I would like to not if there are anybody who have tried some sort of "offline" advertising, like adds ind trade magazines etc.

Where did you advertise, was it worth it? why/why not?

I've read a bit back in the forum, and concludet that people mostly market their product whith banner ads, search engines listings...

This is ofcause the most obvious solutions as webhosting is an "online" product, but there more than that i believe.

I would have to say that Yellow Page ads (phone book) were the BIGGEST waste of money for us. You basically get very little actual sales calls - and those that do call almost never turn into sales.

--Tina

I too would have to give yellowpages a big two thumbs down.. The most effective offline advertising I have found has been word of mouth.. Guerilla (sp?) marketing is an excellent way to get your company known, and is mainly the most inexpensive.

What cities did you run the Yellow Pages ads in? We're in Dallas and the new phone book for this year just came out and already we are seeing great response even though it's not even completely delivered yet. In fact we are still waiting to get our copy. The only reason we knew it came out was from the phone calls we have been getting.

From my experience, Internet Companies should stick to Internet ads.

For example:

What is more targeted:

The local yellow pages (potential to reach the local community only, large but localized audience, no chance of reaching outsiders)

or

Your favorite online hosting directory (unlimited reach -- the whole world, targeting is very precise.)

And let's not forget that people going to hosting directories are usualy *looking for hosting* where as someone in the yellow pages may just be flipping pages.

I have a feeling its the later :)

Originally posted by Refsoft
From my experience, Internet Companies should stick to Internet ads.

For example:

What is more targeted:

The local yellow pages (potential to reach the local community only, large but localized audience, no chance of reaching outsiders)

or

Your favorite online hosting directory (unlimited reach -- the whole world, targeting is very precise.)

And let's not forget that people going to hosting directories are usualy *looking for hosting* where as someone in the yellow pages may just be flipping pages.

I have a feeling its the later :)

I think this person is aware of the online advertising available to him/her. They are just after some ways of offline advertising.. BTW, your only allowed one URL in your signiture.. Naughty Naughty!

Chicken ok'ed it when he changed it for me a while ago :)

Originally posted by Refsoft
Chicken ok'ed it when he changed it for me a while ago :)

How much did you pay that turkey? :mad:

Just a note that I myself am unclear as to what the rule exactly means and Matt has said he will clarify it in about a week, so for now, I'm not going around removing multiple URLs in signatures (man I hope I have something better to do than that, heh... sadly I almost don't...)

-Chicken

jason what kind of comapany are you and what type of ad did you run, just curious as we have a branch in dallas, and am looking at new advertising methods

Originally posted by Noid


Where did you advertise, was it worth it? why/why not?



We advertise in our Church and school as well, it works though :D
and the best part is, it doesn't cost us a dime and the result is great..err unbelievable.


elijaH

elijah,

real dumb question...how do you advertise in church and your school...hand out flyers or something?

The yellow pages (called in Dutch "de gouden gids" -- and if you translate that they would be called "the golden guide" :o ) were no succes for us too. It costs a helluva lot of money for the little space you get and it usually don't get you any sales. Hmm, we only got sales droids, so we paid to get spammed :eek: ...

Okay, but what should you do? Well, what about sponsoring a local church or other organisation who needs to stand out, but don't have any money to do so. We've sponsored those (also several lan-parties and communities -- those are more related with the kind of services you are offering) and the response is great.

Originally posted by Frosty
how do you advertise in church and your school...hand out flyers or something?


:D i just tell them to check us out + hand out a business card ;) and so far it works.


elijaH

church and school is a great place to advertise , mostly non-profit sites that pay on time with no problems --when u advertise online you get all kinds of clients comin to you some you like some you wish they never sign up


Mas

Originally posted by airtime166
...online you get all kinds of clients comin to you some you like some you wish they never sign up


Mas, you are sooo.. correct.

Although, most of our clients, we got online are great ,pleasant to deal with customers there are some out there who have the ballZ to order a dedicated server with a stolen credit card, even our payment processor Revecom argued <which will be replaced w/ our new mer.acc. EchoInc.> said the transactions were valid<ugh> and we told them it isn't. Of course, we have a way to check on things ;)


elijaH

Originally posted by Refsoft
From my experience, Internet Companies should stick to Internet ads.
...
Your favorite online hosting directory (unlimited reach -- the whole world, targeting is very precise.)
...
And let's not forget that people going to hosting directories are usualy *looking for hosting* where as someone in the yellow pages may just be flipping pages.
...
I have a feeling its the later :)


Yeah, but you're probably biased. :)



Offline advertising seems foolish. When I'm looking for web hosting (this was a while ago...), I certainly don't think "Oh! The yellow pages! Of course!". If I want an internet thing, I look on the internet. If I need to find, say, a place to download files, I don't look in the yellow pages. I look on the Internet. Also radio ads seem like a bad idea. When I hear an interesting ad I try to remember the website/phone number, but I can never remember it. Too much else going on. If offline anything, handouts seems best.

Not that either of these methods have worked for me. :(

I heard that an internet research firm mentioned that radio advertising for online companies is very effective, because a majority of internet users listens to radio while surfing the net.

Hello

In fact about %96 of our sales is from local market and I am sure that only offline promotion is able to increase it.

Sales on the internet is a little risky (fraud, late payments, overage,...) but local market is very safe.

Most of our sales is to small companies who want to have a small web site.

Mac