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[H1510]How To Promote Online

by Sue Currie, Sue

Some websites are designed as an on-line brochure for your business, yet others really drive the customer to make their buying decision. But what is the point of having a fancy brochure if no one is buying your product or service. A website can be a cost effective public relations tool for your business. It can help you attract prospective clients who may not hear about you otherwise and increase sales without adding overhead.

Don't just launch your site and then wait for business to come knocking at the door ? it may not turn up. If you're looking at creating a website or wanting people to know more about your on-line presence, here's a few public relations tips to promote your site on and off-line.

One of the first things you need to do is look at who your ideal customer or client is and who you want to attract to your site. It is important to know your audience so you can target your public relations campaign to them.

Send out a media release to attract interest to your site through the appropriate media. Is it a business magazine or a women's weekly? Perhaps the ideal avenue for you is your local newspaper. Of course just issuing a media release doesn't guarantee that you'll get a run so let's consider a few other points.

Spread the Word Off-line

* Put your web address on all your communication collateral such as brochures, newsletters and on business cards, postcards, flyers about your products, catalogues and posters

* Don't forget to include it on letterhead, fax cover sheets and invoices

* On stickers used for mail outs, packaging and products

* Include it on promotional products such as pens, caps, coffee mugs, fridge magnets, t-shirts or uniforms and key rings

* In your voicemail messages or your on hold message service

* Mention your website address during radio or TV interviews and speaking engagements

* At meetings suggest to clients they can find out more information about your company by visiting the site

* Put it on all media releases

* Include it in all your advertising ? print, TV and radio

* On the company car or van

* Yellow pages, white pages and other business directories

* All your email signatures

Think back to your target audience and include your website address anywhere a potential customer is likely to see it.

You've sent out your media release but don't forget to let existing clients know your site is now up and running. Use direct mail, send them a note ? a good reason to communicate with them ? or send them an e-newsletter with the latest news. Or perhaps use in-store posters to announce the site launch to your existing customer base.

Consider running ads in the local paper or business magazines if that is where you attract your customers. In short, keep doing what you're doing to attract clients or customers to your business but add your website address to the mix.

How to Find You On-line

The way most companies promote their websites is by search engine submissions, but search engines and their effectiveness can be a bit of a maze. It does pay to talk to the experts on this one, try your web designer or web host first, as just registering with search engines does not guarantee you traffic. Also just because you have a lot of "hits" on your site doesn't necessarily mean they are your ideal target market.

Most search engine traffic comes from Google and Yahoo! By using a combination of these search engines and using the right words and phrases on your site you would optimise your chances of being found. You don't need to spend a great deal of money as some sites don't charge at all and others charge a nominal fee. Perhaps you could explore Google Adwords. Again it pays to seek advice from your web expert.

Once you do get that traffic to your site, here are a few ideas to keep them there and to encourage them to visit again and again.

* Keep your site interesting. Commit to updating on a regular basis

* Optimise. Again talk to your web expert on this one but make sure your site is user friendly so visitors don't log out because it's too hard to find the information they want or it takes too long

* Portray a professional image. Ensure consistency of your web design with your other marketing materials and don't forget to include your logo

* Present interactive features that keep visitors returning, perhaps a competition or an on-line survey. And don't forget freebies. You must give your visitors something of value such as articles or e-books

* Send out a regular e-newsletter to your data base that offers tips and information and a link back to the site

* Post articles on other websites with links back to your site

* Explore online advertising or sponsorship on another busy website

* One of the most effective PR tools to drive customers to your website is through link exchanges with sites of similar interest. Locate sites that make a good match to your own and contact the owner to ask if they'll link to your site in exchange for you linking to theirs

Like any public relations campaign, attracting visitors and potential clients to your website will take hard work, creativity, perseverance and commitment over an extended period of time. But don't let your website just sit there ? make it work for you so you can allow your expertise to shine.

In as much as I've taught Internet marketing and publicity classes, the idea of marketing yourself online is still very confusing to a lot of people. Let's face it; our company has a department dedicated to this. Why? Because stuff changes all the time on the Internet; if we didn't have a dedicated department researching this and reading all the "geek stuff," we'd never be able to keep up. But for right now I want to give you the bottom line basics - because at the end of the day, we all need to start somewhere, and the best place to start is online.

Blogging: If you don't feel like you can do anything online or you don't have the time for extensive promotion, the quickest and simplest thing you can do is have a blog. A blog is a great way to keep your site fresh (search engines love sites that are updated often) and a blog is a great way to reach your reader. If you don't have a blog or haven't blogged in a while, take heart: start somewhere and plan to blog a minimum of twice weekly. You'll need at least two posts a week to keep it current. The biggest problem though with new bloggers is deciding what to blog about. Well, here are some ideas:

· Talk about trends in the industry you're in (this works even if you write fiction, talk about the publishing industry)

· Review other (similar) books - this is a great way to network with other people in your market

· Blog "in character" - readers love this!

