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Chapter 12 - How to Use Traditional Offline Tacticsl

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Although this book is about Internet marketing, I do not want to imply that traditional offline tactics are not important or to be used. In fact, it is imperative that you use all of the tactics and strategies available to you, whether online or offline.

Most small businesses are already doing a great job of offline marketing. That is why they can compete and win against the big guys. Why not extend and leverage these offline activities by including the capture of e-mail addresses? Remember it is the list, stupid in any marketing activity, online or offline, and you cannot go wrong.

A Hand Written "Thank You"

Network events, face to face sales calls, phone calls, friends and family, kiosks, trades shows and conferences are all places where you can collect a business card with an e-mail address. Add them to your contact list. But do not send e-mail yet.

Use this special tactic for casually collected e-mail addresses. Send a personal handwritten "thank you".

There are a number of things you can do with this handwritten note.

1. Give a referral to the contact. Tell them who the referral is and why you think they should call the referral.
2. Notify them of an upcoming event, give a complimentary pass and offer to keep them in the loop for future news. Follow up with an e-mail or phone call.

Personal follow up is a secret my Mom did teach me, although I have trouble following through with it. Regardless, this one offline activity will generate a ton of business for you if you employ it. You will stand out like a giraffe in a field of mice. Watch what happens. You will be amazed at the referrals that will come your way when you marry this traditional approach to your Internet marketing tactics.

TeleClass

TeleClasses are a great way for adults to learn online. If you are not familiar with the term, a TeleClass is simply a special phone line that lets more than two parties have a conversation. Often they are called bridge lines and the standard bridges can accommodate up to 30 participants who dial in at the same time to the same phone line. The leader or sponsor of the class then usually uses the hour to inform and interact with the entire group.

While TeleClasses benefits adult learners, there are some great reasons you should include them as part of what you use in your Internet marketing strategy.

For the small business, a TeleClass is a great way to:
 - Educate, inform and up-sell existing customers.
 - Generate leads and pre-sell potential customers.

Some formats of TeleClass include a single session, or a series of regular conferences. It really depends on what you want to accomplish with the class. For lead generation you can use the Free Introduction approach. Market your free TeleClass on the main page of your website. If visitors want to participate, they have to register by giving their e-mail addresses to you.

Clarifying the term free is probably a good idea at this point. While you are not charging the participant for a free TeleClass, they will be charged a long distance fee. Depending on where they are located, they will have to pay their regular long distance charges that are included on their phone bill.

Free Bridge Line

I use a free bridge line service for my TeleClasses. Visit www.mrconference.com for details and your own private bridge. MrConference is located in Florida so that is where your long distance charges will be calculated from.

A couple of different TeleClass strategies can be considered. If you are looking for new customers or leads, I suggest you use the Expert model. Have an expert (you) in one of your products or services get on the phone and do a free presentation on the conference line. Case studies, research results, product releases, best use, and how to topics all do well in this one-hour format.

Two other formats you can consider may also include a revenue component. Running a University or Support strategy involves running a series of TeleClasses over a period of time. This strategy tends to be used more on existing customers or contacts as a way to introduce additional products and services that complement what they may already have purchased. Selling to larger companies is also effective in this format. Additional users and influencers within an organization are often included in these sessions. More complex products and services that require multiple people to be educated can benefit from this series approach.

TeleClass Content

To use the TeleClass strategy correctly you need some pages on your website. Tie the TeleClasses to your events calendar and use the following format. Each class should use a consistent outline.

 - Title:
 - Who
 - Should Attend?
 - What You Will Learn:
 - Other Features:

Make sure that the descriptions are keyword rich. Remember the content of your main theme site is meant to attract search engines and provide valuable information to your readers. Keep archive pages of all your events. As you become more sophisticated, you can also archive the actual TeleClass. Now what was done as a lead generator and offered for free becomes a potential revenue stream. For example, I created an MP3/real audio/Windows media version of my 60-minute courses.

