Wow -- you finally have your website completed! Now comes the flurry of activities for getting it noticed on the Internet. You'll be submitting to the search engines. You may be blogging. You may be submitting to the directories. And you may be promoting through articles, amongst other things. Internet marketing is a lot of work that involves patience and persistence. The results are not always seen immediately.



But there's one method of Internet marketing that is often overlooked and your SEO expert may not tell you about it. Chances are, you may see immediate traffic by using this strategy. Why is it overlooked? It might be because this marketing method is not directly related to the Internet.

The method is marketing your site offline. The old, tried and true offline marketing strategies can often deliver many targeted visitors to your website in a short amount of time, particularly if you are announcing your URL to people with whom you already do business. The beauty of offline marketing is that it is simple. You don't have to spend hours and hours finding link partners, writing articles or submitting your URL.

The most basic form of offline marketing is to include your URL on your business cards, on your letterhead, on your fax forms, and on your printed fliers. If you use any printed business forms, including sales receipts or estimates, be sure to include your website address.

If you give press releases, be sure to include your business URL in the contact information. That way, people who are reading your press release can easily find your online presence to learn more about your expertise, services and products. If these readers have taken the time to look at your website because of the press release, you are attracting a highly targeted and responsive audience.

Promotional gifts such as coffee mugs, calendars, t-shirts, hats, key chains or other items, are an excellent form of offline Internet marketing. If someone is drinking coffee from your promotional mug every day, he's going to be seeing your URL every single sip! If you mail Christmas or holiday cards to your clientele, be sure to include your web address.

You may have a customer list that is responsive to catalogs or newsletters that you periodically mail. Announce your URL in your mailing, along with a special promotion code or number that will give your loyal subscribers discounts for online sales.

If you have an ad in the yellow pages of your local phone directory, be sure to include your website address with your company information. Other forms of printed advertising, such as magazines or newspaper ads, should also include the web address. Of course, if you advertise with billboards, there's another opportunity for offline website announcements.

Provided that your domain name is one that people can remember, include it in your television or radio ads. Long and complicated domain names do not work too well in this method of offline advertising.

Do you affix labels or tags to your products? Or require your employees to wear uniforms? This is another opportunity to add your URL to your offline signage. Add the URL to all printed labels and uniform logos. If you drive a company car or have a fleet of vehicles, you might want to include the company's URL in your vehicle signage. The possibilities for announcing your site offline are endless.

Wherever your company name is printed or announced in the "physical world," be sure to include your URL. Since many of these offline methods involve customers or clients who have a working relationship with your business, this may be your most targeted and responsive Internet audience.

People like to learn more about your company by browsing your website. By marketing offline, you will attract people who are already interested in your company and what you have to offer. This is an invaluable component to Internet marketing.