A week or two ago someone emailed and asked, "we have no experience with non-online marketing. Like how to reach businesses who aren't online already, or at least actively. If you don't mind me asking, how do approach this problem? Is your business mostly referrals? Do you do cold-calling? Do you advertise?"
If you're a "high tech" firm, you may be struggling with these same problems. Here's my answer to this problem:
The short answer is to find out where the customers are, and how they want to be marketed to and then go from there. You probably have a lot of local resources that can help. For example:
- Chamber of Commerce
- Small business centre
Check the yellow pages, or ask at your local library about what exists in your area. You may also find the following Web sites useful:
There's also a wealth of information in the marketing section of your local library. Books tend to be a few years old so the information is talking about techniques that were more relevant 5-10 years ago (aka before social media).
Personally: I have never paid for advertising* and never done a truly "cold call." These two techniques are virtually useless for small businesses with little to no budget. I have done: local access television interviews, radio interviews, newspaper interviews, free seminars. I've partnered with local business organizations to give even more public talks. I have a mailing list that I market to. And the list goes on.
* I have placed ads and even paid a nominal fee once. The advertising I've done has been paid for by a partner organization for a specific event and is not part of my marketing budget.
Most of what I know how to do is contained in books at the library. Start there. Not only will you find a lot of really great information, but it will also get you in the habit of getting away from the computer to do work.
