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MARKETING YOUR WEB SITE
What marketing efforts are you currently involved in?
- Traditional...
- Web-based...
Are you achieving your goals with those efforts?
Why promote your Web site?
- Increases traffic
- Builds credibility for your organization
- Shows you're in the forefront of business activity, keeping
people informed
- Builds brand awareness by making your name known; e.g., your
organization's logo used consistently throughout the site
- Shows evidence of "return on investment" to those holding the
purse strings
- Enhances the cost-saving aspect of disseminating information
through a Web site
- Helps in your bottom-line objective: makes it easier for your
audience to find your site
Build a marketing plan with purpose
- Strategically plan your marketing efforts;
building in flexibility is key
- Keep your objectives in focus;
drive your efforts by your purpose, goals, audience segments and
how to appeal to them
- Know your constituency; put yourself in their place and then give
them what they want
- Continually look for marketing opportunities and take advantage
of them
- Don't underestimate the value of the global/universal reach of
the Web; remember "six degrees of separation?"––sometimes you may
reach your constituency indirectly, through other audiences/contacts
- Deliver!;
always emphasize the significance of fulfillment in the planning of your site;
great customer service can make or break a site; don't let your audience down
by not delivering what your site appears to be offering; e.g., email requests
and surveys deserve a timely response;.
How do you create a "marketing-friendly" site?
- Create compelling content of value
quality content, images, and well-designed presentation vs. "shovelware";
e.g., Stratsoy's Ask An Expert
- Make the content dynamic
change it often to keep them coming back; consider creating a
mailing list to
keep your audience constantly up to date on the status of your site
content; make
alterations easy for your staff with customized tools like
distributed/remote authoring;
e.g., ACES News
- Organize the content before you design
create a flowchart of the entire site and all of the links to continually
refer to as a visual reference point
- Add content/make changes on a timely basis
out-of-date calendars will not draw users to your site
- Maintain a consistency to the site in both look and content
presentation
helps maintain that brand awareness; consistency in the way you
change the content (in small doses) will also help keep
your audience; e.g., Neoglyphics recently changed the entire
design of their site's interface but the categories were very much like they
were in the previous version of the site so navigation was unimpeded; Sportszone changes content on a daily
basis but continually keeps much the same layout format
- Use text and graphics at reasonable sizes
correlation between file sizes and download times will determine
whether or not
you lose your audience; graphics that are too large––in
terms of the real estate they occupy––can leave the user with
erroneous impressions if he/she doesn't care to scroll to see the
entire page; long text passages that
require scrolling should be avoided whenever possible (about 20% of
users will refuse to scroll); use logical breaks or edit the content; write
text in a one-to-one,
natural or conversational style
- Use bells and whistles wisely
audio, video, animation, 3D, VRML, is appropriate when they build
traffic; e.g., see the interactive functionality at Honda ("Color Your Car") and
Warner Bros
(electronic greeting cards).
- Establish a sound, intuitive navigation system
linear thinking (page-to-page as in a book) is not apppropriate
for the Web; don't underestimate the use of
the Home and Back buttons and the use of frames in complex sites;
e.g., Carle
- Test your site with a focus group
use site testing guidelines; ask yoru participants to look for
content problems,
navigation issues, download times, graphics concerns, etc.
- Encourage cooperation and collaboration between marketing and
technical staffs
you need both to build and maintain an effective Web site and
sometimes they
don't even know each other let alone know how to work together
effectively
- Keep testing your site for problems
find them before your audience does;things to look for: broken
links, content
errors, inconsistencies, graphics problems, etc.
- Don't forget the obvious
include your physical location address, phone numbers, key contact
names and
email addresses in your site and make this information easy to find
Marketing options: positioning your message
- Within your industry
- Networking
spread the word of your site, share experiences, look for experts among
your
colleagues; can be done on the Internet, in person, through
correspondence
- Promote your site at industry shows, conferences,
lectures, etc.
- Announce/promote your site at other industry sites,
consider reciprocal arrangements offline
- As part of traditional marketing
- Your organization's stationery and business cards (e.g.,
ACES' Rolodex card)
- Press releases
- Traditional print media (magazines, newsletters, direct
mail pieces)
- TV, radio
- Promotional items; e.g., seed companies have their logos
on caps, consider putting your URL on them
- On the Web
- Reciprocal linking arrangements
- Through a service; e.g., Link Exchange
- Through your own initiative by networking with
colleagues
- Banner ads
ads that include animation combined with color, and a strong,
simple, well-crafted message
with a clear call to action currently draw best; use of banner
ads in search sites
allows your ad to appear at the top of related results pages
- Use of Meta Tags
meta tags in your pages are invisible to the user but describe
your site and provide keywords to pick up on; this helps increase likelihood
of your site's inclusion in search results
by adding information to what is indexed by the Web "robot"
or "spider"
and providing a targeted description of the site for use in
those search results
- Email used in direct mail campaigns
use it wisely; practice Web netiquette and do not "Spam";
consider use of List Serves to make sure you only send mail to recipients who
want it
- Interactive feedback
target the questions on interactive forms to get the answers
you need; consider providing an
incentive for answering a survey; e.g., free jelly beans are
the reward for answering the survery at Jelly Belly
- Internet newsgroup and mailing list participation (public vs.
private viewing)
- Site registration at search and directory sites
first, submit to the free ones and avoid all-in-ones for the
best coverage of your site; for maximum exposure use the most mainstream ones
first; look for sites that are supported by advertising––they're
generally more credible and mainstream; when going outside your own industry,
look for independent sites so you don't create impressions of endorsements
that don't exist and won't serve your organization's purpose; see handout for
guidelines for submission and list of most common sites at which registration
is free
- Major search sites
- Well-trafficked directories
- Miscellaneous directories, indexes
(geographical, topical, general, award sites)
- Carefully word your description and keywords
for maximum effectiveness
- Follow up on registration submissions
to make sure your site is included–– this is very
important and often overlooked
- Keep track of site usage statistics
to spot trends or patterns that may help your marketing
efforts and be able
to show Return On Investment; there are software applications
that handle this
- Keep watch on the Web
continually look for Web design and marketing tips;valuable
resources on the Web are abundant; one example: Wilson Internet Services
Choosing a marketing or Web development partner
-
Look for a vendor with experience
it won't be a WEALTH of experience because the Web is relatively young,
but, at the least, examples of work should be available to you
- Look for a good fit
do you agree with their philosophies about how to make the
Web useful to your organization or the significance of Web tools,
etc.?; Does
their design sense coincide with yours?; Are they flexible, willing
to work with
you to achieve what you want within your parameters?; Do you see
the value of
their operational methods?
- Look for the vendor who advocates a collaborative arrangement
you are the experts at your business and they should be the Web experts; Do
they want
to work with you on that basis?
- Consider that you usually get what you pay for
professional Web developers can work within a fiscal or time
budget; your uncle's sister's cousin usually has another job and cannot devote
the appropriate resources or priority to your Web project
- Find a vendor who is willing to make a commitment
not just to getting you on the Web, but to helping you stay there
(this means
putting together the resources you need to get the site you want,
even when they can't do it all
themselves)
Summary––Promoting your site should be part of your overall
strategy
-
Plan it well
- Incorporate your strategy into the site design
- Use the resources you already know
- Get to know and use the resources of the Web
- Carefully choose the partners who assist you
This material was presented by Susan McKenna, send any questions or comments to: smckenna@precisiongraphics.com
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