Building Your Web Presence
The Web can be thought of as an upgraded Yellow Pages. Like the old telephone book, the Web is used by people who already know you, and specifically look you up, or by people who find you by searching categorically. But unlike the Yellow Pages, which is a passive tool, you can take an active role in becoming noticed. Today, an effective Web presence requires more than just posting your website, you need a promotional strategy — one that is integrated with your overall marketing and advertising strategy. The Web is obviously not just a place to post an advertisement. It is interactive. You can conduct business there just as you would in the bricks and mortar world. It is your virtual storefront or office. Website promotion:
- requires virtual and "real" world integration;
- is dynamic and ongoing 24/7;
- should be seamlessly integrated into your overall promotional and marketing strategy.
On the Web, you can compete effectively against much larger competitors but to do so you need to get noticed. Without a Web presence you are needlessly squandering your potential. Sure you have a website; you are expected to have a presence on the Web even if it just serves as a contact point. At the very least the website gives a first impression of your organization. It tells the world who you are, what you can do, your mission and how to be reached. It is also a basic communications tool enabling visitors to ask questions, get involved with your company and tell you their needs. Most importantly, it is a vehicle for obtaining customer information for follow-up.
Banner ads on third party websites and "pop-up" ads that appear when a surfer selects a site are obviously popular, but they are not always the best way to promote your site.
Costs for banner advertising have dropped significantly but whether it is right for you depends on the market you are after, whether the use of banners appeals to the visitor profile you seek and whether it fits in your overall advertising budget. Targeted advertising via a more subtle approach is a popular alternative and less expensive. The Internet allows for the most flexible, most precise targeting of potential customers at a substantially lower cost than other media. Consider it the difference between a whispering in someone's ear and shouting to a large distracted crowd; narrowcasting versus broadcasting. Internet promotion and advertising also allows for the most accurate measurement of its effectiveness because you can track customer and visitor behavior easily.
No. Prices are dropping on all forms of Internet advertising. Online promotion, however, requires building an audience in various ways. For example, insuring that search engines find and report your site is as important as advertising, maybe more so. There are many strategies for accomplishing this, but the first is to tag your pages with all relevant descriptors. Tagging is a way to help search engines identify the relevance of your site to an appropriate surfer.
There is nothing more powerful than linking to other websites to build credibility among surfers and search engines. The more links you have the better. Ideally you can locate other appropriate sites that will provide a link, or connection, to yours. Usually a link to your site that appears on another's site requires a small payment but only when the link is activated by clicking on it. You only pay for the "click through."
Google achieved popularity, in large part, by identifying patterns of linkages and showing that higher numbers of links and hits proved to reveal the most relevant sites for users. Today, Google is the most popular search engine. The more links a website has, the higher it is placed on the results page of a search. The more links you can arrange the better. This strategy is called search engine optimization (SEO).
Linking is not just about being placed higher in search engine results, however. Consider each link as an additional "road" to your website, another way for customers to find and conveniently reach you.
For many Internet users, search engines are their gateway. But remember:
- of the many search engines only a few really matter. Google, Yahoo and MSN are the biggest, but there are some specialist search engines and directories as well. Register with all of them;
- some search engines charge a fee to register; at least pay for the big three;
- some search engines sell space (a link) in their search results. A mention of your website will appear on a search according to the terms you suggest. You will then also pay for each hit.
- monitor search engines regularly since they are known to change the rules. One way of knowing this is when you see your company, or paid link, appear further down the search results than expected. Search for the keywords you suggested and you can see if this is happening. If you introduce a new product or service, consider registering it in addition to your company name. Use very selective keywords to be sure you are pinpointing just the right visitors. The search engines do not want to be manipulated and will take action against websites that abuse the tagging system and search word process.
Banners may work for your business. If you are a large organization and have a huge market, banners may be right for you. The cost of banner ads will take one of two forms: either a cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis or per click-through. Creating the right banner and placing it properly is both a science and an art. Make your Internet ads attractive enough to motivate a viewer to want to know more. Some ad options are:
- banners that fit across the top, bottom, or side of a page.
- interstitials—ads that appear while your chosen Web page is loading. Sometimes they are annoying but they do grab the viewer's attention.
- pop-under ads that launch in their own window.
E-mail can be a very effective form of advertising, but not when it is unsolicited. If you have generated a mailing list from satisfied customers and clients, communicating with them is a way of building customer loyalty, informing them of new ideas they are interested in hearing about, and in receiving knowledge of their likes and dislikes. In that way, you are conducting ethical "advertising" because they have chosen to hear from you, by opting in; they know that the relationship is commercial. Sending unsolicited e-mail is becoming more difficult with new laws banning mass e-mailings. Creating a newsletter lets you collect the addresses of interested parties and elevating the communication to a more professional level using graphics, color, and even video segments illustrating your message.
A text signature can be automatically placed at the end of an e-mail that informs readers of contact information. But it can also be used to provide any content such as a small product or service announcement. Thus, it can become an ad space that reaches anyone who contacts you. Andersen Consulting used an e-mail signature promotion very effectively when it changed its name to Accenture. After the name change, whenever one of Accenture's 60,000 employees sent an e-mail, it included a short e-mail signature ad informing the receiver of the name change.
All company printed material should include the website address and a dedicated e-mail address. All stationery (e.g. letterheads, business cards, while you were out slips, receipts, invoices); all product packaging; training and support manuals; and, all print, radio, or television ads should include website information. All brick and mortar locations should also inform customers and the public about the website address. Each location, whether virtual or real, should inform users/visitors of the other avenues they can use to contact you.
Your website will be more exciting when you offer incentives for users to revisit. It can dispense coupons, sponsor competitions and contests, or giveaway free samples. Web-based special promotions are as effective online as promotions in other media. And there is one major advantage: in offering these incentives you voluntarily obtain users' e-mail addresses that can then be used for future newsletters and other advertising.
When your homepage is used as a dynamic portal, it can direct each visitor to precisely the place he or she wants to go on your site. With the right design, appropriate graphics and suitable categories, you can immediately and easily inform each visitor of what he or she needs to know.
The amount of sales, the number of satisfied customers, and perhaps the buzz created to strengthen your brand, are all more important than simply the total number of visitors you receive. Yes, you want to attract people to your site but you want to attract the right people—new paying customers. Don't confuse the number of visitors with the visitors that create real value.
It is important to be identified by the major search engines but that should only be part of a comprehensive promotional strategy. The search engines can help you get visitors but you want visitors likely to buy.
Opportunities are squandered and money is wasted when there are separate marketing strategies. Remember, there is one company; both virtual and real locations must work together to get the most from your marketing dollar.
Websites have been launched with great fanfare only to languish when the initial excitement wears off. The Web isn't a novelty and must be attended to with the same commitment devoted to print and broadcast marketing.
Michie, Justin,
Sweeney, Susan,