Marketing and Promotion
For retailers, it’s often been said that there are only three key factors to consider when opening a store, location, location and location! On the internet, every web site is a click away from every other one, so it might seem that the argument doesn’t apply. This isn’t true.
Setting up a sales web site is like ordering a new line from BT. Sitting by the phone doesn’t make sales, your prospects need your number first. So web site promotion is the crucial ingredient. If nobody visits, nothing will sell.
Here are some pointers on how you can persuade these prospects to visit and buy your products.
You should put your Web site address on your existing brochures, advertising and business cards. Wherever you promote your company name, you should also promote your Web address.
The most effective way is to register yourself rather than employ a professional to do it for you. Just using the free, automatic registrations without any thought or investigation will leave you in the middle of the crowd. Search engines provide considerable traffic, so it’s worth investing some time in learning about them. It is not uncommon for 80% of traffic to a web site to come through search engines.
There are lots of places where people hold discussions online. Some of these forums will be talking about your speciality. For instance, if you sell yachting gear, there are plenty of specialist boating forums. Provided that you participate responsibly, you can get the chance to talk about your company, products and offerings. This has the added benefits that it can be enjoyable and is likely to provide lots of useful tips for you, too.
There are lots of opportunities to advertise online – banner advertisements, email mailing lists (where people have opted-in to the email list), directories and so on. Before parting with your cash, you should use the same judgement that you would use when deciding whether to advertise in conventional media. Who will be looking at this medium and are they my target market? Getting your message in front of large numbers isn’t the issue, they must be interested in your products.
It’s a sad fact that when it comes to marketing, the anoraks are in the driving seat. That’s right, although being creative is crucial, measuring the results and putting the next round of money where you got the most results last time is the way to success. So measure everything you do, and try to find out where all of your leads and customers come from. Use questions on your Web site to ask buyers how they heard about your site.
If you can, find specialist sites that cater for your particular niche and get them to either link or put you in their search results. In return, put a link back to them. This can offer added value to your visitors as well as boosting your traffic – it’s a win-win situation.
If you can get the press interested, it’s worth a fortune in marketing.
It’s worth spending some time thinking about your Web site address (URL). Ideally it will be easy to remember, stand out from the crowd and communicate your message. This will take some time and probably a lot of investigation, as many good URLs have already been taken.
If you can think of different but interesting Web addresses, they can all point to your one site. Having more than one Web site address gives you lots of extra options. You can register multiple times with search engines, you can emphasise different aspects of your products, and so on.
Can you come up with offers at your site which will attract visitors?
