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With millions of websites competing for viewers, how
do you get noticed? When asked if they are marketing
on the Internet, many people say "yes, we have
a website." However, having a website and Internet
marketing are very different things. Having a website
is meaningless if nobody knows about it.
The purpose of this website is to help you take your website out of the
desk drawer and into the spotlight where it can be seen by your target
market.
The phrase "if you build it, they will come" does not work
on the Internet. Building a website is just the first step. Driving traffic
to your website takes knowledge, planning, time and effort. If you want
your website to be successful, you're going to have to learn how to market
it to the world.
Today's small businesses need resources to help them grow and succeed.
Arguably, as one of the most pervasive technology for small businesses,
the Internet can directly increase your bottom lines. Today, small businesses
need to do more, at a faster rate and with minimal resources.
1. Search engines
Many people, perhaps even a majority of people, will
use search engines and directories to find what they're
looking for on the Web. So the place to start in promotion
is to design webpages that will be indexed well by
the search engines, using descriptive titles, accurate
META tags and keyword-laden content-rich pages.
But with hundreds of millions of webpages being submitted
to the search engines daily, it's very easy for your
site to get lost. Be persistent. If your site doesn't
show up within a few weeks, submit again ... and again
... and again.
2. Linking strategies
Linking strategies are a second essential type of
site promotion. The more links pointing to your site,
the more traffic you'll experience (and the greater
perceived "popularity" will rank you higher in the
search engines). To get someone to link to your site,
you need to ask. The simplest way is to find complementary
sites, link to them on a linking page, and ask them
to link to you. The key, of course, is for your site
to have content that so good that it's worth linking
to. Ask for links on sites that cover your industry,
as well as from associations your business belongs
to.
3. Viral strategies
An increasingly important process is to design a strategy
that encourages others to carry your marketing message
via e-mail, using their own network of relationships
-- and preferably their own resources. This is called "viral
marketing" after the way viruses multiply rapidly in
a cell, commandeering the cell's resources to do the
virus' bidding. The classic example is HotMail.com,
a free e-mail system. Each e-mail message (sent by
definition to a person's own friends and associates)
carries a message encouraging the recipient to sign
up for a HotMail account, too. Another example is postcard
or greeting cards, each of which carries a message
encouraging the recipient to send a card to a friend
-- carrying the siteowner's marketing message.
4. Public relations
Public relations, the task of getting press coverage,
is still a vital type of site promotion. If you can
get a news release picked up by several print and/or
Internet publications you'll get a tremendous boost
in traffic, all for "free," letting the news periodical's
network carry your marketing message. Of course, nothing's
really free. You'll need to have a truly newsworthy
event, contest, free service, chat room -- or something --
or no decent publication will consider it news. Coming
up with "free" services and events isn't inexpensive,
but the ensuing publicity can be excellent -- you may
get an unbiased editorial recommendations that you
couldn't purchase for any amount of money. While
there are free news release services, expect to pay
several hundred dollars to have your news release sent
to hundreds of subscribing periodicals.
5. Traditional media
Don't discount traditional media in promoting your
website -- news releases, of course, as well as paid
advertising. A very effective way to promote your site
is to place a small display ad in a targeted trade
publication, offering some teaser copy and pointing
readers to your URL or an autoresponder e-mail address
for more information. This way your site serves as
an online brochure, providing full information to interested
shoppers day and night. A no-brainer is to make sure
that all your company's literature, cards, letterheads,
and envelopes carry your website URL. If you're immersed
in the Internet, you may have forgotten that most people
still get the majority of their marketing messages
through traditional channels.
6. E-mail Publishing
If you're smart you won't even think of developing
a business website without marrying it to an e-mail
publication. The website is the shy partner who passively
waits for people to come to him. But the e-mail publication
is the bold, active partner who goes out to where people
are and invites them to come meet her groom. Together
they are a marriage made in heaven.
E-mail publishing is primarily a way to conserve the
people who have shown some interest in your business
by coming to your website or responding to one of your
offers. One of the highest priorities of your website
MUST be to get your visitor to sign up for your free
newsletter or discussion list or updates publication.
Offer a variety of inducements -- entry into a contest,
a free gift, a free coupon -- whatever you must do
to insure a steady stream of subscribers to your newsletter.
Once they are subscribers -- if you give them content
they enjoy and learn from -- they'll stay with you
for years, and you can gently build their trust month
after month. When they're ready to make a purchase,
your site is at the top of their mind, and they'll
probably buy from you. Figure the lifetime value to
you of a single subscriber. When you've completed this
exercise, you'll know why beginning your own e-mail
publication is so vital to marketing your business.
