Using Advertising to Promote Website Traffic for Your Offline Business

You have a regular brick and mortar store – an offline business – you have a professional website – now what? The first thing you should realize is just because you have a really good website doesn’t mean that your site will be found! It’s one of the most common mistakes made by today’s business owners. A company pays a hefty price for a really good website and then expects the website to immediately start to do well in the search engines. For that to happen other things have to occur to bring traffic to your site. Right now, we’ll focus on the role of advertising both online and offline.

When it comes to advertising online there are tons of excellent sources, some paid, some free – Banner advertising, Google Adwords, email advertising, website advertising, and the list goes on. All of these ads can be both an expense and an investment depending on how ‘on target’ you are. 

You need to ask yourself some questions. Is your advertising matching who your target audience is? Even with a low response to your advertising campaign, will you reach your target audience? You can spend a lot of money on online advertising and get very little benefit if you don’t do it right. Then again when done right your online advertising is a great way to generate a lot of traffic and spend time not money. 

Offline advertising can also generate traffic for you by advertising your website on business cards, flyers, signs, brochures, word of mouth marketing and email signature lines. Make it your practice to include your website on all of your printed materials so that you ensure the widest possible reach. 

Think a little outside the box when it comes to advertising your offline business. Similar businesses can cross promote for each other both offline and online. Link exchanges can be a good way to advertise free by exchanging links with related businesses or businesses within the same industry. 

Never miss an opportunity. There are many that you might not think about, especially if you are not running an online business. For example, email advertising is as simple as adding it to your email signature line with no costs. The best thing you can do is get the help of professionals if you are not quite sure how to proceed with your advertising. 
