Most web marketers have seen the usual promotion strategies dozens of
times. Search engines, newsletters, email ads and the like. Yet it can
seem like a painfully slow process to build up from a trickle of visitors per
day. Slow and steady marketing programs will pay off, but sometimes
slow is just too discouraging! Unfortunately many web business owners
will give up because of the psychological toll of a slow start.
To boost your site (and your confidence), you need to focus on bringing
traffic to your site NOW to build an awareness of your site’s
existence, even if it does not immediately translate into sales. You also
need to let the big guns in your industry know that you are online, and that
you intend to be a player. You need a promotion strategy, not an
advertising program. If there is one concept to keep in mind throughout
your web marketing career, it is this…
You can promote without advertising. In fact, promotion is often a much
more powerful way to succeed. We tend to think of these two concepts as
one and the same, but you are severely limiting your results if you
concentrate only on "advertising." For one thing, there are rules about
advertising (i.e. spam). In addition, we are all growing more impervious to
ads; we see and hear so many per day that we unconsciously filter them
out.
Advertising is geared towards the sale. Promotion, on the other hand, is
geared towards building awareness. Promotion focuses first on the
person you are communicating with, and then subtly returns the focus to
you. You can advertise your site without emitting those bad vibes that
"advertising" usually produces. How do you accomplish this? There are
several ways, only one of which we will discuss in this article.
Email. Not email newsletters, or email ads, or email discussion groups but
person-to-person email. Yes, you can send free email to people you
don’t know, provided that you are offering something of value (or
potential value) for the recipient. A blatant ad is simply spam, which will
win you no friends at all.
The first step involves making a detailed (if not exhaustive) list of other
companies/web sites related to yours. Now carefully formulate the
approach you are going to take to inform these companies of your
existence.
You need to have some feature on your site that might benefit them, which
becomes the angle you will be using. (You should actually have these
features on your site; please don’t lie just to get the "angle.")
1. Have a links page. Institute your links first and then inform other sites.
Obviously, you can’t link to 500 web sites, but you CAN email them,
ask for more information about their company and tell them that you will
consider a link to them (make sure that you do add some of these
companies, or rotate your links periodically)
2. Write a monthly (or weekly) feature on a related company that is doing
something new and/or exciting. Email a large selection of companies, tell
them that you might like to feature them in the future and ask for more
information. (You can email them again when they are featured!)
3. If you feature/review/promote any type of product, you have an immense
opportunity to contact hundreds, if not thousands, of companies for
information. Most often you will have little trouble getting a response.
Every company loves to talk about itself, and have others in their industry
acknowledge them as an important player. Even if your site is small,
companies will value the exposure you can give them. Your carefully
constructed emails will not only stroke their ego, but will let them know who
you are. You might develop a correspondence relationship with some, and
those that benefit from your features will often help you in return. Others
may return to your site periodically to see their feature.
So start sending those emails, but remember… it’s not about
you, it’s about them!
About the Author
Michele Haapamaki writes for Eworksworld, the only Internet Marketing Portal
that reviews marketing companies and sites all in one place, so you spend
less time searching the web! Send in your tips to our Red Ink Watch, which
provides unbiased commentary on the (mostly negative) balance sheets of
major Internet companies!