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5 Ways To Promote Your Website

Internet advertising is often misunderstood and can ultimately be a frustrating activity.  The mantra goes, "build a website, register with a few search engines and watch sales skyrocket."  This is far from the truth.  The reality is the best way to advertise your website has nothing to do with the Internet.  Below we offer five practical tips that can help you develop a solid marketing plan to promote your new e-company website.

Notify Existing Customers
Your existing customers should be your first target for advertising the new features of your website.  Your existing customers will be the first beneficiaries of your Account Wizard website. They have the need to research account information and purchase goods.  So the first objective is to notify your existing client base.  The following activities can be performed to announce your new services:

  • Direct fax
  • Attaching a memo to all invoices
  • Offering discounts on items ordered through the web
  • Direct mail
  • Press Releases

Once your existing customers become familiar with the service, you can expect greater interest through word of mouth.  This activity will also allow you to get a better return on your website investment in the near term.

Register With Search Engines
Registering with search engines will expose your business to the world.  While your chances of generating traffic via search engine registration is remote, registration will help those who are looking for your company but do not know your website address (www.yourcompany.com).  For example, if you were looking for the Armor Systems home page but did not know their web address (www.armor-net.com), you could go to the Excite search engine and enter "Armor Systems".  The first page returned will lead you to the Armor Systems home page.

Banner Ads
Banner ads are the advertisements typically located at the top and bottom of web pages.  These ads, often animated, will lead you to the home page of the advertiser upon clicking on the ad.  This form of advertising has traditionally been used by large corporations such as Microsoft or Intel.  Yahoo! provides a good demonstration on how banner ads are implemented.

Recently banner ads have begun to make waves for small to midsize businesses.  This renaissance has evolved on two fronts.  First, trade organizations, publications, etc are now opening up their websites to banner ads.  Placing a banner on a trade publication website is a great way to generate traffic.  Secondly, banner ads are now being placed on the same website.  For example, if your company was offering a special that week or a unique item, your home page could include a banner ad that leads to a page with more information.

Mailing Lists
Mailing lists are a great way to notify subscribers of upcoming events or specials.  A mailing list is developed by obtaining the e-mail address of those customers who want to receive your newsletter.  Newsletters are often distributed once or twice a month and can help strengthen customer relationships. 

Newsgroups
Newsgroups are locations where ideas are exchanged about literally thousands of topics.  Newsgroups can cover a very specific area such as "Suede Shoes" or broad concepts such as "Business Practices".  By searching through newsgroups and answering posted questions, you are able to promote your business and earn some good will with newsgroup users. 

Newsgroup advertising is a good alternative if banner ads are not an option.  Of all the tips mentioned above, newsgroup advertising will most likely generate the least amount of return per advertising dollar.



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