The 3rd step in our 7 Simple Steps to Better Online Marketing (sign up to the free report on our website to see the full list) is ‘Promote your URL any which way you can’ and today we are going to explore how to do that in the offline world.
Why you need to promote your website address offline
You might wonder why we are talking about promoting your url (your ‘uniform resource locator’ or in other words your website address / domain name) offline. As you already know once you have a website you have to ensure that you market it online for it to work for you, but you do actually need to think about how to market it offline too, especially as a local business. More and more people search online to find local suppliers but there are still a lot of people who don’t but who may like to use the internet to research potential suppliers once they are aware of them.
On Business Paperwork
The first, hopefully obvious, place to promote your url is on your paperwork: letterheads; compliment slips; business cards; leaflets; faxes and brochures. But the one place that you may not have thought about is to promote it on your product packaging. You can also print it on your envelopes, particularly if your business has an intriguing name, so it is eye catching and memorable.
Word of Mouth
Very useful in your local area for many aspects of promoting a business is word of mouth. If you can get other people talking about you, preferably in glowing terms, that can be a great opportunity for your business, as is networking and other face to face interaction. If you throw in the concept of your website and make it memorable that can really help to get the message out.
A local Accountant/Tax Specialist to us is also accomplished in public speaking and presentation. When he wanted to promote his business and website he developed a particularly memorable way of telling everyone his company name and website address in one go in his 60 seconds / elevator pitch. He became known as “the proactive accountant”…pause for effect…”dot.com”, which also ended up with people who were listening, and knew of him already, joining in the dot com bit at the end, to further emphasize the point! It’s likely that most people who heard his introduction will have remembered his website address, as planned!
On Giveaways
Another place to put your url is on giveaways like mouse mats, note pads, t-shirts, cups, keyrings; basically products that will continue in use for some time, ensuring that your prospects keep seeing your website address over time. In nearly all of these cases having a memorable web address that explains something about your business is preferable, particularly so that prospects feel the need to have a look at it.
Our website address is www.counterpointmatters.com, which doesn’t tell you what we do but we also own the url www.improveyouronlinemarketing.com, which does and we have set that website up as what’s known as a squeeze page. A squeeze page is one that effectively ‘squeezes’ a prospect’s name and email out of them in exchange for, in this case, a free report entitled ‘7 Simple Steps to Great Online Marketing for Local Businesses’. It does this by offering nothing other than the report; no navigation, no website information – just one page with a compelling explanation and a sign up box.
On Your Vehicles
You can promote it on your car or commercial vehicle using magnetic signs or more ‘permanent’ signage like the window stickers that we have on the back of our car to promote www.thehythehandbook.co.uk (don’t forget to drive considerately when you are promoting who you are in this way; I once pulled out in front of someone in Hythe in the wrong gear by mistake so I must have really annoyed them; with the signage on the back of the car I was tempted to make a public apology in the next edition of the Handbook!).
By Your Staff
Make sure all your staff know what your url is; they may sometimes be asked for it and you should encourage them to recommend that prospects visit your website. You could also instigate a policy that everyone answers the phone with something like, “Good morning, YourCompanyName.com, how can I help you”. This gives your callers a chance to look you up and reminds people that they can find out more information about your company online.
On Local TV & Radio Advertising
Local TV and/or radio may sound expensive but using such advertising opportunities is becoming more affordable especially with the advent of online television and podcasting style ‘radio’ programmes and some areas also have community license radio stations that are very affordable and extremely effective. For example Romney Marsh FM in Kent is an internet radio station that broadcasts on FM for a month at a time through a restricted service licence; their local listener figures are really good so local advertising can work really well; with a memorable url and a catchy ad you can really take advantage of that.
Email Signature
What do you put at the bottom of your emails? I have my name, company name, telephone number and web address, including a promotional line “Helping local businesses to get the most from their online marketing. Go to www.improveyouronlinemarketing.com to download your free report ‘7 Simple Steps to Great Online Marketing for Local Businesses’”.
I have emailed contacts following meeting them at networking events just to connect with them, i.e. not selling to them or suggesting they visit our website, and seen them sign up for my newsletter because they have clicked through on the url on my email signature. What could you say about your business on your email signature?
On Your Invoices & Receipts
Don’t forget to put it on your invoices and receipts to introduce and remind customers that they can find out more information online, especially if you are selling online. I order pens from one particular online supplier and I can never remember their name so I end up looking for their last invoice; thankfully they put their url on it (I suppose I could write it down somewhere or bookmark their site – but that would be too easy!). We need to make things easy for our customers to keep them shopping with us.
On and In Your Premises
If you have premises open to the public then you can put your url on your closed sign and/or on your window to remind people that they can find out more information and maybe even shop online and/or book appointments any time of the day; make sure that you put up signage inside too so that browsing customers see your url at various points around the shop / office.
On Signage
If you are near a busy road, put it somewhere that people in a traffic jam / driving past can see (with regard to planning regulations and the like, of course!). On a recent trip up the A1 we saw a big sign on the roof of a business that said www.theredmudhut.com; I happened to be online and had a quick look at their site as a result (I was obviously a passenger at the time!).
On Corporate Clothing
If you have corporate clothing for yourself and your workforce then make sure your url is on that, although this is not so easy if you have a long url; you may need to get creative!
On Printed Display Advertising
If you have adverts in newspapers and other publications make sure you include your url. How much information can you fit onto those ads? Not much I bet. You can even purposely direct your prospects to your website in any advertising you do to pick up a free report or get a discount voucher to give you a further opportunity to promote your offer/business to them with a more comprehensive sales letter / advertisement.
On Classified Advertising
Have you seen those ads on newsagents’ noticeboards with a tear off strip that has a phone number on it so that people reading it can take it and phone you? Why not do that with your web address instead (or as well as, I suppose!); with a website to do your selling for you, you could even try using classified ads (the line ads with no design or colour) which are cheap but don’t allow much wording, there should be enough space though for your website address.
On Editorials
If you are lucky enough to get featured in your local paper or a trade publication perhaps as a result of sending a press release with some news about your company or participating in a charity event, for example, you can promote your url as a way for readers to find out more about your business and follow up with you; again you may choose to provide a free download or extra information as an incentive for them to visit your website.
On Sponsorship Communications
If you sponsor an event of any kind or, again, participate in a fund raising event you can promote your url somewhere: on your sponsor form, on a t-shirt, or in a press release with more information.
Have a Professional Email Address Linked to Your Url
Lastly, if you have a domain name please, please make sure that you set your email address up properly to look something like me@yourcompanyname.com so that you look professional and people know where to find your site. I still see business people using hotmail and yahoo accounts for their email, which is bad enough when you can buy a url very cheaply and worst case scenario set up an email address that is forwarded to your personal email.
When I see businesses with a website active on their url but still using a hotmail account it makes me cringe! If you have hosting for a website, then you will usually have free email at that url too with the potential to upgrade to a larger inbox or a Microsoft Exchange account etc for an extra cost. If you do nothing else, please make sure you have the free email option set up with the me@yourcompanyname.com! Here endeth the lesson…
So, that should have given you a few ideas about where to promote your url; should keep you busy for a while. Do you have any to add? Please feel free to do so in the comments.
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