less than 1 cent per card.
2. Industry Events
One great way to promote your blog in your niche is to attend industry events. This allows you to share your blog with a number of individuals who are interested in its subject matter. It is also a great way to associate yourself with authorities in your niche. Make sure to bring business cards and other swag (T-Shirts, pens, etc.) to make an impression on potential readers and partners.
3. Newspapers and Local Publications
While newspapers may be a dying industry, they are still very well respected and having your blog covered in the daily news is a fantastic free way to build credibility online. It may be a bit difficult to get the Wall Street Journal to pick up the story, but you should fare better with more local papers. Create a unique story angle on your blog and e-mail it along with a press release to journalists. In addition, getting a story published in the press also means seeing that story online with a direct link to your blog,
4. Readers Meet-up
If you have a substantial local reader base or live in a large metropolis, hold an official gathering for readers and people interested in your niche. It doesn’t have to be anything more than a casual get together to simply talk about the industry. This is a great way to strengthen the bond of your community and find new local readers. You can choose to hold these meetings at your home or at a more local and convenient location such as a restaurant, coffee shop, or even park.
Conclusion
These four tactics are just a few of the different offline marketing strategies you can deploy. In addition, you can always purchase advertisements, pass out flyers and pamphlets, sponsor local/industry events and so on. However, the four tactics listed above are largely free or very inexpensive and I have found them to be the most effective way to build to credibility.
A key element of successful offline marketing is building personal relationships. Meeting people in the real world as opposed to online allows for a much greater level of interaction and gives you the ability to develop a substantial relationship with your readers. This is something you definitely want to use to your advantage.
Aditya Mahesh is the founder of AMBeat.com, a complete resource for entrepreneurs, complete with advice articles, start-up profiles, interviews, news analysis, and more.
About Donny
I’m Donny. I can sum myself up with four simple ways. Online Entrepreneur. Author. Investor. World Traveler
Nice ways
A lot of things you can do to promote, among others are offline, such as advertising in magazines, on radio, and some other offline media that you can do, so expect your blog to become more popular
I have always used #1 and #3 in my town there are boards all over to post your card. Good ideas, i need to try #4 out.
Kane
I really dig number 4! I’ve been hosting a monthly luncheon (a bloggers meetup/tweetup). We usually get a great crowd in attendance (20 or so peeps) and turns out to be a great social outing.
i have two issues with this guest article.
1. The writer had nothing new to say. I love daniel’s work on this site as well as on dailywritingtips, but after reading this post, I feltt liked wasted. This guest writer got a link back for free. This post adds nothing to the exisiting knowledge of a reader like daniel’s posts does. Reading it was waste of time.
2. On top of that reading a bad post in a badly written language. Yes, this is my second contention with this post. The language was flawed: full of grammatical and puncational errors. The language doesn’t flow.
A word for daniel: please ascertain the quality of guest posts on your blogs. A bad post will cost you your reputation. Your brand is getting diluted by these kinds of posts.
I am aware that i was harse in commenting, and i used this language deliberatly to convey how bad I felt after wasting my time reading not-so-good post.
Interesting article which reminds me of what I saw a few weeks ago. I saw this car sticker placed on the bumper of a car which I was following. It was an eye catcher, and below the logo you could see a a very legible URL.
Trust me, if ever that site address come across my eyes in the web, unconsciously I’ll click it.
It’s a good topic. One that has worked for me is offering a business free content for their news letter with a reference to myself on the bottom of my article. No different to an author bio on article submissions. It can get a lot of traffic if it has a large publication base.
I agree with you that doing a promotion offline is a great way to get attention to your blog, I remember one offline way from Brian of ExtremeEzine, he is making a promotion by “Promotional Buttons” that looks great and have the logo printed on them!
Thanks for the nice tips!
What about non business?
I think just present to everybody you know is ok 😀
Some great tips here. I was thinking about putting something in the paper for my writing services. I do like the idea of getting some people together like that though. I think that would be very beneficial.
Good stuff! I would add local industry / tech meet-ups. I attend a wordpress meet-up in Austin and it is a great way to learn and network.
There are some fine people out there to meet, and it helps to get away from the computer even if we are talking about blogs. I like meet-up.com, many local groups use it to connect the users.
Lots of good tips here which will be useful for me. Will bookmark this post and use it for the tips. Thanks for sharing these with us.
I have been wanting to get some business cards out for my site to spread the word around people I know, but I have been lazy I guess.
A lot of people are underestimating the power of offline advertising. I mean even wearing a simple shirt in an event can pretty much increase your brand awareness…
Readers meetup is something that looks interesting and I might try it soon.. 😉
I think an offline promotion isn’t as effective as an online one. I think it’s more expensive and less people will see that ad. But attending industry events is a good idea!
Certainly these are the effective way. With this you can also add Radio. Because of Radio FM and many other channels people are listening radio often.
But for news paper and paper advertisments … I think if your blog is related with the common interest of public than you will be able to gain more benefit.
Don’ underestimate the power of businesscards. It may sound odd but it really works. You just have to pass out a lot of ’em though.
I remember a tv ad which promotes a search engine or an online directory, I it saw few weeks ago, it was advertised late midnight. It’s pretty weird, but sounds useful, I bet that page got some traffic rising. Is tv ads consider as offline method?
By the way, I also watch this tv program which features different blogs and other activities in the web. It’s a good promotional strategy to be a guest there, considering that tv programs got a huge size viewers.ss
5. Telling people you meet in real life.
This may seem either obvious, or strange, depending on the blogger, but a lot of us have uge interpersonal networks or friends, family and colleagues. There is no reason they can’t be a part of your blog along with the digital community.
Also, great call on the Newspapers for publicity. Old media still has customers.
Business cards may sound weird, but in the offline world its standard business currency. I’ve gained relationships I never would have had otherwise because I happened to have a business card on me.
Newspapers and local publication is the best source for new bloggers but if someone want to become professional blogger then blog meet ups and industry events can more effective.
I totally agree with the author. But it’s a bit hard to arrange an Industry Event. Other 3 points can be done by almost anyone having a huge readership with one or more busy blog(s).
Promoting offline seems so much more challenging than online. It is funny how even your best friends won’t bother to spend more than 10 seconds on your blog unless it is something they are already into. Becoming an online powerhouse must change your friends a lot 😉
I think handing out business cards for a blog seems weird but I am sure it is not when your blog is an actual business.
I spent all my time at computer and online.
hmmm ncie one
sometimes offline promotions can do wonders. You can do loads of networking through meet ups and these methods don’t cost much as well.
Thank you for this post. Very helpful…Printed out and will consider your recommendations. I really like the idea of physically meeting with your readers. I hadn’t thought of that. Good stuff!