Offline Promotion Effectiveness

Has anyone here tried offline promotion of their boards, if so what did you do for this offline promotion and was it successful?

 

I havent yet, but I am interested to know others' replies.
I am considering doing posters at places like child care centres and shopping centres etc, just need to get off my bum and get them designed and printed.

 

Umm...it takes a lot of effort to do that and I have not even seen BIG companies advertise forums offline.

 

Theres plenty of people that do it, not necessarily big companies do it especially how it doesnt cost an arm and a leg to print off say 1000 black and white postcard size leaflets.

 

I think if your forums audience can be targetted offline, then it can definately be a great form of promotion.
Like in my case, a lot of parents would see a poster for my parenting forum at child care centres, child health nurse offices, and shopping centres. So if i were to promote my forum at these places i would quite likely get a huge amount of interest.
Though if your audience is more gaming related or similar, promoting offline may not be ideal?

 

Magazines work well. I've had sites mentioned in computer magazines, and other magazines like Popular Mechanics. It has worked well for me. I do currently advertise in one small magazine for my outdoor site. First magazine with my sponsorship just came out so results are too early to tell.

 

Does it cost a lot to advertise in magazines?

 

Not cheap, that is for sure. But depends on the magazine, and how many readers they have. Some of the newer magazines are always looking articles. If you can find one in your field, try writing articles for them in exchange for a short bio at the end of the article.

I've gotten lucky and have been mentioned in the articles written by other people. But also do submit articles to magazines, and buy some advertising in others.

 

Do we not already have 10 0000000000000 threads on offline advertising?

 

Doesn't a lot of forums have a lot of threads created about the same topic?


I think that advertising in magazines might be a good way to promote my forum, but I dont think Im prepared to pay the high price, parenting magazines, there are SO many of them around, and Im sure they all charge a nice price for advertising. I might enquire though, cant hurt?

 

Try going to some of the smaller ones and see if they need people to write articles for them. If you cannot write articles, you can always hire someone to write them. Then just ask if you can get a brief bio at the end of the article and include your website.