How can we advertise our Dating Site Offline?

Offline Advertising is rarely used by Dating Sites Owners to promote their communities. Though Free Dating Sites need that more then others.

Here are the reasons:
1) you need to widen a database
2) online advertising can be expensive and not very resultative. And the budgets are usually tight when you start a Free Dating Site
3) free dating sites need to attract people from a certain offline community

So as the goals are clear we can think about possible ways of offline marketing. Of course, Mass media is a great source and you can place your ads in newspapers, on radio, on TV. If you plan to cover a larger audience area I think radio will be the best source because:

1) it's easy to listen to for everyone
2) it can be on in the offices, cafes, bars, shops, markets, cars, buses as a background
3) you can choose a radio channel according to your target audience and age differences.

Your radio ad should be:
1) attractive: special music (probably from your site), name (sounds as the site url and its name), fast and comprehensive (site url, aim, main idea)
2) broadcasted at a special time (rush hour if you target to attract business poeple)and probably in special places (if you choose a specific radio channel- find out what places have it on)
3) stable: recognizable and memorable, catchy (song, words, site url)

After you do all that you can go on with TV and newspapers. The strategy is the same but it may be more expensive. If you have a tight budget and need to use Offline Marketing, you can use other accessory ways of advertising like badges, banners in the streets, business and cards and postcards, local events sponsorship or participation, T-shirts with your site's logo. Let me describe each used in advertising for a Dating Site:

* Badges. There can be many ways to distribute them: in flower and gift shops, in supermarkets with sweets and presents people buy. You can easily discuss that with a shop manager and have your badges available for all the clients. The badge itself, should have your special color and the site logo. It's very advisable to answer one question: "Why should a person wear this badge?" If you try to answer now you'll probably get stuck as you won't like the badge with logo only. So you should add some aphorisms, love quotes, small jokes to make the badges attractive. Make sure your logo is still there as a sign up.

* Banners. You can place them in shops, in the streets, on your car and house. Every place can be appropriate for that if that will work. To find out what will influence people make a survey of your target audience on what they like and what could make them sign up for a Dating Site and date there. Then you can use your brand-colors and logo on your banners. Add photos of people you're targeting to. Personalize the banner by putting your signature or your name at the bottom. Don't forget about contact info and phone number.

* Business Cards and postcards. You should make your special business cards for people who you meet every day. They can register at your site or show the card to their friend. That's a kind of Word of mouth marketing. Postcards are not very popular nowadays but we still like them when it comes to holidays and you can take advantage of that. Publish special congratulation cards and distribute them in public places. Make sure you have your site url and contact info at the back at the bottom. You can also ad some love quote or thematic congrats. Using postcards you'll be able to promote your site to people who're far away, but probably of the same age and interests as your target audience.

* Local events sponsorship or participation. Make a list of events that can be associated with your Dating Site, review the most popular events for people who can become your clients. Contact the organizators and make a deal. There can be special prizes or free membership for winners, banners and ads at the event itself.

* T-shirts with your site's logo. So you just have to use your brand-color, logo, probably an image and make t-shirts, caps, socks whatever... Please note that the quality should be nice and the style too as those things will reflect your site image. Besides, they should be attractive and make people stand out in the crowd.

These are one few approaches you can use when promoting your Dating Site offline. Online advertising combined with a creative offline marketing can give good results and boost registrations and user loyalty and interest. As you can see all you need is imagination, creativity, some knowledge and business skills to organize all that you have imagined. Good luck!