I recently attended a great seminar where my friend and colleague, Tony Rubleski from Mind Capture Group, was speaking on the benefits of marketing. At first I was surpised not to hear the likes of Google, MSN, or Yahoo in any of his strategies. He wasn’t discounting the importance of online marketing; he was just reminding us that implementing smart, cost-effective offline marketing strategies is still a very effective way to promote your products and services. It was a refreshing reminder that successful marketers pull from a variety of tools, both offline and online, when choosing how to promote their products or services.

So in honor of my good friend Tony, this etip will focus on three offline strategies that you can use to push traffic to your Web site (aka Hurl Your URL). Your mission is to get as many eyeballs as you can to see your URL (for us non-techies out there, URL is simply your Web site address) and then make it memorable or appealing enough so that the next time they are on a computer, they can get to your homepage.

Strategy #1: Your Business Card!

So for some of you, this was an easy one as you calmly pulled out your business card, glanced down at your Web site address, and gave yourself a nice pat on the back. But for a few of you, it’s a friendly reminder that when it’s time for a reprint, you have to get your Web site address on your business card.

But simply having your Web address on your cards is only half the battle, you also want to offer a great call to action to get people excited about going and visiting your Web site. If you don’t, it could very easily end up in the massive “I will organize these cards one day” pile. So I recommend having some type of offer or incentive – maybe on the back of your card. This might be a discount on a product or service or maybe something for free that they can only get from the Web site. Whatever it is, the more enticing the offer, the greater the chance they will stop whatever they are doing and go check out your site.

Strategy #2 Your Receipts!

You may have noticed lately that the large chains are starting to Hurl their own URL by adding it to your purchase receipts and then giving you a great call to action to visit the site. I love this strategy because you’re already providing a receipt. You might as well Hurl Your URL in the process! The idea here is to get the customer to your Web site and then ask them to leave their name and email in exchange for something of value (i.e. coupon, free article, entry into a giveaway). Then, you can send them periodic emails with more great offers and timely coupons. As we all know, it’s easier to keep a customer than to find a new one.

Strategy #3 Your marketing materials (including flyers, pens, water bottles, postcards, your CAR!, pamphlets, CDs, etc)

I have a file where I keep every piece of marketing paraphernalia I find that doesn’t display the company’s Web site address. I plan to one day have a bonfire at my house and have a “NO URL” burning party. You must Hurl Your URL on every single flyer, pen, poster, letter, etc. that your company sends out. And then you must create, yep, you guessed it, an intriguing call to action that makes them press pause on their Tivo’d episode of Dancing with the Stars and jump online to get to your Web site.

Got examples of places you HURL YOUR URL? I’ll post this etip at www.coreyperlman.com – leave me a comment with your creative ways to Hurl Your URL and help out other eBoot Campers!