Is free advertising effective?

[budin]

Originally Posted by webcosmo

I am up for any marketing thats free and brings results.
Business cards is a proven way of off line marketing. I use it.

yea..I read this method on John Chow's blog.. it is a proven off line marketing technique plus it cheap too

[otto101]

Thanks folks for the input

[rembrant]

As my father always tell me, "do best in whatever thing you do best." He always tells me that even when I was very little and now I know I fully understand what it means. It means that whatever you, you will succeed so long as you do your best on the thing you love to do most.

How does this apply to offline marketing? It has everything to do because people will know that your service or products that you are giving them is of the best quality. Your good services will become a word of the mouth and it will spread in your area. Focus on something that you do best on small area and in time it will expand itself.

I know of people who started their business without enough money to pay for advertisement but after a couple of years, they are very popular in our area because we know that their services are better than all the rest.

[Janna122003]

There's lot of free online classifieds to promote your services or products. Try to promote on classifieds that has high traffic like craigslist and gumtree.

[newyork123]

the basics needs to be done e.g. business cards and <url removed> administration should sent users to your website.

[MrCat]

IMO, free promotion techniques are very effective. Done properly and consistently, it will bring in traffic to your site. But what draws the line is getting TARGETED TRAFFIC. It is a bit harder to get these traffic through the free methods. There are several niches that are very hard to market. If I were to advertise a site with a budget, I would always opt for Pay-Per-Click(PPC) as this would yield the proper traffic. Another great way of getting traffic for me is through targeted link backs - from sites, forums and directories. A combination of these two ways will bring in traffic that would most likely convert rather than just drawing random traffic

[f1rm]

Originally Posted by otto101

Advertising for free could takes some time.Does anybody do offline marketing besides using free online marketing?
Business cards can be effective to use for offline marketing.
Does anybody use biz cards for a marketing tool?Your input appreciated.

Of course, websites can be promoted through offline marketing as well. Having offline contacts who are also webmasters is definitely a huge advantage (after all, asking for a link via e-mail is nothing compared to talking to the webmaster and explaining your project in person).

Alan Johnson

[@Jason]

yeah its way more effective than payed advertising if done right

[Allison]

You should check out <link removed>. I just started working for the company and I’m not trying to advertise : ) but it seems to be exactly what you’re looking for. The platform makes the creation and distribution of video ads extremely quick and simple. On top of that, it’s relatively inexpensive.

If you’re at all interested let me know! You can reach me through email at <removed>.

[2intrigue]

Often times advertising with flyers or business card has the tendensy to discouarge your progress quickly, due to negative people. A benefit of online vs. offline is that you don't personally receive the rejection so your progress can proceed as planned.

I will never forget the feeling I felt after passing out business cards to strangers and finding the majority abandon in the bathroom and the parking lot.

My vote is to save yourself the personal rejection...place a ad in like a weekly publication

[saj]

Originally Posted by otto101

Advertising for free could takes some time.Does anybody do offline marketing besides using free online marketing?
Business cards can be effective to use for offline marketing.
Does anybody use biz cards for a marketing tool?Your input appreciated.

its Depends upon which types of methods being used ????

[TrafficLicious]

It really comes down to your niche at times. If you're selling golf related stuff, hit on golf related offline events and so on and so forth.

To answer the original question, yes ... free advertising is definitely effective when done right. Cheers!

[rbokros]

I have found that any offline marketing requires a good bit of follow-up. I have joined the local Chamber of Commerce herer where I live and use that very well. The key to networking is that you make a pesonal contact with your potential customer and you continue to make your presence known. I attend the networking events often and people understand what you do and get to know you....as with any marketing, it takes a little bit of time to get your foot in the door, but it has turned out to be very successful for me. I do this on top of what I do online. Look for local Business After Hours or Networking Events in your metro areas...you can touch a ton of people this way.

[tampa_man_33]

Won't ever hurt except the time and effort you put into so do it as a trial and error and see what works.

[Slugger00001]

yea if it brings results

[geurbie]

Free works wonders. We built are little business using free resources. I have previously been a marketing director, a sales manager, a radio and print ad salesperson back when you didn't have free resources. Believe me free is very good and effective when done correctly. I will not use these old line marketing methods again.

We have just spent are first dollars after a year online for advertising. Even that purchase was under $40.00. Our investment has only been time so is ROI is tremendous.

[yool007]

that's kool

[Kurt Henninger]

I use business cards for marketing. They are called sizzle cards. Essentially what you do is peak their interest with something or some advertisement on the card, along with a link to your site. It CAN work wonders, and is relatively cheap.

[Natural Elements]

Business cards are the most cheap and effective way to market your company off line.

Never leave home without business cards in your wallet or purse, you will be surprise how sucessful it is.

[geurbie]

We do an awful lot of business mixers. As an SEO company, many people need our service to increase website traffic but they don't know what it is called. So we do mixers to educate the consumer and promote ourselves.

I'm leaving for one in a few minutes.