[Juliusanderson]

One of the best and most inexpensive ways to market your business locally is by word of mouth. Word spreads fast and this can be beneficial for freelancers who are trying to gain new clients and increase their popularity.Another way to get the word out regarding your freelance business in your local area is to take advantage of free local magazines/newspapers available in your vicinity.

In your views, which is the best way of offline marketing?

[Mega B]

If you provide a 'great service' word of mouth can be a fantastic way to get yourself known but it can also work against you if you provide a 'bad service' the bad word get around even quicker.

[Wayne Liew]

I don't think there is a best way.

Word of mouth is ongoing all the time. Provide good service and people will talk good about you and like what Mega B said, bad news spread just as fast when you are not treating your customers properly. I think apart from practicing the plain "good customer service actions" that are also carried out by your competitors, it is good to surprise your customer sometimes by taking the extra mile in terms of customer service. This boost the chances of them telling their friends about your business.

As for magazines and newspapers, I don't think they are that effective anymore. First of all, people don't pay that much attention to ads as they used to while consuming content. What I think will work, however, is to get people to read your content, either online or offline. Thus, you may consider submitting articles with a credit to your business to these magazines/newspapers.

[MFOne]

Be very careful when getting excited about Word of Mouth advertising. As the others mentioned, it can be negative. If you think about it, negative word of mouth spreads much faster than positive. Also, we are more likely to share a negative experience but often must be prompted to share a positive one. Moral of the story, always give exceptional service because you can't afford negative word of mouth.
In regards to other ways to promote and market yourself, if you give me an idea of where you are located and what you offer, I can provide you with some ideas that will help you. It's what I do.
Jeff

[GriZzly]

Press releases. You are still in a magazine/ local newspaper but there is a huge difference. If you advertise then everyone who reads that newspaper will know that you paid for it to be there, this identifies a bias slant straight-away. A press release carries a lot more credibility.

Local news jouranlists are very busy people, if you can give them an article, well written and ready for print they are more likely to run it. The hardest part is knowing what to make a release about. It needs to be locally news-worthy. Have you just served your 10,000th customer? Have you been sponsoring a local event for 10 years? Have you moved to new premises?

Carry out some research on an unusual field. E.g. if you sell bottles drinks, do a questionnaire on 1000 people to find out how many bottles they throw away each year and promote recycling in your area. Things like this will get you into the papers for free.

P.S. apologies for the typos, i'm not dhrunk onestly