· Develop your next story on your blog: you can ask for reader feedback on story direction, characters, etc.

· Lend your voice to a "hot" industry issue or controversy

· Comment on other blogs, or feature them on your blog

· Interview people on your blog

· Talk about the elephant in the room: if there's a looming issue in your market, why not offer your insight on your blog?

Feedback and blog comments: if you aren't getting people commenting on your blog, don't despair, it takes a while to get folks commenting and offering feedback, but the more you can tap into issues your reader cares about, the more comments you'll see popping up on your blog.

Publishing content: The Internet has really opened the door to publishing and pushing a lot of content online. Whether it's articles, audio, or video, there's a home for all of it on the 'Net. Consider doing article syndication to start pushing content online. Here are some basic guidelines for article syndication:

· You don't get paid for this syndication. This is always the first question I get when I talk to authors about syndicating their articles, book excerpts, or tip sheets. You post it online for others to use and promote you, what could be better?

· Your articles need to be helpful, not self-promotional. The more helpful they are, the more likely they are to be used. Yes, you can mention your book but my recommendation is to keep any and all promotion of it to your byline.

· Article titles are important. Remember that the title of your article must be descriptive, don't make people guess what you've written about. If you do, you'll find your pieces aren't as popular as you'd like them to be.

· Articles should be a minimum of 500 words, a maximum of 2,000. Generally the most popular pieces are around 1,000 words. Don't forget your byline and web site address. Also, and very important, get those articles edited before they go out on the 'Net. Once you send them out, you can never get them back.

Participate: when it comes to online promotion, it's really about participating. Think of the Internet as one big cocktail party. Go strike up a conversation with someone who you'd like to get to know better. Here's a great way to do that. First, go to Technorati and find the top five blogs in your market, then watch them for a week or so and when you're comfortable with what they're talking about and the angle of their message, start posting comments and offering your own insight into their postings. Bloggers love comments and by participating you're doing two things: you're doing some virtual networking (aka cyber-schmoozing) and you're promoting yourself via the link back to your site that's part of your post every time you comment.

Conduct your own blog tour: after you've done some virtual networking and gotten to know some folks in your industry, you'll want to contact them to see about guest blogging opportunities. Guest blogging is pretty simple, you post an article on a site (sometimes it's also a Q&A) and you respond to comments that come in during that day or week that you're guest blogging. Be ready to host a blog tour of your own and unless the content is really off-topic from your site, I recommend that you consider it.

Blog carnivals: if you haven't participated in a blog carnival and you've been blogging for a while, then head on over to and get started. Honestly, it's super easy. Just find a category/topic that you can speak to or have blogged on and submit those blogs for consideration. It's a great way to virtually network and publish more content online.

Help promote the good stuff: do you get Google alerts on yourself? If you don't, you should, and here's why: how else will you know what people are saying about you online? Google alerts is a simple way to monitor the cyber-chatter and get in touch with folks who review your book or feature you on their site. You can also go to Technorati, plug in your name, company name or title of your book and see what you pull up, then you can subscribe to the syndication feed of the search (just hit the RSS button and it'll automatically subscribe you to that feed). Once you have your feeds all ready to go you'll want to promote all the good stuff.

How can you do that? Well first off, offer a cyber-thank you to whoever mentioned you, reviewed your book or featured you on their site. Next, link to their site from your blog and finally, go to a few social bookmarking sites and bookmark these postings for enhanced exposure. Here's how you do that: go to either Digg, Stumbledupon, or Delicious and create accounts (this takes just a few minutes). Then follow the instructions to bookmark a blog post or page on the site that's featured you. This will help drive interest (and possibly traffic) to the site (which site owners will love you for) because you're placing it in a public bookmarking system.

There's a lot more you can do online, the possibilities are really endless - but what I've found is that the confused mind doesn't take action, so the simpler you keep it, the more you'll do. If only one thing on this list appeals to you, that's great. Keep in mind, doing one more thing this week than you did last week keeps you moving forward and helps you continue to create marketing momentum for your book!

Article Source : How Has The Internet Changed

About Author

Both Sue Currie & Penny Sansevieri are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Sue Currie has sinced written about articles on various topics from The Internet, Patent and Trademark and Marketing. Sue Currie, the director of Shine Communications Consultancy and author of Apprentice to Business Ace ? your inside-out guide to personal branding, is a business educator and speaker on personal branding through image and media. Sign up for free monthly t. Sue Currie's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.

Penny Sansevieri has sinced written about articles on various topics from Build Online Business, Politics and Writing. Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a book marketing and media relations expert whose company has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. Visit. Penny Sansevieri's top article generates over 90500 views. to your Favourites.