Offline Marketers: What Offline Marketing Resources Do You Use?

The local chamber of commerce, business cards, brochures, and networking would come to mind as "offline" resources I use.

I personally like to use Market Samurai for keyword and competition research. For those times when you have a question about coding I like to use w3schools.

Everybody talks about Basecamp and aWeber as if there's nothing else out there.

Try MyIntervals.com for project management.

Also, outside of the IM community, NOBODY has heard of aWeber. The 6000 lb gorilla that EVERYBODY knows about it Constant Contact. I got set up with them as a "Partner" which means that when someone signs up through my "partner link" they end up in my dashboard. I can hook them up so I can manage their account through my own login. A lot like how Google lets you manage client accounts through your own management portal. Although this probably happens a lot in the IM world, none of the major IM vendors allow it. Come to think of it, there's a LOT of stuff aWeber doesn't provide or even allow that Constant Contact and many other vendors do. Constant Contact even has an API and a developer's program so you can do some pretty fancy integration with them, like hooking your client's QuickBooks into their Constant Contact database.

One of the products we use a bit is the website grader.

Website SEO Tool | Website Grader

Because lots of our clients already have under performing websites we can grade them here and find out why they are not performing and then supply them with regular updates to show them how all our work is improving their performance.

By incorporating this with a email once a week from Google analytics both the customer and ourselves can see how we are tracking.

Quentin

I recently switched from Basecamp to Deskaway.com because DA.com allows for more flexibility and just feels like a better choice.

I also use Sendpeppermarketing.com for an email / direct-mail autoresponder for business clients, that also has PURLS and triggers for tracking and segregating lists =)

Cheers,

~Dexx

Andrew covered some of mine.

I'm working on a site for a client right now (taking a break to chat on the forum) and I have open:

Komposer - for html editing.

Openoffice

Sothink swf quicker - flash editing/creation tool (for the flash header and navigation I've created)

Web Position - for checking ranking on SEs for all targeted keywords and producing reports

Various video editors. I just did some filming with them for some videos for the website and for marketing (sharing on all the video sites), I used my Flip Mino HD on a tripod and will be using either my mac or one of my PCs to play with the video, so that'll govern which software I use. Probably also a little Camtasia video, some audio editing etc.

I had my own project management software created -specifically for IM business projects, so I use that to manage everything - it does what other people use basecamp for.

IM tools - I use most of Big Mikes tools for marketing purposes, distributing bookmarks, rss, articles, press releases, videos etc..

Andy

I got dreamweaver, photoshop, after effects (for videos), and, most importantly, my confidence.

What Resources Do You Use For Your Offline Marketing Ventures, What Works The Best and What Do You Avoid?

Check this service (now owned by Adobe): Adobe Business Catalyst.

As far as I understand there is a not too low ($2K-4K) setup cost to getting started with this, but I am sure your local business owners would really like to have a lot under one roof. You apy business catalyst, charge your clients whatever you like, eveything is hosted and serviced by BC but your customers see your brand only.

I didn't see this in the list, but here's a great resource for contracts and business documents:

Docstoc ? Documents, Templates, Forms, Ebooks, Papers & Presentations

They have both free and paid documents available for download. All kinds of great stuff!

Teaching them how to answer the phone usually raises gross revenues by 20+%

Hey SpyGuy is that a Bigmouth bass that you have in your avatar?

Checklists are crucial for me. Why rely on remembering the hundreds of small details if the process can be distilled to a checklist?

Ultimate Collection of SEO Checklists
(includes the "Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist")

Ultimate Collection of SEO Checklists | Atlantic BT