Promoting Your Website

The success of your website will in large part depend on how effectively you promote your site's URL (a "URL" is your unique Internet address). As with any promotional activity, your efforts will be most rewarding if those efforts are thoroughly integrated into every aspect of your overall marketing plan.

It would be nice if every firm or organization had the opportunity to just assign someone on their staff the responsibility to do regularly scheduled website promotions. The reality is that most small businesses or non-profits are already understaffed, and since there are only so many hours in the day, only so much can be realistically accomplished.

We have therefore prioritized the promotional efforts which every new website administrator should consider. At the very least, you must do everything in the first grouping ASAP; if you have some time, do as much as you can in the second and third groups.

ESSENTIAL PROMOTIONAL OBJECTIVES

• Be certain your website is registered with the top eleven search engines:
  1. AltaVista
  2. AOL Search
  3. Google
  4. HotBot
  5. Lycos
  6. Teoma
  7. Yahoo
  8. MSN Search
  9. iWon.com
  10. Ask Jeeves
  11. FAST/alltheweb
  [Note: when we design your website, we automatically do this submition for you];
• Prominently add your URL to EVERY piece of your business literature - your business cards, stationary, brochures, signs, etc. If you are not ready to have new printing done yet, then attach inexpensive labels to everything. Even put your URL on company tee-shirts and uniforms!
• Make your URL prominent in every advertisement you run, whether in the print medium or radio / television;
• Add a signature line at the bottom of all your email accounts which features your Internet website address;
• If you haven't already, put a guestbook on the site that will encourage visitors to provide you with their email addresses, then periodically send this list special promotional messages when you have interesting new content.

SECOND TIER: GET TO EACH OF THESE PROMOTIONS AS SOON AS TIME ALLOWS

• Do a special direct mailing to your customer mailing list notifying them of your new website. Even a bulk mailing postcard will do the trick. This will be even more effective if in your mailing you feature a special discount, contest, or giveaway available only on the website;
• Write a press release for your local papers and/or industry publications highlighting the fact that your firm is now launched into "cyberspace";
• Begin systematically linking your URL into other WWW sites that your customer base is likely to visit. You can do this by offering to exchange links; by buying a link; or by buying a banner ad. Think like a customer... where are they likely to go on the Web?
• Develop your own online community of interactive communication by using a message board located at your site;
• Become part of the "webrings" which feature the kind of content interesting to your customers or clients. This is a quick and easy way to get in a traffic flow of people who are interested in what you do. You can learn more at Webring.org.

THIRD TIER: THINGS TO DO WITH ALL THAT EXTRA TIME YOU HAVE

• Announce your site at the various "What's New" and "What's Cool" websites;
• Email a monthly "e-zine" with interesting, informative, and entertaining articles about developments in your specific field. Encourage visitors to sign up for this special mailing. If you sell toys, write about the most popular toys that kids are buying (all available through your site, of course); if you're a cosmetic surgeon, discuss the most instructive question you've heard that month; if you make wooden chairs, explain woodworking techniques; etc. Be creative.
• Begin checking in at the various bulletin boards, newsgroups, and chatrooms out there in cyberspace where your customers are likely to visit. Discreetly mention your URL whenever the opportunity to do so naturally arises. Be as NON-commercial as possible... try to phrase your wording in a helpful way, e.g., in response to a question that someone else has posted.

To have your company's website custom designed for greatest access by your customers or clients, please contact us.