Marketing Offline
Although Online/Digital Marketing is nowadys very much the focus of most new businesses marketing efforts, you must not forget that there is still a place for some old fashioned marketing concepts, such as business cards, brochures, and face 2 face networking which is what I have built all of my businesses on.
Business Cards
Business cards, as with all printed material, need to be consistent with your brand. Once you have your business name and your logo/tagline you can create your business cards via an online site such as www.moo.com or www.instantprint.co.uk. Whoever you use though I advise that you just order a small quantity at first e.g. 100 not 1000 as you don’t really know whether you will like them, and also at this point you don’t know many you will use. You can always re-order a larger quantity at a later date, I say this as I have in the past been unhappy with the cards even though I had proofed them, or afterwards realised I should have added further information on to them.
As a minimum a business card should include:
Business Cards
Business cards, as with all printed material, need to be consistent with your brand. Once you have your business name and your logo/tagline you can create your business cards via an online site such as www.moo.com or www.instantprint.co.uk. Whoever you use though I advise that you just order a small quantity at first e.g. 100 not 1000 as you don’t really know whether you will like them, and also at this point you don’t know many you will use. You can always re-order a larger quantity at a later date, I say this as I have in the past been unhappy with the cards even though I had proofed them, or afterwards realised I should have added further information on to them.
As a minimum a business card should include:
- Logo
- Name of business
- Your name
- Telephone
- Email address
- Website address
- Tag line (if you have one and there is enough room)
- Profession or an indication of what you do
Creating a brochure
Brochures can be useful when having face to face meetings with prospects however nowadays your website can virtually replace any paper brochures you may need, therefore think wisely before going to print.
Don’t get me wrong a beautifully produced brochure can be a real asset to leave with a prospect if it contains useful information, in an easy-to-read format, and may well include information which isn’t as easily readable on your website. However, printing costs can go in to the £100’s and possibly £1000’s, and therefore for the start-up business it may be something that you don’t need straight away.
Brochures can be useful when having face to face meetings with prospects however nowadays your website can virtually replace any paper brochures you may need, therefore think wisely before going to print.
Don’t get me wrong a beautifully produced brochure can be a real asset to leave with a prospect if it contains useful information, in an easy-to-read format, and may well include information which isn’t as easily readable on your website. However, printing costs can go in to the £100’s and possibly £1000’s, and therefore for the start-up business it may be something that you don’t need straight away.
Networking
It is no word of a lie when I say the most valuable thing I did for generating new customers when I was starting up was networking. There are only a handful of clients that I can specifically link to a networking event I have attended, but by getting out there and talking to people about what you are doing seems work really effectively, as it is not necessarily the people in the room that become clients, but they know people who know people, who know people and word gets round!
Start with finding networking events in your local area and book on to them. There are many networks out there where you have to become a member and pay an annual/monthly fee for the privilege, however most let you go to a couple of meetings first to see if you like it before having to join up. I suspect though you will find a good handful of local networking events that are just pay as you go, and don’t require any annual memberships.
It is also likely that when you go to your first networking event being a ‘Newbie’ to networking, people will tell you about many other local networking events near you that you haven’t seen online.
When attending a networking event make sure you go prepared with your business cards and prepare an elevator pitch so that when someone asks you what you do, you have a 1 minute explanation of your business that just rolls off your tongue! Many networking events will give you the opportunity to do a 1-minute round where you stand up in front of everyone and give them your 1-minute elevator pitch.
Key points to a great elevator pitch include:
You could also video your elevator pitch for practice, and if you are happy with it put it on YouTube, or Facebook. You can then use the YouTube video on your website so your website can be working for you 24/7.
It is no word of a lie when I say the most valuable thing I did for generating new customers when I was starting up was networking. There are only a handful of clients that I can specifically link to a networking event I have attended, but by getting out there and talking to people about what you are doing seems work really effectively, as it is not necessarily the people in the room that become clients, but they know people who know people, who know people and word gets round!
Start with finding networking events in your local area and book on to them. There are many networks out there where you have to become a member and pay an annual/monthly fee for the privilege, however most let you go to a couple of meetings first to see if you like it before having to join up. I suspect though you will find a good handful of local networking events that are just pay as you go, and don’t require any annual memberships.
It is also likely that when you go to your first networking event being a ‘Newbie’ to networking, people will tell you about many other local networking events near you that you haven’t seen online.
When attending a networking event make sure you go prepared with your business cards and prepare an elevator pitch so that when someone asks you what you do, you have a 1 minute explanation of your business that just rolls off your tongue! Many networking events will give you the opportunity to do a 1-minute round where you stand up in front of everyone and give them your 1-minute elevator pitch.
Key points to a great elevator pitch include:
- Tell them your name, company name and what you do
- Tell them how you help people, i.e. what pain do you take away, and what solution you provide
- Tell them why you are different to your competition – i.e. what your USP is
- Tell them who you are looking to do business with
- And finally give them a call to action – e.g., make reference to go to your website for more information, or tell them to pick up one of your flyers/business cards from the table etc.
You could also video your elevator pitch for practice, and if you are happy with it put it on YouTube, or Facebook. You can then use the YouTube video on your website so your website can be working for you 24/7.
