I'm starting my own business and am not sure how to promote my website. What are my options?
You can promote your website both online and off.
Offline Promotions
1. Always put your URL on letterhead, business cards and
in e-mail signatures--wherever potential visitors are
likely to see it.
2. If your employees wear uniforms, put your URL on them
so every one of your customers sees a walking advertisement
of your website.
3. Include your URL on all promotional items you give
away--coffee mugs, T-shirts, keychains and so on. A daily
reminder is a good way to get people to visit your site.
4. Be sure to include your web address in all press releases
you send out to members of the media. By having it at
their fingertips, they may be more likely to include it
in articles they write about your company.
5. Don't forget to put your web address in your Yellow
Pages ad. That's one place people see it every day.
6. Do you own any company vehicles? Be sure to put your
URL on the side of any car or truck that's out there delivering
your products.
7. In addition to listing your toll-free number, put your
web address on the bottom of every page of your catalog
so customers have easy access to your online store.
Online Promotions
8. Hone your search engine submission process so you can
get the best exposure possible.
9. If you're still itching for more exposure, you can
explore search engine marketing, wherein you pay to have
a text ad appear when visitors search for certain keywords.
10. Launch a sweepstakes that offers anyone who registers
on your site or subscribes to e-newsletters within a certain
time frame the chance to win a free gift.
11. Send out a weekly e-mail newsletter to registered
site members that offers tips and news related to your
company or industry with links back to your site.
12. Offer free content to other sites. It's a win-win
situation: The other site gets free articles to beef up
their offerings and you get a link back to your site and
the cachet of being an expert.
13. Send a well-planned, customer-focused e-mail promotion
to a targeted list of potential visitors and offer a credit
toward the purchase of anything from your site. Spend
time on your e-mail's look and content: You want to offer
value to customers and not have it appear to be spam.
14. Create your own link exchange by asking sites complementary
to yours (but that don't compete) to put your link on
their pages and you'll do likewise.
15. Hook up with web affiliates--hundreds of sites that
all link their traffic to yours--and get visitors from
sites with related content.
16. Get active in online discussion groups and chats and
always include your URL in your signature. (Don't do any
hard selling, though. Most groups frown on such behavior
and will think you're spamming the group.)
17. Any time someone orders a product from your site,
include a catalog with their order to get them coming
back for more.
18. Inspire your visitors to spread the word for you with
viral marketing techniques, from the aforementioned newsgroup
participation to including an "e-mail this link"
on every page of your site.
19. Not sure what your customers want? Try creating an
online survey to get their crucial opinions on how well
your site is selling to them.
20. When creating your own ads, make sure you understand
who you're targeting, the goal of your campaign, and how
to creatively use the ad confines to get viewers to click
on your ad, not away from it.
21. Use other selling venues like online classified advertising
or online auction sites to increase exposure to your site
and products.
Entrepreneur Magazine
