Sunday, January 16, 2011

Website Promotion 101

Some organizations have websites that are almost invisible. If you search for their names in Google, you will find them but you will not see their website address printed anywhere. Sometimes, the reason is valid: their website is so bad that they hope no one will see it. If that is not the case, why not let the world know that you have a website. There are numerous options to publicize a website and many hardly cost anything. This is what this post is about.

When you have a decent website, you should take every opportunity to advertise its existence and its name. The website address should be on every piece of paper given to customers:
  • Invoices, receipts and customer statements;
  • Envelopes and letterheads;
  • Bags and wrapping papers;
  • Annual reports;
  • Product documentation and warranties;
  • Business cards;
  • Christmas cards.

The website address should also be mentioned in every ad:
  • Billboards and posters;
  • TV and radio ads;
  • Newspaper and magazine ads;
  • Flyers;
  • Promotional items.

Finally, the website address should be mentioned at every opportunity:
  • Press releases;
  • Conferences;
  • Interviews;
  • Email signatures.

Of course, all your digital assets like your Facebook fan page, your Twitter profile and your YouTube channel should point to your website.

All of these things will cost you very little if you apply the principle going forward. Do not replace all business cards at once to add the website address but add the information to new orders.

Include www in your Website Address

You are sufficiently web savvy to know the difference between an email address and a website address. You also know that, in most instances, the “www” is not required in front of the website address. Unfortunately, that is not the case for everyone. If the “www” is missing, some people will not recognize that as a website address. For those, please include the “www” in your website address.

Examples of Website Promotion

I searched my house and found these examples of website promotion (see images below):

  1. On a Boréale beer bottle, they shows their website address: http://www.boreale.com/;
  2. Behind the Nintendo DS instruction booklet, they indicate many ways of getting help, including their website address: http://www.nintendo.com/;
  3. On bags from Simons, you can see their website address: simons.ca. Too bad they forgot the www. Otherwise, great website and great products.
  4. Behind the packaging for Olivieri fresh pasta, you can see their website address: http://www.olivieri.ca/
  5. On the cover of the IKEA catalog, they give their website address: http://www.fr.ikea.ca/.



Conclusion

Implement the ideas presented in this article and you should notice an increase in traffic to your website. You do get monthly reports on website visits don’t you?
Do you have other ideas to promote the existence of your website? Please share.

You may also be interested in this article: Promoting your Facebook Fan Page From your Website.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Marc - good points but you left out QR Codes that target smart phone users. Develope a web link QR code and post it on the outside of your business or in a high traffic area and watch your traffic climb. You can also use the QR code on your direct mail pieces and find out where people are scanning it from through the smart phone GPS. Cool way to drive tech savvy people to your site, they are also the demographic with the highest level of income and most likely to reccomend a website to another individual. FYI from A. Thiel Marketing.

Unknown said...

Hello A. Thiel Marketing,
You are right in saying that QR codes can be used to promote a website, particularily if it markets to a tech savvy crowd. However, this is a level 101 article.

Thanks for the comment

Anonymous said...

Ohhh... missed the 101 part - cheers Marc.

David Ritchson said...

Don't forget to add the specific niche and the community that has a great interest on your product. The internet is a good thing in our world today, not only it gives us more publicity but promoting a promoting is a breeze.

promotional products in miami

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