Think out of the box - Offline marketing for your online wholesale business

Marketing is the lifeline of all businesses, be it online or offline, businesses cannot survive without marketing. Online marketing, though comparatively new, has made its mark and one can find many people swearing on the importance of online marketing and they are absolutely right. However, this obsession with the cyber world can make the online wholesale business owners fail to realize the benefits of offline marketing. If truth be told, offline marketing can be equally effective for wholesale businesses. In fact the gaps are fast closing between online and offline marketing methods. Ideally a wholesale business must approach both online and offline marketing with the same vigor. The point is that you’ve got to reach your customers in one way or another and it doesn’t really matter if they are online or offline.
To start with, you should be promoting your URL (domain name) on all of your packaging, letterheads, ads, and anywhere else when applicable. If you are running a website that targets local customers for your wholesale supplies then you should go for classified ads that appear in the local newspaper, with your URL given in the end. It will enable the customers to come directly to your website when they need your services (instead of searching at Google and going to the top ranked websites).
You must get your wholesale business submitted into locally published yellow pages and wholesale business directories. Apart from that, you need to be active on local wholesale business scene. Take part in seminars, wholesale trade shows and other business events and get into conversations with the people coming from similar field. Hand out your business cards (with your domain) and request them to visit your website and give feedback.
Another very effective method is to distribute flyers about your online wholesale business. You can also go for the posters and stickers or even banners to promote your online wholesale business. If you are an expert providing some sort of coaching or consultancy services, you can try appearing on a radio or local channel program as an expert. Mentioning your website at the end of the show will make your website known for general public and prospective customers. Doing so will also add credibility to your business name.

You can offer a career coaching service, you can try and appear on some program for fresh graduates and offer basic tips for the starters in the wholesale business. If the tips or information shared by you were good enough, you will be having lots of customers visiting your website in the next few days, depending on how good is your website when it comes to converting visitors into customers (you need to make sure that your website has been mentioned by the anchor along with your introduction or during the show). To become a successful wholesale supplier one needs to create a blend of online and offline marketing strategies.