Whatever strategy you employ, make sure that you require a valid e-mail address with the registration. A simple way to make sure you are getting a valid e-mail address is to set up the registration through e-mail. They send you an e-mail with the subject line TeleClass Registration and you return the message with the details of the TeleClass. Include the correct time, phone numbers, any pre-class reading or work and support information in the e-mail. This way you can make sure that the e-mail address is valid.

If you want to take your TeleClass to the next level visit my www.teleclasspresenter.com site. This simple service allows you to control a live slide or PowerPoint presentation on your participants browser during the call.

Whatever you do with your TeleClass, make sure that it is TeleClasses. It takes time for you and your prospective customers to get used to seeing the TeleClass offered as an event. Make a commitment to run the same TeleClass over a period of months before you give up on it. For example, run the same class at different times each month or run a series of different classes on the same day of each month so visitors and existing clients become conditioned to you.

Micro CDs Business Cards

AOL carpet bombed North America with CDs and became the brunt of many table coaster jokes. They also have more subscribers than any other Internet provider in the world.

While you and I cannot carpet bomb North America with CDs you may want to consider making your own CDs or a MiniCD business card. CDs can be made inexpensively on any home PC and you can include collateral and links back to your upcoming events and past articles/information on your website.

The business card shaped CDs fit into a regular CD-ROM drive. In addition to being just like a regular business card, they hold a ton of information - 40 megabits or the size of a small hard drive. There are vendors that provide these types of MiniCD business cards at a reasonable price and what makes them really exciting is how much pass through you can get with their use. Forty megs is more than enough room to include audio and video sales collateral, demo products and other content for your prospects.

If you use a CD format to provide collateral always include:
 - A requirement somewhere in the CD for the user to e-mail back to you to get more information or a password that unlocks more information. - Links back to the important parts of your main theme site, the events page and the content pages. - Information that is valuable to them. The CD should not be about you and your company. It should be about them and how you can fix their problems.

If you have an outbound sales team or are selling a product/service that requires lots of value added information, this approach will work well. You re paying for business cards already. Find out if it makes sense for your outbound field reps to carry a secret weapon: your Internet marketing strategy on a CD.

Press Releases

It is often been said that all press coverage is good coverage and that has every small business owner wishing they had more. PR or press releases can be cheaper than advertising, so there is a tendency for a small business to just blast them out.

Why is PR important to your small business? Publicity is the most cost-effective marketing tool there is and it is the only part of a marketing strategy that builds credibility. Many small businesses are innovative up-start companies that are relatively unknown. For you to gain an edge over your competition, it is vital that you build credibility through publicity.

PR is always preferable to Advertising PR Builds Credibility.

Advertising controls the message while PR does not, and because of this, PR creates credibility. Many times readers see an ad and they know that what they are reading is just overblown hype. Most readers are more likely to trust independent authorities such as reviewers, columnists, reporters or broadcasters. Without a doubt, it is these same authorities who are directly influenced by good public relations and specifically, a well written press release.

Key Point!
Small Business Have to Use
Press Releases Differently to Be
Effective!

A well written release can dramatically increase your sales, expose your company to the masses, and greatly enhance the image of your business or products. Credibility is the one thing that can win the customer s heart and pocketbook at the same time. Nothing builds more credibility than a well written press release that gets picked up by the media.

Press releases are the way to go, so start sending them. You will find lots of ways to distribute them online. Many sites will have claims similar to the following.

Use a press release to get the word out to the news media about your company, product and/or service! The most powerful and effective promotion you can get is provided FREE by local and national media for businesses and organizations with newsworthy information. Here is an example of a service that does just that.

Send your release to over 35,000 journalists and media outlets! Take the hard work out of submitting your press releases. With a database of more than 10,000 journalists, reporters and writers, we ensure that your message reaches the right people.

Distribute your announcement to applicable media outlets in our database comprising over 30,000 journalists, news desks and media contacts, as well as major wire services and content syndicates.

As a FREE bonus, we also convert your release to a news article and archive it on our website, and submit the news article page to major search engines. Plus, your news is re-distributed to WebClipping.com subscribers at no extra cost!

