Drive traffic to your geo domain web site.
I’ve been researching offline promotion methods as I prepare to launch my Lakeway geo web site. Here are the ideas I’ve come up with so far:
1. Sports team sponsorship. Lakeway has one high school, and the city rallies around its sports teams. I’m working to get football stadium signage, program advertising, etc.
2. Billboards. If you want to make a big splash and get noticed, consider renting a billboard for a couple months. In some cities prices are depressed right now; if you find an empty billboard you can probably bargain. It looks like I’ll have to pay $2,000-$5,000 a month in the area I’m focusing on.
3. Chamber of commerce sponsorship. Talk to the local chamber of commerce about sponsoring an event or mixer. This will also give you a way to meet potential advertisers.
4. National Public Radio. If you listen to NPR then you’re familiar with its short “sponsorship” blurbs during shows such as All Things Considered. I’m looking into pricing right now but I believe it’s reasonable assuming you want to target an entire metro are.
5. Grassroots marketing. T-shirts, bumper stickers, flyers at community events, etc.
6. (Bonus) Business cards. Get business cards printed that include your city domain name and logo. Tack them up on notice boards, include them in the credit card folder after paying for meals at restaurants, etc.
The challenge, of course, is it’s harder to monitor offline advertising results than online advertising.
Anyone have other ideas that have worked?
David J Castello says
Andrew:
These are all excellent suggestions. #5 costs nothing to do through CafePress.com and you’ll make money to boot.
jaime says
Very good suggestions. We have also had stores put up our sign in their windows in exchange for discounts on advertising on our site.
Rob Sequin says
I have never done this but I would love to some day…
Take 100 $1 bills and write your domain on them or attach a removable sticker with your domain name on the sticker.
Go to a local event or convenience store and just give out the one dollar bills.
I think you’ll get A LOT more than $100 worth of viral marketing out that that mini-marketing campaign.
Everybody who got a dollar bill will tell at least one other person that “This guy gave me a dollar bill today and it said…”
That’s worth a dollar.
Andrew Allemann says
Great ideas guys.
Gordon says
great ideas, a few random comments:
*when working with the chamber of commerce – ask them for suggestions with your site. They’ll feel involved and happy that you are asking. IMPORTANT – get them to link to you.
*Help promote local non-profits on your site or in your emails (or just make a donation). Ask for a link from their site. Links from the local animal shelter, or PTA group will look very, very good to google.
* Offer to host pages for community groups for free. Every time they send someone to their website, they are going to your website. (lakeway.com/spca)
*As far as offline promotions, i’ve done a lot of things and you would be surprised at the online-offline disconnect. Getting someone to remember your website and then go there is harder than it looks. You could walk on the street and give out 500 flyers and you might not get 3 people to your website (a dollar bill is different, but you get the drift). I’ve also done radio advertising and had the same general experience.
#6 – you could also put something on the back that is useful to people sp they’ll keep it in their wallets (local phone #’s, subway maps etc)
Samit says
Been doing it for over 10 yrs for mumbaimart.com – what works best for us is local event sponsorship.
From school/college programs to other cultural and holiday events, eyeballs add up.
Hope it helps, cheers!
Steve M says
Rob–great idea. I’d suggest trying to get the local newspaper and/or other media outlets to cover such a money-giveaway “event” (though 1,000 or more dollar bills would be better).
May need to check on the legality of defacing US money, though. I know in years past it was illegal except with “collectible” (i.e. old) money, but it seems I remember a change in law to make doing so O.K.
Andrew Allemann says
I’m thinking about asking the high school if the “official” team schedule could be a page on my site.
SL says
One of the more straightforward ways of bridging offline to online is covering events. There’s a more personal link to the community instead of the static info-only feel. And it’s relatively cheap especially if the pictures are solicited from the attendees, vs. covering the event yourself. See the “photos” section at topsinlex.com for a good example of how this is implemented.
Ross says
Andrew,
Here you go:
http://www.ltisdschools.org/laketravis/icalsw/rss.asp?calID=0
D says
I believe best way to advertise online project is online not offline.
Bret Fausett says
Speaking of city names, you’ll be interested in this.
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2009/d2009-0036.html
One of the worst UDRP decisions I’ve seen in a long, long time. Domainer with parked pages on LomaLinda.net and LomaLinda.org lost both domain names to a hospital that did not even have a trademark on “Loma Linda.” A real head scratcher.
Gareth plummer says
How about printing postcards or small flyers and distributing those through peoples letter boxes or on peoples cars.
Duane says
Great ideas Andrew,
I will be be launching 3 Metropolitan City’s in Europe within the next 5 weeks. I have done off line advertising with a domain before. It’s not cheap but it is defiantly a eye catcher.
It’s a scroller system for the backside of trucks. I booked 40 Trucks that travel in Germany mainly in Metropolitan areas and put the name on the backside. They are on the road for 16 hours a day.
When you travel down the road or your in a traffic jam or just walk by one of these trucks you notice these scrollers ( 2 meter x 2 meter) when they start flipping in front of you.
Here is a link to see what they look like:
http://www.bma-systems.com
GenericGene says
I am of the view that radio and bill board marketing in the local area that you are trying to generate business is a great way to promote your site, however, generic domains on the net reduce the cost of having to promote them as much as non generic sites.
This would also depend on your budget.
I use simple photo copy flyers and cold call, in the local area, many like this personal contact –
Stephen Douglas says
@Rob…
SWEEEET idea. Use address labels already printed using Avery label templates that come with every Word processor, and then take an hour to apply them to 100 – 300 one dollar bills… then hand them out.
That is GENIUS. Have a few friends come over with the offer of free beer, and just apply these labels to all the $1 bills. Try $500. Can you imagine FIVE HUNDRED one dollar bills circulating around with a nice 8160 Avery label on each of them?
Kudos Rob.
Rob Sequin says
Thanks. It does seem like $500 well spent so long as you are distributing them to your target demographic.
Might even be a newsworthy event 🙂
Stephen Douglas says
@Rob
That’s just it, what is a domainer’s target demographic? If you have a full portfolio with over 50 categories, you should hit several of those targets!
You know, I think every domainer should start doing this with all the bills they have, or get, for the next six months:
1) For every dollar/s bills you have right now, and in the future, lay them out on the table
2) Get Avery 8160 address labels and print “Domain Names Are Solid Marketing Investments. Domain investors are making as much as $50k a month and more. For More info, contact “XXXXXXXXX@xxxxx.com” Fill in the “x” with your email address.
3) Use the money with the labels applied everywhere you go. Stop using your debit/credit card. Withdraw money from the ATM or when you make a purchase with your debit card, ask for $1 bills with a $20 or more “want cash back” request if you do use your debit card.
If every domainer started doing this, imagine how many bills would be circulating with this type of domain promotion, and it would be cool if another domainer eventually received a bill from another domainer with their label on it… heh
10,000 domainers sending out 100 $1 bills with labels on them… 1 million bills circulating. Think the media would pick up on this?
Gordon says
Stephen,
I think doing something like that would stink like MLM to anyone who saw the advertisements.
Gordon
Stephen Douglas says
Comparing domain investment info to MLM info is like comparing a BMW to a Gremlin.
Anything done to promote the value of domain names to endusers is a MAJOR GOAL for all domainers. Rob’s idea is what’s called “guerilla marketing”.
Got any better ideas?
Memphis Domain Broker says
I had a stamp made (@Vistaprint) and stamp every bill that comes through my hand.
Very Good for Traffic.