How do I promote my offline business using my website?

Staying with the theme we've been covering over the last few days, today I'm going to look at other ways of using Solo Build It to promote your offline business. I received this question from a student recently...

Question - We sell shades, awnings and other sun protection products through our offline business and we want to start promoting our products through our website

Answer - For your online marketing strategy, I'd recommend that you offer visitors a Free Report on the ins and outs of saving energy and all the other good things about using your products which includes some sort of time-limited bonus or incentive coupon inside to contact you to have a quote or job done.

Then once people have downloaded your Report, you can stay in touch with them by email and follow up until they convert into customers.

You can use Form Build It to capture their details (name, email, phone number, address, etc.) and then just follow up with them manually. 

I'd imagine that there's enough profit in each job to make this very worthwhile and you could just have one of your staff handle the recording of customer info into a database while you write the messages to customers and follow up. 

Even mail and phone follow up by a staff member is probably worthwhile - hit them with a multi-faceted marketing campaign once they raise their hands and say that they are interested and don't stop following up until they buy :-)

Then advertise your Report in the local papers with this style of ad - 

Home Owners - Free Report Reveals How To Save 20% On Your Heating And Cooling Bills - Forever...Visit www.yoursitename.com To Grab Your Copy

Then have an opt-in form on the home page and every other page of your site. This strategy works well for all sorts of local businesses and is worth a test to see how it goes.

Once you have people on your database you can offer them all sorts of related products and services (both yours and from other people as joint ventures) forever...:-)

For most local businesses offline testing using large ads is very expensive. 

By testing small lead generation ads and then getting people to either call you or visit the website to register for your Free Report (mail it to them with brochures and a sales letter if possible, plus give them something by email to keep them happy instantly) you can run lots of much less expensive ads, plus test headlines and ad copy, to find what works.

You can't say much in a small ad, and large ads can be a big risk if it flops, but in your Free Report and on your website you have a much room as necessary to tell people the whole story.

One thing to remember also is that you should never ask people to call for a quote - that will force them to compare you with your competitors on price instead of quality. 

This Free Report strategy is designed to differentiate you from your competitors by educating your customers to the additional value you offer over everyone else.

Normally the only thing people have to go on when they choose one business over another is price. 

By educating your prospects to your value, you eliminate the price issue and get them to focus on the value. By then offering to give people a quote so that they can compare you to others you remove this advantage and are then focusing on price as one of the main issues.

Think about what happens when you go to a doctor. You don't ask him for a quote to have a life saving operation. He is the expert and you take his advice. You get the job done and you pay the price.

I can't imagine people preferring to visit the cut price Heart surgeon who can fit you in immediately. 

By showing how much value you give compared to others you can charge higher prices, make more net profit and have a much larger smile on your face :-)

Study Dr Birch's case study in detail several times, visit his website and see how he has positioned himself as the expert in his area.

Most other dentists can do what he does, but he has put daylight between himself as his competitors because he educates his customers to his value where they don't.

You can do this for your business too...

Until next time,

Warmest regards,

P.S. Got a Solo Build It Question? Ask me here. Got problems getting the most out of your existing SBI site? Grab my free coaching course here.

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