offline marketing..misleading?

They are conning you to think you don't need this or that. Come on...as a marketer you should have all round knowledge of marketing and if you can't drive basic traffic then forget it. So when Google said that a very high percentage of searches are for local markets, I guess those offline authors forgot about that.

Offline marketing for small business is not just about stinking seo, ppc, email, and all the other terms that author uses. Your ideas don't even have to be IM related as long as you can increase sales.

My aunty owns a restaurant and I gave her a tip on how to increase sales without more customers. Basically have a competition between the waiters. Whoever sells XYZ and first one that reaches 10 will get X $ more. She had no idea of this, you see its not just about internet marketing. Basic marketing skills will work. Teach upsells, cross sells etc

Don't be fooled that IM skills is all you're gonna bring to the table. Be a people person and really grow the business IM wise as well as skill wise.

Jay Abraham said, it doesn't matter how you get to profit as long as you do.

I think you're confusing 'offline marketing' with whatever the people/products you're talking about are selling.

Of course you need to know SEO, PPC etc if that's at all part of what you're offering to sell others.

What you're probably seeing is people referring to outsourcing most of the work so that you personally don't have to deliver the service you're selling your clients.

That's fine and you can do that but I would suggest that not understanding something which you're supposed to be selling is just stupid and at some point likely to make you look like an idiot when you're asked about it by a client you're trying to sell to

The answer with all of these things is - you need to know...... whatever is appropriate for your personal business model. No-one else can tell you what that is.

@Michael - Nice response.
My take on this is that if a business is going to take you seriously, they will probably want to see a website that you currently have up and running. Secondly, they will probably like to see some case studies of other businesses that you have helped and results that ensued from your help.

Most offline business owners work very different than online business owners and for the offline owner it mostly boils down to - How many more clients can you help me get? How much more revenue can I expect to see from your help?

If you are trying to sell SEO, PPC, or PPV training to an offline business; you had better be an expert at it or you are just wasting your time and the offline businesses money and time.

Just as Michael was saying, there are plenty of other things the offline business owner should learn other than SEO, PPC, and PPV.

How to begin capturing the name and email of their clients.
- Ask people and give them a coupon if they do.
How to follow up with those names and emails and get a response.
-Use aweber, IContact, or another one of the hundreds of autoresponder services.
How to leverage social media.
- Set up facebook fanpage, twitter, etc...
How to add upsells and downsells.
The importance of holding sales and special deals.
How to truly capitalize on the "impulse purchase."

and much more.

The internet has made business be an entirely new ballgame and offline business owners must begin harnessing its power in order to keep up.

My biggest recommendation is to not walk into a business and say, "Hi, I'm an internet marketing guru and can help your business out."

If you talk to business owners in a casual environment and ask what they think about internet marketing, many won’t even get what that is… and others think “just some other fly-by-night company selling me some garbage about about SEO or something”.

Bottom line is, you are looking to help a business increase their revenue and gain more clients, educating them about the power of advertising on the internet, and giving them new ideas on how to get more people to look at their products and services.


Refer to yourself as a Business Consultant and not an internet marketer.


just my 2 cents...

No matter what, you need to be able to speak intelligently about online marketing. Some of the people I run into actually do know a little about online marketing. And, the people that actually buy my services typically know more about it and use ppc to drive traffic.

It's a tough sell these days and it helps to be able to communicate effectively about it.

As I said, more and more potential clients I talk to have an idea about SEO and online marketing. In fact, I usually target people that have used it and that have a website because they already know that it can help them.

I can only speak to my success with Offline Marketing. I educated myself with SEO, SEM and SMM(Social Media Marketing) and learned these skills at an expert level. Then I build up my online resume including LinkedIn James Hickey - LinkedIn so when a potential client does their due diligence and asks for references, I can provide that to them. Then...you have to perform...dominate...month to month. When you get to this point, you can charge $1,500 up to $5,000 per month depending on the clients needs.

Essentially, what OFFLINER's are doing, is taking all their Offline Marketing knowledge (know-how, that, over a period of time, they probably took for granted -- thinking EVERYONE KNOWS THIS STUFF) and began using it on brick and mortar owners who want to tap the online prospects interested in their biz service or products.

I think outsourcing is a HUGE part of most businesses now, you can't grow without delegating tasks.

However, regarding the points risen in the OP,

I strongly believe that if you want to offer online marketing services to offline businesses, you need to at least have an understanding of exactly what works and what doesn't. This could mean doing the first few jobs yourself etc.

Having knowledge of what it takes to optimize a local site to the top of the search engines makes outsourcing easier because you know what needs to be done!

I outsourced web design from day one, but I made it my goal to learn about the process of building the websites I was offering, I feel it makes it easier to outsource this way, and also SELL, because you understand it.

Although, you probably could outsource everything without having any knowledge, I am much more comfortable outsourcing when I know how it works.

Just my opinion though, I am sure there are many here that have outsourced from day one!

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