There is a form of mobile marketing that has the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of customers for your business. This type of marketing is known as vehicle wraps – although it’s sometimes called car wrap advertising or a moving billboard.
Nine out of every ten people will read advertising that’s on a vehicle. It’s an effective, fast growing and relatively inexpensive way to market your business. You’ll reach a lot of customers quickly for a lot less money than you’d pay out with other marketing ventures.
You can choose any length of time that you want for this kind of advertising. If you only want to have it on a few months, then you can do that. But if you want it on longer, a professional wrap can last as long as five years.
That’s a lot of time for a little investment. If you’re a new or small business, you can choose to have your own car wrapped. But if you can afford to hire others to take part in the campaign, then you can wrap several cars and increase your exposure.
Some businesses choose to go with a partial wrap rather than a full vehicle wrap. The best thing about a car wrap is that the advertising never stops. You’ll be able to reach people at the grocery store, at gas stations, while traveling on side roads or on highways.
You’ll even be able to reach others when you’re sitting in a parking lot. There is a good way and a bad way to create a car wrap when you want people to think about your business.
If you have a car wrap that’s bursting with details and overwhelming with graphics, it’s sensory overload to the person reading it. The car wrap should be short and to the point for your business.
You should also use a car wrap that complements your vehicle. A car wrap can give the consumer a good impression of your business and they can help brand your business as well.
With so many mass produced vehicles on the road today, they kind of all blend together. That’s why people notice cars with colors that stand out such as bright pink or purple ones.
Those cars don’t blend in with the blue, black, white, gray or red cars. Cars with graphics stand out rather than disappearing into the flow of other vehicles. Also, car wraps help keep your car’s paint looking good because it keeps the vehicle safe from nicks and scratches you might normally get from another car door bumping yours or something flying up and hitting your car.
When you want to take off the car wrap, it can be removed and won’t harm the paint job in the process.
Offline Marketing with Voicemail
Using voicemail can amp up interest in your business and drive customers your way if it’s done correctly. To start with, you have to know the reason for your marketing call.
The reason that you need to know the exact purpose is because this will help you craft a better voicemail marketing message. There are several reasons that businesses use voicemail to market their company or product.
One reason is that using voicemail marketing allows you to share news about the business. If you have a new product coming out, this is a good reason to engage in this type of marketing.
Plus, if you have prior customers and you captured their phone numbers, you’ll be able to contact them to tell them about the latest endeavor. This can be done in a “thank you for your business” type of recording.
This kind of marketing is extremely helpful to customers when you have a deal going on. If you’re closing out a particular product, you can create voicemail messages stating just that as your purpose.
Another reason can be to touch base with both former and potential customers to let them know about changes. You can also do this as a means of following up for lead captures.
Some businesses use voicemail marketing not as a sales pitch. Instead, they use it as a means to pave the way to the sale. This warms people up before the sale. There is a right and a wrong way to craft your message.
You should make sure that you don’t sound rehearsed. This turns off potential as well as returning customers. Don’t use anything that sounds robotic. You should use your natural voice in the recording and you should sound friendly.
In the message, you need to cover a few basic details. You need to clearly state who you are and the purpose for the call. Don’t try to sound cryptic. That only gets the voicemail deleted.
For example, saying something like “I’d like to talk to you about how I can save you money” doesn’t tell the customer the purpose. If you leave a callback number, you’re not going to get a response.
Your voicemail format should begin by pointing out what the customer needs – such as a new roof, a loan, a way to work from home, or whatever you know your offer covers.
Then clearly state how you can help. If you have a testimonial of someone, then you can add that and then close with your contact information. Keep the entire message between 25 and 35 seconds in length.
Otherwise, your customer loses interest. To set up a voicemail campaign, you’ll want to look for companies that specialize in guided or automated voicemail plans.
Using Offline Newsletters
Plenty of businesses are using email newsletters. While these are helpful, it leaves the offline audience untapped. That means by not having an offline newsletter, you’re missing out on plenty of business potential.
An offline newsletter can be used to let potential customers know about your business and what you can offer them. It can be used as a “don’t forget” message.
You can also use one to help guide the customer with some need they might have or you can impart information they might find helpful. An offline newsletter can basically be a letter of introduction that lets people know you’re there to help them.
What it does is it opens up a door of communication where there might not have previously been one. It’s good advertising sense. A newsletter can be in a variety of formats.
For example, a real estate agent would send out a newsletter that covered topics that were interesting to the homeowner. The newsletter might tell the homeowner how to save on electric bills by replacing old windows with new ones.
Or it might cover the topic of how staging a home will help it sell faster in a stagnant marketplace. What the newsletter is doing is offering something of value to the consumer.
You don’t want to fill your newsletter up with text that’s all about you or your company. If you do that, it will come across as a sales pitch. Remember to focus on what the customer needs first.
Then focus on how you can help meet that need. For example, if your business was an online outdoor activity company, then your newsletter could contain information on the kinds of equipment needed for a certain activity and offer safety tips.
