> I noticed the developing trend of
> integrating online marketing with local
> offline businesses (Please see the postings
> on this forum with subject lines:
> "Need suggestion on reaching local
> businesses"
> and
> "I smell a "Hybrid" business
> trend developing..."

> I am trying to assemble some market data on
> this topic. Is there anyone who has related
> experiences?

I'm a big believer in off-line marketing in order to generate on-line traffic. I've worked with a great many businesses that have been doing that for years.

On-line offers cheap order processing.

Off-line is needed to generate prospects...something the Internet (due to many reasons) is not good at (for most products and services).

However, most people will not spend the money to prospect off-line. They like the 'free' prospecting opportunities on the net, like search engine optimization, leaving messages on forums, free classifieds and what not. Quite often though you get what you pay for...i.e. darn few Internet-only generated prospects actually buying your product or service. I'm not saying this is the case in all instances...but for most products and services.

Take care,

Mike Winicki