Many companies invest tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in web sites, portals and web applications to improve communication with prospects, customers, employees, distributors, suppliers, field sales personnel, etc. Like the movie
Field of Dreams the assumption is often made that "If we build it, they will come." Well, there are no voices in the corn when it comes to site marketing. Many marketers and IT people assume that the target audience will find you, but that's not the case. You need to market your site.
There are often several easy steps that are ignored when it comes to marketing your site. A small investment of time and money in marketing your site ensures greater web traffic and return on your web investment. Here are some things to think about:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Optimizing your sites for search engine ranking is the most important marketing step you can take. Statistics show that 85 percent of web users go to a search engine first when looking for information about a particular subject or product. Having your site rank highly with the top Search Engines like Google and Yahoo is important. Most users will not look past the first page of results.
Content is king when it comes to SEO. Make sure you give every page an appropriate page title and make sure your page content is in text, not image based or in Flash. Use of ALT tags on images is also important. Search engines are not fooled by clever metadata any more.
e-Marketing - The very best way to drive non-incidental traffic to your site is through e-marketing initiatives such as paid listings or paid inclusions on search engines, as well as online ads and e-mail. While this is a subject for another article, the significance of e-marketing as a traffic driver comes from the fact that the user is already online and is just one click away from visiting your site. Offline marketing pales in comparison, as the user has to go to open a web browser and type in the URL.
Offline marketing - Direct mail, advertising and other traditional media can be effective for site driving if done right. As mentioned earlier, it is a daunting task to try to get someone to go to the computer, open a web browser and type in the URL of your site or application. You better be offering something good or users simply won’t do it. Online sweepstakes and other promotions can be effective in converting off-line readers into online users.
Corporate e-mail and other correspondence - Don’t neglect the notion of shameless promotion. Make sure all your employees are including your company’s URL in their e-mail signature. Put the URL in all company letterhead, business cards, fax cover sheets, brochures and even on product packaging. Your employees communicate with your customers and prospects every day. The more times a prospect or customer sees your URL, the more likely he or she is to eventually visit your site to learn more about your products or services.
Log file analysis - If you are getting ready to launch a new site, application or major enhancement you should review your web site traffic log files to determine the most popular pages of your site. Linking new content to the existing most popular pages ensures that your core audience can find the new content. You also can learn a lot about your audience from the pages they visit most and their top paths through the site which can be helpful when planning a traffic driving campaign.
Include direct links where appropriate. For example, if you’ve recently invested in an online customer service application designed to alleviate some of the call volume into your customer service center, then make sure all your sales people and customer service reps include the link to that customer service application in their e-mail signature and that it is printed on all invoices and customer correspondence. Don’t just list your home page URL on those types of correspondence (www.jonescompany.com), put the link to the customer service section right under the 800 numbers for customer service, i.e. "For 24 hour customer service requests, visit our customer service website at www.jonescompany.com/custserv."