Of course, you probably know by now that sending out
mass e-mails to huge lists of e-mail addresses is a
no-no. It violates the principle of Permission Marketing
that says people respond better to a marketing message
they have agreed to receive. Unsolicited Commercial
E-Mail (UCE) also runs contrary to a long-standing
Internet tradition that responds to SPAM with angry
flames and enough returned e-mail to cause your ISP
to shut down your account very quickly. If you're interested
in building a long-term business based on trust, don't
send SPAM. (More to come)
7. Networking
An extremely important way to promote your website
is through networking. Small business members of a
local Chamber of Commerce know how making friends,
being introduced, meeting new people at mixers, and
being featured in the Chamber newsletter can help build
your business. Networking isn't quick, but it's the
basis of relationships that will grow your business
through word-of-mouth over the years.
On the Internet, networking is done primarily through
news groups and e-mail discussion lists. In discussion
lists, people in an industry carry on a conversation
about various current issues. After a while, you get
to know the regular participants from reading their
comments week after week. Regular participation fosters
trust and builds your reputation. You don't brazenly
hype your business in this kind of venue -- that's
considered rude. But the "signature" at the end of
every e-mail message identifies you, and tells people
about your business and how to contact you. If you
aren't using a signature in your e-mails, begin today.
Search out the newsgroups and discussion lists in your
industry and take an active part. This will result
in increased traffic, as well as referrals and recommendations
by list members to their other friends who might need
your products or services.
8. Paid advertising
You'll notice that most of the first seven types of
Internet Marketing can be done in-house relatively
inexpensively (with the possible exception of search
engine positioning). Of course, you may be able to
find a marketing firm to which you can outsource some
of these functions, but you can probably do a fine
job yourself -- after all, it's your business,
and you are the one who can promote it most effectively.
But there comes a point that to get wider exposure,
to break into the consciousness of the thousands of
people who never haunt your end of the Web, you may
need to resort to paid advertising. You'll be paying
high traffic sites or Internet publications to include
a graphic or link that will channel large numbers of
people to your site. There are several popular forms
of paid advertising, with new approaches cropping up
all the time:
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Banner ads have been around the longest.
Typically these are 468x60 pixel animated and linked
graphic ads that appear at the top of a commercial
webpage. They are usually sold on a CPM (cost per
thousand page views) basis.
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Paid Listings in Portal Sites. To get noticed,
your online pet store may need to pay for a listing
under the "Pets" category at Lycos Shop. For this
you may pay a flat fee or a percentage of the sale.
Consider it the equivalent of paying rent to enjoy
the foot traffic that a suburban mall might attract.
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Sponsorships are longer term paid ads on
websites or e-mail newsletters.
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Pay-per-Click Links can be purchased on
search engines such as Overture The
price per click for the top spots depends upon
what your competitors are willing to bid.
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Pay-per-Sale Advertising is popularly known
as an Affiliate or Associate Program. The merchant
signs up a number of affiliates who place a link
or linked graphic on their site. If a sale is made
to a customer coming through that link, the affiliate
earns a commission, typically 5% to 15% of the
transaction total. This can be an effective --
and safe -- way to advertise, since you only have
to pay when a sale is made. You can purchase software
to run your own program, but I recommend outsourcing
this to a service bureau such as Commission Junction,
that charges an initial set-up fee and then 20%
of the commission you pay your affiliates.
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Paid ads in targeted e-mail newsletters can
be very effective. There are hundreds of thousands
of e-mail newsletters, many of which have very
modest advertising fees. Click through rates are
likely to be in the range of 1% to 3%.
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Opt-in E-mail Advertising involves sending
a stand-alone ad for your business to individuals
who have (hopefully) volunteered to receive information
from your kind of business. These are called "opt-in" lists,
since the list members have agreed to receive information.
Avoid "opt-out" lists where recipients are placed
on a list involuntarily and then invited to unsubscribe
if they want to. Opt-in lists can be quite targeted,
with ads getting a 1% to 3% click-through rate.
Expect to pay about 15 cents to 30 cents per name;
the list broker will do the e-mailing on your behalf.
Certainly, there are many more types of paid advertising,
but these are some of the most common and most effective.
Internet promotion can seem overwhelming. But hopefully
it's more understandable since we've outlined the eight
ways that comprise effective website promotion.
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