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The Real Deal Offline Series: Are Small Business Owners Still Paying For Old School Marketing?...

by Chris Rivers
10 replies
Hey Offliners,

Over the past few months, I've seen several popular offline wso's that are focusing on more traditional marketing services like yellow page ad design, direct mail campaigns and general ad design.

My question is...are small business owners in your town or city still investing thousands of dollars on a regular basis for traditional advertising strategies?

When I say traditional advertising, I'm talking about radio ads, television ads, newspaper advertising, press releases etc.

Or are you seeing small business owners in your area really diving into online marketing strategies like Groupon, facebook fan pages, sms marketing campaigns, QR etc.?

I don't know if it's just me, but in my area it seems the newspapers and magazines are constantly thinning out. In fact, there are several local papers that simply went out of business.

What that tells me is that the amount of advertisers and subscribers are dropping so rapidly that the revenue generated from ad sales is no longer enough to support the cost of running the publication.

The other thing I've noticed is that there are little to no local advertisers on the radio stations in my area. Most of the radio advertising is dominated by national companies who must have million dollar advertising budgets.

Heck, I rarely even see a television commercial from local companies and I'm paying extra to get access to all local programming!

So, what does this mean to me?

It means that I'm ramping up to expand my offline business.

Yep, that's right.

I'm getting ready to hire more telemarketers, outside sales reps and looking for a bigger office space because unlike a few years ago when business owners needed to be educated for months before they could decide whether they wanted a fanpage for their business, these days business owners are already educated about online marketing strategies, so the potential is huge.

I've already started seeing an increase in business owners who are desperately reaching out for help with the online marketing campaigns, so I don't want to miss out. If you're serious about getting rid of your 9-5 job, then you need to put your offline marketing business plan together and take advantage of a hungry marketplace.

Chris Rivers
#business #deal #marketing #marketing consultant #offline #offline marketing #offline plr #owners #paying #real #school #series #small
  • Profile picture of the author sherylmartin
    Chris,

    I agree with everything you are saying. As you are expanding, are you going to focus on specific markets (like real estate, where you already have a product) or are you just going to blanket an area since there are so many niches where businesses are struggling?

    Sheryl
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    • Profile picture of the author katleo123
      as a beginner it best to stay on the periphery
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  • Profile picture of the author brandon_holcomb
    in some areas like mine Midland, Michigan (mid west) small business owners seem to be very old school in marketing strategies. They would rather spend $100 bucks a day on a letter sign and stick it in front of a busy intersection. Businesses are slowing down how ever on yellow pages they are realizing it is a very big waste of money i mean seriously who can really afford a $400.00 per month business card sized ad any ways specially when it is very very hard to gauge results. More and more businesses are starting to get on facebook. although I fear that is becoming over played as well people are getting flustered with facebook's constant changes as well as businesses over use of hey check us out on facebook we want to be your friend, sure....

    Marketing anything is a tough business, marketing websites internet marketing or any thing technical that is considered media is even harder. The business owner will already have his or her blockers up when they hear hi my name is and I am with xyz company. A lot of business owners are taking things in to their own hands how ever so that they can save some coin. I mean seriously it is not hard to run a facebook user profile or fan page what really makes it worth them paying you $297 per month? Email and text message marketing is really annoying to people. Only reason we check our phones when we get a text message is to turn it off or delete it right away. Same with email most of the time they end up in free users junk boxes.

    Websites still work and I believe will always work. Don't Forget the hosting either. let the business owner decide how to market their website. Its not your job. When you start to wear to many hats, nothing gets done. Do you agree with that let me know.
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  • Profile picture of the author newbizideas312
    yellow page ad design? rofl. Wow now that has to be an old wso lol!..Traditional marketing still does work, but it's cheaper, more effective, and trackable with the net. Keep in mind most people sell their out of date material, because it doesn't work. Just my opinion.
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    • Profile picture of the author ShayB
      Depending on the area, yes.

      Around 40% of the area around here (not in the city, but the rural areas) has no Internet access. None.

      Some biz owners are reluctant to abandon the "old school" methods because many of their customers don't use them (if they have customers in the more rural areas). Heck, a lot of areas around here don't get cell phone service or cable, either.

      I find it easier to help biz owners modify what they're doing already rather than try to get them to completely change overnight.
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      "Fate protects fools, little children, and ships called Enterprise." ~Commander Riker
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  • Profile picture of the author Charles Harper
    Hi Chris,

    I always dig your posts, man.

    That said, I think that there are opportunities abounding for consultants to do 'old' things. A good number of business owners, would not necessarily benefit from excess traffic. Some need to refine their sales process to take advantage of the traffic they already have. Others need to focus on the upsell and the downsell. Still others need to form some alliances and start an affiliate program. And most of all many do not have a differentiation point or UVP/USP.

    Those of us who can do that kind of old school stuff will be in good shape. I think that some of the new school stuff involves creating education events (webinars and teleseminars) to help them to do direct marketing and creating information products for them.

    CT
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  • Profile picture of the author Tony Jones
    Yeah I dont know if that is in much demand. Probably go after companies with an ad already and redesign it for them.
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  • Profile picture of the author localvseo
    Depending on the client you may need to spend a lot of time educating your clients on the value of IM. It may be easier to start with companies that at a minimum have a website. Figure out a way to incorporate the offline ads they have with your offerings. E.g. have them put a qr code in a newspaper ad and you can develop the mobile site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tam Chancellor
    That said, I think that there are opportunities abounding for consultants to do 'old' things. A good number of business owners, would not necessarily benefit from excess traffic. Some need to refine their sales process to take advantage of the traffic they already have. Others need to focus on the upsell and the downsell. Still others need to form some alliances and start an affiliate program. And most of all many do not have a differentiation point or UVP/USP.
    "Old school" marketing techniques produce substantial increases in a fairly short period of time. Honestly, I think "old school" marketing consultants have the advantage.
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    "Talking ain't doing." --Zoe Washburne

    "What you do speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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    • Profile picture of the author ShayB
      We - as business consultants - need to be able to do whatever will help our client.

      Clients don't care if something is "old school" or "new school" - if it brings in more business or increases their profits, that's all that matters.

      I like to look at what a business owner is already doing and find ways to improve their results. If you do this, you will meet with less resistance and you can do a huge service for the client.

      A few examples...

      Do they have a website, but they don't have a way to capture e-mail addresses? You can simply help them with an autoresponder and e-mail marketing and show results fairly quickly.

      Are they advertising but they don't have a website in their ad? You can show them how they can get more mileage from their advertising dollars by simply adding their website - complete with an auto responder form of course - in their ads.

      Do they have an autoresponder on their website, but they aren't capturing their customers' information at the point-of-sale in the store? you can implement a program to do so, and even offer to do training for the employees. (Most businesses have some type of staff meeting on a regular basis, so offer to show up at the next one and do a quick training.)

      These are just a few ways that you can help business owners to modify what they're already doing to increase their profits - and they are fairly painless for the business owner and they are easy to explain.
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      "Fate protects fools, little children, and ships called Enterprise." ~Commander Riker
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