Marketing

No piece of marketing is an island. It becomes part of a whole, contributing to the overall image of a business or organization. Additionally, as more and more web sites perform business transactions online, it's becoming imperative to drive traffic to the online presence.

As many businesses don't have an in-house marketing department, or use an outside marketing agency, we've compiled some tips to help you gain the most from your web site.

Try to get your web site's address in as many locations as possible. Every time your business or organization is mentioned, the site's address should be given as well. Make sure your business cards, brochures, letterhead, flyers, billboards, television and radio ads, all mention the address. You can work on this ahead of time as soon as a domain name is chosen (www.yourcompany.com) and reserved, while your site is being designed.

Telephone hold messages can list the web site and extoll some of its features.

Banner ads on other sites can help people to click to yours. Encourage other sites to link to yours.

Give out press releases. Interviews on high traffic media can be an incredible boon.

Items like T-shirts, cups, hats, and magnets can all promote your site; give them away! Receipts and reorder forms should all send people to the site where they can order more easily or find more information.

The marketing buzzwords today are "permission marketing." People get angry at email and newsletters that "spam" them. They enjoy the information that they do want, though. If a customer has indicated you may send them newsletters, do so, providing useful, interesting information. Provide links back to your site for more information.

Magazines and journals are especially useful as they usually have a target audience.

These media allow you to quickly grab a person's attention, sending them to the web site where further, more detailed, information is available.

Give benefits to visitors of your site in the form of convenient ordering options without the phone wait, information they can use, special pricing, and electronic coupons.

Of course, it's not only important to drive traffic to your web site, but to make sure your visitors' time there is well spent. This means the site loads fast, and visitors are turned into customers as they find the info they need or the product they want. But make sure your site can handle the potential traffic. If you expect to roll out a new product that will be widely anticipated, your site's "hits" may overwhelm the web server. A missed opportunity due to a downed site could cost you thousands or even millions of dollars. Let your computer staff or your hosting provider know if you expect a large increase in traffic. They can then plan accordingly for such spikes.