You could also feature uplifting stories about people who succeeded in an outdoor activity or who reached a certain milestone of time doing a certain activity.
The purpose behind a newsletter is always to attract customers to your business. They should be created in such a way that they stir interest in what you’re offering.
Your newsletter should always contain numerous ways for the customer to contact you as well as any online sites you have including social media. When to send the newsletter is important.
If you send it out too frequently, it ends up looking like junk mail and the consumer will treat it that way. Most businesses that send out newsletters opt for either a monthly or every other month schedule. This helps remind the person about your business, but doesn’t overwhelm him with contact from you.
If you’re not sure how to write out your newsletter, get a few samples that appeal to you from other businesses and let those be your guideline. When you’re ready to send out the newsletter, you can use leads you already have or go through a mailing address list broker.
Marketing with Gas Pumps
Even if you have a business that offers a product or information that’s in high demand, you need to market in order to pull in new customers. Having repeat customers is nice, but without new ones, your company won’t grow.
And if your goal is to grow your company, then you have to let the people know you exist. Since not everyone uses computers and those who do don’t always pay attention to online advertising methods, it’s in your company’s best interest to take your marketing offline.
There are plenty of venues that you can use that can reach a wide variety of people. You want to make sure that you’re advertising somewhere in a way that captures attention and is done in a way so that it holds their attention.
One of these ways is by advertising at gas stations. There’s a steady stream of people fueling their cars every single day and you want to take advantage of that need in their life to get your business in front of them.
You can advertise at a gas pump using the digital technology. A lot of gas stations have pump televisions that are small screens that will advertise your business.
While the person is standing there pumping gas, you can have their attention and this gives you the chance to talk about your business and what you can offer the customer.
These commercials are usually broken into different time segments and the more time you use, the more you’ll pay in marketing costs. But you can get time that ranges from 7 to 30 seconds in most cases – although some options do give you more time.
You can also choose from JPG banners that will scroll across the screen. If you don’t want to go with the digital marketing at the pump, you can choose a stationary format.
These are usually ads that are placed in a placard holder and they’re fixed to the top of the gas pump. Other marketing means at the gas pump involve placing ads about your business along the handle of the gas nozzle so that people see your information as they pump the gas.
Another strategy that works well at gas stations is creating floor ads so that as customers walk, they see your information. You can also use window clings. Marketing at gas stations is a good way to advertise and if you look around the next time you’re at the gas station, you’ll see how many big businesses have already taken advantage of this method of getting the word out about their company.
Marketing with Magazines
When you look at magazines, you might not realize the marketing potential that they can offer you. Magazines keep selling because of the advertising dollars that they bring in.
You can reach their subscriber list as well as shoppers by presenting your business in an ad with various magazines. There are several good reasons that you should break into this advertising means.
You’ll reach customers quickly and those customers will be a targeted audience. These magazines already know how to advertise to a specific group of people. All you’re doing is hitching your wagon to that engine.
This saves you both money and time. Take a look at magazines. Just pick a few different ones and check out the advertisements in them. You’ll notice something. Advertisements in a parenting magazine will be far different from one that’s focused on a high-end magazine that’s focused on people without children.
Because while the latest baby furniture advertisement is important to a parent, it’s not to someone who doesn’t have children. So advertising baby furniture in the high-end magazine would be a waste of time and money.
Consumers already know what they’re looking for and will choose magazines based on their interests. So your business will already have better lead opportunities when you advertise in a magazine that you know will reach the demographic you’re interested in reaching.
There’s a big benefit with magazine advertising, too. Because the magazine buyer is a fan of the magazine and trusts them, they’ll tend to be more open to businesses that advertise with the magazine.
That means they’ll be more open to buying from you. You get more value for your dollar. Magazine advertising helps you create an interest in your company and gives you a better return for your money.
The magazines that you advertise in should be relevant to your business. If you’re in art, then you should look for art magazines to advertise with. If it’s photography, then look for ones that feature photography articles.
You’ll want to find a magazine that’s specific to your niche. This also gives you a better ROI because these are people who already want what your company is offering.
If you don’t find what you’re looking for with magazines that are already available, then you can create your own local magazine. Desktop publishing is easy and you can offer a quality magazine in an inexpensive way.
You can feature articles that matter to others in the same field and present new tools and updates that impact the niche. This also helps raise awareness about your business as well as brands you as an expert.
Newspaper Ads
When you’re trying to promote your business, you want to use every available means of advertising that you can afford to use. Plenty of businesses advertise through their website and through their social media sites, but offline promoting often brings in a large amount of potential customers.
It’s true that you do have to know who your target audience is just like you do with any online promoting. But, it’s helpful if you cast a wide net because you might reach someone outside your target audience who turns out to be not only a great customer but a good word of mouth referral for you.
While it’s true that a lot of the younger generation are more active online, there is plenty of potential – especially among those who don’t like to be online 24/7 – and just aren’t that tech savvy.
