It's well established that if you can expose your promotional material repeatedly to the same group of people you get better results. Needless to say, this applies whether you are in the B2C or B2B niche.

People generally have to see something over and over again before they really notice it. That's why it's always a good idea to do flyer runs in the same area every few months. And having a regular ad in the local paper can work well. Unfortunately it's just a long slow process of attrition. But you can speed that up if your business details keep appearing in different media. 

Big businesses do this all the time. They're bombarding you from every angle. You'll see TV ads, hear them on the radio. They'll appear in your letterbox and you'll see them in the newspaper. 

If you're a small to mid-sized business, however, such a multi-pronged approach may be too expensive. But you can do something that approximates this that is much cheaper. That is to use offline advertising and social media together.  

This could work particularly well if you're in B2B. Remember that businesses can be found in distinct geographic areas. They also all have websites and many of them have Twitter accounts as well as Facebook and Google Plus pages.

So you saturate a specific area with a flyer run. This is highly targeted anyway. And you may well get some leads just from this campaign. 

While you're having this done you can search social networks for businesses in that area, and follow them.If you really focus on this then you could well end up following hundreds of businesses that have just received your flyers. (Sure, it's not always the same person checking the letterbox and managing social media. But it often is, particularly if that business is not too big.)

So a certain proportion of people in your target market will have seen your business details offline, and then online in fairly quick succession. That's sure to make you more memorable to them than if you were only targeting one medium. And the social component of this didn't cost you anything at all.

And they don't have to follow you back on those networks for this to help. They just have to see you there. That said, the fact that you have just appeared in a different medium will probably make it a little bit more likely for them to connect with you socially online. 

YouTube is a fantastic promotional tool if you are in business. Not only is it a great way of being seen by lots of people, but it can quickly prove that you are an expert in your field and thereby help build your authority in your niche. It's also a great way of building backlinks to your site or blog that can help with SEO in the long term, particularly in a local sense. 

It's not just the SEO benefit to your site that is worthwhile. You can be found directly by prospective buyers near your location on the video sharing site itself. This is because, just as with using search engines for info, people often scour YouTube for locally oriented material. (And remember that it is the world's second largest search engine behind Google itself.) 

With this in mind I've been doing a bit of an experiment over the last year or so. I haven't put up any videos promoting the services listed here (though I will in time). Instead, I've just been going to various Perth locations and making short videos of them.

I've done some very basic keyword research and included geo-specific keywords in the video descriptions. Then I've gone back and looked at my stats form time to time. (And just regarding this research: You can use the YouTube keyword suggestion tool as a starting point. With many searches it will say "no data". Even so, if the search you wish to target does appear in the drop down suggestion box it is on the tool's radar, so it is a good sign in my opinion. Alternatively you can use the one in the main Google search box. If people are searching for something there then there's a good chance that they will be searching for it in YouTube as well.)

After looking through my traffic sources, I've been surprised at just how many viewers came by way of geo-specific keywords. I've had lots of visitors arrive via searches for things like "Perth skyline", "Perth Arena", and "London Court". 

Traffic from these searches just trickles in, of course. But that does add up over time. I've only had a dozen or so short videos up for a year or so. And with next to no promotion they've still racked up well over a thousand views. 

If you film events that are topical and newsworthy, on the other hand, then you can often tap into powerful bursts of YouTube traffic. Recently, for example, I went down to Cottesloe and made some videos of the anti-shark cull protest. Just two of them got hundreds of hits, some shares and several likes within a few days.

So, if you're in business it's definitely worth keeping an eye out for such local, newsworthy events you can record to get traffic. 

There is a challenge, however. Just like with blogging, you've got to work out how to tie the content into your business. Obviously if there's a direct correlation with what you're filming then it's not a problem. A bustling industry convention would be an example of this. 

But with something like the shark protest, it's hard to think of a business link. It was a political event more than anything ... Still, there were a lot of beachgoers there. Perhaps if you made or sold swimwear it would be worth posting some videos of the demo. (The link does remind people of the dangers of swimming so it's not the best content. But in terms of getting known by your demographic, I think it would still be worth it.)

Another example of a local political event worth filming would be a teachers' demonstration. You might supply stationery or text books to schools. There'd be many in the education field who would look for such footage. So posting a video of the crowds and speakers could get some worthwhile clicks to your site. Or you could just include your business name in the actual video.

Of course they don't have to be political events. They just have to be local and well known with lots of "colour and movement". Sporting events, local arts and craft festivals, industry conventions would all fit the bill. You could even be an amateur paparazzi and steal some footage of a local or visiting celebrity related to your niche. Any content like this could be effective in getting on the radar of YouTube users in your local area.