In a previous story, we disussed about whether offline marketing is important. We discussed how, for the right kind of site, the synergy between offline and online marketing can propel a business to new heights. In this article, we look at how newspapers and magazines can be used to further your online business.

Newspaper classified advertisements have been found to have a very high ROI for sites related to jobs, games, secondary education, business opportunities, financial advice type of sites. This would be so due to the cross section of people who would be interested in these topics. With the price of a classified ad being very affordable, it makes sense to go this route to drive up sales/traffic. Based on a trial ad, you may go for a 3/6 week insertion in your local city/state editions or even in the national editions. Usually there are good discounted schemes for ads that appear over a period of time across multiple newspaper editions. 

Magazines are also a good way to build up your brand image. Though much more expensive than newspaper classified ads, these have a longer life. If your site caters to a very segmented market, either geographically or niche-wise then it may make sense to invest in a magazine classified/ad. Since magazines are usually published weekly/fortnightly/monthly, you would get more distributed traffic than in a newspaper ad.

We will continue to look at other offline marketing strategies in the coming weeks. Â