You don’t want to miss reaching this audience. Despite many of them now having editions online, newspapers are here to stay. There’s a good reason that people still purchase them in the stores and still have a subscription come to their home.
They want the latest news, sports, entertainment, coupons, and shopping information. This is why you want to advertise in newspapers. You don’t have to have a mailing list because the newspaper already has that and you get a guarantee that it’s going to be delivered so there’s no chance your advertising will end up getting deleted or sent to the spam box.
You can take out an ad in the classified section of the newspaper, but you can also buy a half page or page ad. Some businesses use the sales flyer inserts to advertise their business.
There’s a good reason that you want to advertise this way. If you’re doing your advertising mainly online, you’re just one of millions doing the exact same thing. By advertising in a newspaper, you’re going to stand out as one of a few hundred.
So you can increase the odds that no only is your ad seen but someone will act on it. People like the physical. That’s why print items will never be phased out. So when people see an advertisement they want to know more about or they want to act on, they’ll tear it out of the newspaper and put it up on the refrigerator or put it on their desk to remind them.
Another reason that you want to advertise in a newspaper is because when people are online, they have several things rising up competing for their attention.
There’s email, social media, chatting with friends, banking and more. So the odds of your ad holding their attention isn’t nearly as great as it is when it’s in a newspaper.
Grocery Store Billboards
There’s no doubt about it that the invention of the Internet impacted the way that businesses advertise and the way that consumers shop. You can reach millions of people by advertising online.
However, what you might be unaware of is that for every million people you can reach online, there’s a million that you can’t if you use that form of promoting your business by itself.
You might see articles or ads that talk about how if your business isn’t on social media, then you’re missing out on potential customers. While this is true, the statistics are hyped to let you think that more people are using social media than actually are.
Studies have shown that while about 90 percent of people know all about social media, there is only a 10% portion of people who actually regularly engage with this form of interacting.
So that means that by not advertising offline, you’re missing a huge slice of the customer base you could be reaching. Print advertising is still a leading factor in influencing the way that people decide to buy a product.
While it’s also true that you can reach a wide audience by advertising in newspapers, not every person in the world has a subscription to one or picks one up at the store.
However, everyone goes to the grocery store at some point. You might be thinking of actual billboards like you see driving down the street. While these are part of grocery store billboard advertising, it’s not the only medium that grocery stores use and you want to tap into that area.
You can advertise your business with ads on the grocery carts. People see these as they’re pulling a cart from the holding area and they see them as they’re putting them back.
Even customers that just zip into the store for a few items and don’t use a cart will see the ads on someone else’s cart. Another way that you can use grocery store billboards is by placing your ad on the back of the receipt.
People save receipts for tax purposes or to go over later to figure out their bank account. So the ad stays in front of the consumer. People do read the back of the receipt, which is where a lot of the advertising is done.
You can place a company ad right on those sticks that divide one order from another. As customers reach for these to put after their order, they can’t help but read the ad. You can also use graphics that cling to the tile in grocery stores and can advertise your business.
If you decide to go with this kind of advertising, make sure you choose a high-traffic store. Make sure that your graphics are professionally done and eye-catching. Finally, use copy that commands attention.
Tradeshow Exhibits
Tradeshow exhibits are a good way for you to grow an online business for several reasons. Among those reasons are that you meet others who can help with the word of mouth advertising.
Plus, you’ll meet people that you can help who will then return the favor. That’s what networking is all about. When you go to these exhibits, you’re going to want to make sure that you go to them by yourself.
There’s a good reason for this. When you show up with a friend or two or a colleague and you’re standing there having a conversation, it makes others feel more hesitant about approaching you.
That’s because people don’t want to seem rude and interrupt someone else. If it has to work out that you have to go with colleagues, make sure that you don’t stand around talking to them.
Put yourself out into the crowd and mingle. Others will find it easier to strike up a conversation with you that way. See if you can find out who’s going to be at the show.
This way, you’ll know who you need to look for before you ever arrive. You can keep an eye out and wait for the opportunity to connect with that person. Don’t wait until right before the event kicks off to get there.
You need to be mingling at any meet and greets before the show ever starts. This will help you to reach out to more of the people you want to get to because once the event is in full swing, it will be harder to get that one on one time.
Obviously, one of the most important reasons to attend the tradeshow is to get leads or referrals. You’re going to need a quick and easy way to get leads. If you have a cell phone, you can do this with an app that lets you add contact details.
What you use isn’t as important as making sure that you have something. Know the art of conversation. If you bore the other person by putting yourself center stage, they’re not going to be left with a good impression of you.
Have conversations that center around the other person and then ask for their contact details. When you have conversations that allow the other person to talk about himself, you’re going to make a better impression.
Know your sales pitch and have it down to an art. Fumbling to explain who you are and what your business does can leave a bad impression. Practice introducing yourself and being able to say what your business does in just a sentence or two.