OMG - I'm an idiot....I mean, I'm an ex-BANKER! An ex-banker who knows a lot of other bankers, has a great relationship with one of the business bankers at my local branch, and who's neighbor works at the same bank I did and handles small corporate clients. Because the online/offline model wasn't something I'd been considering (until two friends recently approach me about it...) I never realized how valuable those contacts could be.

I wonder how many of us are sitting on goldmines like this and don't know or don't act?

Great tip, Todd!

Thanks Sojourn... Yeah you are sitting on a great opportunity and so few marketers every bother to ask...

Ask to speak with the small business loan officer...

Chris... If you land one account from among the businesses you are going to approach, you can use them to help you contact many others... by offering them an incentive... for promoting you. Good luck with it..

Todd - excellent idea here that compliments my plans to have my bank offer a free copy of my marketing book to their new and current business accounts.

Having worked in a bank years ago myself, it's a shame how banks offer so little help to actually grow a business, and I think offering them a valuable freebie they can "gift" to their clients will work to get them more business while getting my name out in front of their small business clients.

Of course you could also offer to do a seminar or lunch and learn type of thing as a free service to their clients, but I'm not a huge fan of public speaking yet and need to work my way up to that!

Cheers,

Steve

P.S. Along with buying a new business mailing list, I can't think of a better way to get to new business owners faster than through your local bank.

Steve.. thanks for the comment.. yeah maybe you could slip a CD with a short audio presentation into the front of the book... There are a lot more people listening to audios than reading books these days.. and if they like the audio they're more likely to read some.

Hey Todd,

Excellent tips man,

2 big points in here that are huge if offline marketers can grasp them.

We only really focus on bigger businesses these days offline because they simply pay back far more for most of the time a lot less hassle.

I'm so trying that banker trick, I know a few in the local area and haven't heard of that before.

Cheers

Hi Katerina, Bigger is a relative term... when I wrote this post, I think what I had in mind were businesses that have a $10 million/ year revenue stream and larger. But in the business world, that's still a pretty small company. The Point that's really important is to work with companies that are large enough to have stable cash flow. Again, that's difficult to gauge in terms of $ revenue streams.... cash flow is more a matter of management skills. Having said all this... go for bigger companies when you can. If bigger is $10 million a year then so be it... If bigger is $100 million a year that's even better.

i know what i am to do

I've found that by talking with these bankers it's often possible to arrange a get together with their business clients.

After all my services are good for his or her clients. So by offering an opportunity to discuss what internet marketing means to small businesses

Hi all, This is so interesting but who is doing it now? Just want more insights or more lessons to learn.
Im all new and gathering info at this stage.

Bankers are good resources. What I have found with approaching small to large business, they look at your own marketing efforts for your Internet Company, you better already be doing for yourself, what you promise to provide to your client. Having a sparkling LinkedIn Profile is one of most successful methods. Offline business trust LinkedIn.