Website marketing: Reality check

Editorial By Anne Kennedy

November 2001: Think about it. The top of anyone's mind is a very cluttered place these days. Rising above the signal to noise ratio requires repeated impressions focused directly on your target market. Repetition increases perception and so, builds awareness.

Nowhere is this more true than on the Internet, which comprises around two billion pages, with 30,000 new ones added every day. Effective placement in online media such as search engines and directories is essential to making sure the users who are looking for your site succeed in finding it.

How do you interest your target market in looking for your website?

Simple: promote your website, even if you have an established offline business. If you don't, how will your target audience know what you are doing and why it is worth their while?

Use as many offline tactics to promote your online business as you can afford: advertising, media relations, direct mail, trade shows. In addition, take advantage of emerging online promotion tactics. And of course, optimize your website for searches.

Then, be sure your website delivers on your value promise. This is essential to increasing your conversion rate, the number of visitors who complete the transaction you want them to at your site.

Whether eCommerce, or supply chain exchange, your website must work for the user. Technology is an arena in which you truly get what you pay for. The experience, knowledge and expertise to produce an effective business online doesn't come cheap. If you didn't pay much, you most likely didn't get much.


[Sidebar] Ten Tactics Online

1. List in a business directory for your industry
2. Buy an ad in a newsletter your target market reads
3. Launch opt-in email marketing campaign
   
4. Use promotions on you site to encourage repeat business, e.g. discount prices, coupons
   
5. Start your own affiliate program with related websites
   
6. Purchase positions for targeted keywords
7. Use a button to your site for branding
8. Make registration very visible to capture user information and create your own email database
9. Send an email newsletter, in text, to maintain interest in your website
10. Create your own links page to add value and visibility.