Promoting & Marketing Your Web Site

“No one in their right mind would think that simply getting a phone number or opening a post office box is going to generate business,” says internet marketing pioneer Ken McCarthy. “Similarly, simply setting up an online presence is not going to generate business for anybody. You need to integrate your online presence with some good old-fashioned marketing.” (Source: www.kenmccarthy.com)

Here are nine great promotion strategies we recommend as part of your web site marketing plan. You can do them yourself, or we can help you.

Remember: Plan the work — then work the plan!

1. Regularly update your site’s content. Considering putting a “What’s New” or “News” section on your site, with a prominent link from the home page. Or put a small paragraph that changes regularly on the home page itself.
   
   
2. Give your visitors valuable information in the form of articles or fact sheets. Be a resource center, not just a brochure. You’re an expert in your field and people want to know what you know. If you share your knowledge freely, they’ll return to your site. When they’re ready buy the kind of services or products you offer, they’ll already know and trust you.
   
   
3. Offer a free newsletter that your visitors can sign up for. They will gladly sign up to get fresh and concise information that’s really helpful. Make the newsletter personal. Reveal the real person behind the email in their in-box and you’ll help your visitors feel personally connected to you and your business.
   

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4. Link to other good sites in your field, and ask them to link to yours. Search the web for other sites that are in your field or community but are not direct competitors (Google is my search engine of choice). Put a link to them on your Resources and Links page (see our example here) plus a sentence or two about why you like the site. Then send the webmaster of the site an email, saying that you linked to their site and asking them to return the favor. Some will and some won’t, but it never hurts to ask. When other sites start linking to your site, it not only increases your traffic, it helps your page ranking in important search engines like Google.
   
   
5. Submit to the search engines. How to optimize your site for the search engines, how to submit and how much it costs is an entire field in itself. See Submitting to Search Engines for current information and resources.
   
   
6. Add a signature line with your web site address on every email you send out, even the personal ones. Be sure it’s a clickable URL that looks like this: http://www.mysizzlingsite.com Include your name, the name of your business, your tagline and your email address. You can also include your street address and phone number(s).
   
   For example:
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Joanna Powell Colbert
   JPC Web Design Services
   “Reaching your community with your message”
   http://www.jpcwebdesign.com
   email: joanna@jpcwebdesign.com
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   

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7. If this is a brand new web site, send out a one-time email to everyone in your email address book — friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances — announcing a “Virtual Grand Opening” of your new site. Ask them to pass the URL along to anyone they know who might be interested in your products or services. Just good old-fashioned networking. Use a similar email announcement if you do a complete site redesign.
   
   
8. Join one or two email discussion lists in your field and post messages to it regularly — with your full signature. Don’t market your site, but be helpful to others on the list. Your signature line on your email will speak for itself.
   
   
9. Put your web site address on all your print materials — stationary, business cards, ads in publications, business signs. You might even want to work it into your voice mail or answering machine message! (it’s customary to leave off this part: “http://” when you put a web site address in print. Just use “www.mysizzlingsite.com”.)
   
   

If you devote just a half hour a day to promoting your dazzling new web site, you’ll be very pleased with the results over time. If you’d like help with some of these strategies, please contact us.

For more Web Site Promotion Tips, subscribe to our monthly newsletter!

Sources include:
Self-Promotion Online by Ilise Benun
101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site by Susan Sweeney
(Book links will open in new windows.)

More on Marketing & Promotion:

Search Engine Strategies

Who are the Cultural Creatives?

Resources

Read our Web Site Promotion Tips Newsletter archives:

What Makes a Great Web Site Tagline?

Developing a Reciprocal Link Strategy

Credibility-Boosting Testimonials

Secrets of Writing for the Web

What Makes an Effective Home Page?

How to Make More Sales from Your Web Site