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articles
Marketing Your Web business
By Theresa Wilkinson, W-edge design
Reprinted with permission from the STC Intercom magazine - January 2002
Volume 49, Issue 1.
PDF version of this article
I always enjoy getting emails from my readers. Recently, Kevin Shoesmith
wrote “Hey, maybe you could do an article on Internet marketing: How have the
methodologies of getting your site 'out there' changed in the wake of the
dot-com crash, if at all?”
Except for the fact that finding a job is more difficult and the contract work
budget is tighter, I have not found much change in Internet marketing since the
dot-com crash. In fact, with more and more Web sites going online everyday,
Internet marketing increasingly important. Web site traffic grew by 300 percent
from 1999 to 2000, and Internet commerce is expected to increase through 2002,
with world retail sales estimated to approach $60 billion. For most Web sites
with an economic goal, it is critical that they connect with as many customers
as possible.
The following ideas can help you market your Web site to the most appropriate
audience. They take a little time to implement, but they’re not complicated, and
they can really make a difference to your hit numbers.
Take advantage of search engines
Internet users do not linger on Web sites as they do in
brick-and-mortar stores. Unless a surfer bookmarks the site or makes a purchase,
he or she probably will not return. With so many sites competing for customers’
attention, the chances that you’ll cut through the traffic are slim. If you
think that these visitors will remember your site, its URL, and content without
some assistance, you are dreaming.
Search engines are by far the most common way users find companies on
the Internet. Roughly two-thirds of marketing professionals believe good
placement on a search engine as an excellent way to build traffic according to a
1999 study by ActivMedia, a research firm that specializes in e-commerce and
emerging technologies. Fully 57 percent of Internet users search the Web every
day. In other words, to be successful, an Internet business simply must lure
search engines.
Unlike a banner ad campaign with a limited run, a top search engine
ranking will deliver visitors to your site for as long as you maintain the
ranking. A single top ranking in a search engine on a single keyword will often
translate into hundreds of qualified visitors per month, depending on the search
engine and the term’s query frequency. Multiple rankings across multiple search
engines can yield a steady stream of highly qualified traffic for an extended
period of time.
Another benefit of using search engines is a shorter sales cycle.
Traditional sales models identify four stages in the selling process: attention,
interest, desire, and action. When a potential customer types a keyword in a
search query box, she has taken a shortcut through this cycle to the desire or
action phase. She’s predisposed to your site’s offering; so much of your work is
done.
Link with other sites
The least expensive method I used to improve the hits at the
Oklahoma Indian Times site was exchanging links with
other Native American web sites. When I first took over the site, it had two
links to outside sites. By the time I handed over maintenance of the site to the
owner of the paper, I had assembled more than 500 links and was receiving more
than 500 page views from links alone. This page was by far the most popular page
on the site because I regularly added to it.
When you establish relationships with other sites, they will in turn
promote your site. (I was getting more hits from these sites than from all of
the search engines combined.) But make sure that the sites you link to are
relevant to your site’s audience. For the OKIT site, I wanted to ensure these
sites were Native American. So I checked out each site that asked for a link -
and a few unsuitable sites did try to sneak in. Maintaining the credibility of
your links page is important.
When evaluating a site to include in their databases, major search
engines and directories like Yahoo! and Google consider what other sites link to
it -- the more quality sites linking to your site the higher your site is
ranked. So searching out sites to link with is often worth the time and effort.
Capturing user information
I am doing some marketing work for Knives911, ()
a site that sells equipment to police and firefighters. I suggested the site
owner add a form that customers could complete with their email addresses,
postal addresses, and telephone numbers. In exchange for this information, users
would be entered into a monthly drawing for a gift certificate. With this
information, the owner could solicit customers with special offers or
information about his products and services.
When you gather prospective customer information, be sure to add a
sentence letting users know that you do not plan on selling this information and
that you will be sending them upcoming site and sale information.
Emailing a newsletter about your product, service, or technology is
another effective way to market to your customers. Email marketing is the most
effective and efficient way to influence purchases and keep customers informed
and happy. It is also extremely inexpensive.
Join newsgroups
You can join related newsgroups promote your site. Members of a
newsgroup voluntarily enter a "virtual community" to trade ideas and gather
information on shared interests. Visitors to these groups can post messages --
questions, comments, or other ideas -- that will be displayed to all who visit
the group.
If you have a product or service related to the topic of the
newsgroup, its members are great prospective customers. They have identified
themselves as interested individuals. They have questions and needs -- perhaps
for your products! Yet there are dangers in marketing to newsgroups. You don’t
want to hard sell your products or services. If you make a kamikaze run of
advertising, not only will you fail to win new customers, but you will also
offend a large potential market. At best, your message will be dismissed as
spam. At worst, you may become the object of angry emails disparaging your
company’s good name.
Of course, your add attack may not provoke an adverse reaction. If
this is the case, you may have found a newsgroup that invites such blatant
self-promotion. While they exist, the only folks who visit them are probably
people posting promotions. As a rule, genuine newsgroups -- the ones visited
frequently by large numbers of individuals -- typically frown on such postings.
If you don't want to spend every day monitoring a newsgroup, you may
wish to try this approach: Read every post for three or four days and get a feel
for the group. Pick out one or two of the "regulars" who seem balanced and level
headed and who seem respected by others in the group. Email these people
directly asking how to best present a "one time only" invitation to check out
your business. Also ask how "once a month" postings about special offers would
be received. Weigh their advice carefully and act accordingly.
Building a site is just half the battle. For your site to survive, you
have to bring potential customers to it. With luck, some of these ideas will
work wonders for your site. If these ideas help you, or if you have any other
suggestions, please let me know.
References
O’Neil, Susan, Nobles, Robin, Maximize Web Site Traffic,
Massachusetts: Adams Media Corporation, 2000.
Marckini, Fredrick, Search Engine Positioning, Texas: Wordware
Publishing, Inc., 2001
WebProNews August 11th, 2000 Issue, “Bringing Visitors to Your Site
From Newsgroups”
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"Theresa - I just wanted to let you know how much my business has increased since you took over my website. What I am delighted about is that I am
receiving good, solid business leads from my target audience. How do you do that?" Sylvia Watson, President, Healing Environments with Feng Shui |
"I wanted to let you know that our rankings on Google are now in the top 3, on almost every search we've conducted (most of them are in 1st place)—without using quotes to call out specific phrases.
This is in searches that result in over 20,000 pages per search. We're backlogged with orders until late June, possibly July. You ROCK!” Diana Holycross, Tiles with Style."
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