# 10 - Off Line Promotions For Your Website

Off Line Promotions For Your Website

By Chris Maher

When you promote your site online, you are competing with an huge number of places that are vying for the attention of your customer. If you can grab their attention off line, they are more likely to come looking directly for you, by passing the clutter and distractions.

So, how can you tell the world about your site? Every kind of promotion you have ever done to make the public aware of your work should now be used as a way to get your URL in front of your audience.

Business cards, stationary, and every advertisement that you run should include your URL. Small ads that have few graphics should be used to bring customers to your full color website.

You can use magnetic signs on your car, van or truck to proclaim your website address to the world. Signs in your gallery, or on your display should invite people to your site. Print out T-shirt transfers with your URL, and use them to personalize every T-shirt you wear.

Send out a special postcard to all the customers on your mailing list, perhaps with just your URL and a brief note introducing the site to them. At the very least, when you send out a regular mailing, be sure to mention your URL.

If your product is something that has a tie in with kids, consider sponsoring a little league team, you can then have your URL on every uniform. And don't forget to tell the local paper that your team is sponsored by a website. That could get you a small article, in which your website URL could be seen by thousands.

Using a program like Microsoft Publisher, or any sophisticated word processing program, it's quick and easy to make up handouts that promote your web page. Distribute these every time you show your work, and always include two with every sold piece. Why two? Ask every customer if they would please tell a friend about your website. If they are not online, ask them to pass it on to someone who is.

Any customer with Internet access who thought enough of your stuff to buy it will probably enjoy the act of showing your work to friends. Your website makes that easy to do. And people who first visit your site on the recommendation of a friend who bought from you are likely become customers too.

You even can attach a "certificate of authenticity" to every piece you sell. This can be as simple as a small sheet of paper, describing the creation of the work, the thoughts of the artist, and contact information (including, of course, your email and URL).

Be creative with your invitations to your web site. If you make beautiful silk clothes, complement every well dressed person you see and hand them your card, asking them to check out your handmade creations.

Give the waitress your card with your tip, and tell her to check out your creative stuff, she might like the personal invitation.

How many people do you talk with every day who don't really know what you do? Or have not seen what your latest work looks like? A simple piece of paper can bring friends, co-workers, family and casual acquaintances directly to your home page.

Remember, the idea is to get qualified people to come to your website, and they are much more likely to visit if you invite them. Never before have you had the ability to show so many people your work, in such detail and depth. A simple card with your name and URL on it can bring anyone you meet to a huge portfolio of your best work in the comfort of their own home.

Don't worry that most people aren't online yet. You are part of the reason they soon will be.

This page last updated: 09/02/04

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