For only $300, your press release will be sent to target Channel(s) of your choice including top daily and national newspapers, top industry and segment publications, TV, radio, and top online news sources. We have over 35,000 opt-in journalists (and growing), making our database of subscribers one of the largest available.

There are a number of these services available online that make sending bulk press releases easy. Money, from $200 to thousands of dollars, will get a press release distributed online. Do a search on how to write a press release and you can find plenty of templates to follow if you want to write your own one-page- release.

Most small businesses do not have the money to hire a PR professional so here are some secrets that you should know about.

If you are serious about using the press to build buzz and drive new visitors to your main theme site your first goal is to understand how PR works on the Internet. The format of the press release has changed to reflect Internet time, how reporters become aware of you and finally why they should trust you. Writing a traditional offline press release for online distribution will get you nowhere fast.

I figured this out the hard way. After 6 months of following the advice of experts. I had sent eight excellent press releases across the country using a large distribution list. I even had a business associate who is a big company marketing VP review them before I sent them out. I got one call from a trade journal trying to sell me ad space.

The Internet has rendered traditional made-for-print press releases obsolete.

What is needed now is a made-for-the-Internet press release format. The only purpose of the Internet press release is to get your database of press contacts to go to a direct sales page on your website. It is the same sales process that you use with customers, only you are selling a story and the reason that the press should cover you.

Think of the web press release as a teaser to get a reporter or editor to your website for additional information.

By the end of this course you will have a host of new tools in your PR arsenal and new ways to approach getting name recognition and increasing sales.

You need a new set of tools for Internet PR

E-mail Pitch Letters

Never use the traditional written press release format. Use some of these tactics to get the click.

1. Have the URL link to the pitch page in the first line of the Internet release.
2. Use your: What is in it for me, who is it for, and what problem does it solve and why is it different, paragraph.
3. Remember the only purpose of the Internet release is to get them to the pitch page on your site.
4. Bulleted points and a list of benefits would be much more effective.
5. The press contacts are reading your release in an e-mail or browser window, not a piece of paper. Let the message fit the medium.
6. Use alternate types of story pitch direct sales pages. Try different formats like: standard press release, a Media Alert, a Top 10 List or a direct sales letter.

Key Point!
An E-mail Pitch Letter is the
Best Way to Get Noticed by
Your Target Media!

The bottom line is that you have to think like an online reporter.

Key Point! An E-mail Pitch Letter is the Ultimately, the pitch page or story that you want covered has to be about real news and not blowing your own horn. What is it about? What do you do that is of real interest to the public and how can you deliver this story in a professional way?

If your goal is to have your website covered in the press, remember that:

1. Reporters do not care about helping you.
2. Reporters are irritated by PR people and they are pretty much sick of it.
3. Reporters do not care about your website, your book, your products or your life story, unless......you are providing something that helps make their job easier -- that is, a really good story.
4. If you do have a real good story reporters love you; they love to take your calls and will be all over your website, products and services.

To identify what your story is going to be, look back at your niche and the Big Fat Claims that you can make. Create categories and a series of stories around your claims or niche. Remember, the press is looking for a story that will be good for their readers and editors. They want the readers to stop and say, Hey, I did not know that. I can use that idea!

So where do you go from here?

 - Develop some story ideas from the reporter s perspective.
 - Create a single page on your website with the story idea detailed in full.
 - Create an Internet Press Release
 - Use your database of press contacts to decide who is going to get your Internet press release.
 - Send your releases and track who visits the pitch page and follow up.

Your Current Offline Database List

What other lists do you already have in your business? Do you have a list of customers in your accounting software? How about your support department? What about your technical staff or R&D? Most businesses contain many silos of information about their customers or potential buyers. This may include suppliers and vendors. Do not leave any stone unturned. Create a single master database of anyone that you have contacted in the past.

This is what the CRM or Customer Relationship Management movement is all about and I can tell you from experience that getting a handle on your customer relationships when your business is small is easier than when you are forced to find out who you are already doing business with.

It is OK that you do not have an e-mail address for these contacts. The important thing is that you have the contact.