Web Site Promotion: Creating a Buzz

By Staff Writer

With the ever-expanding World Wide Web, how do you let all those potential customers know about your site? You can’t rely on the “stumble factor” alone to generate profitable traffic for your business. You have to get the word out there—both online and off—to attract visitors to your Web site.

You probably heard about the outrageous Web site marketing techniques during the Internet boom of the late 1990s. Whether it was a town changing its name to a dot.com or a business paying $5000 to expecting couples willing to name their baby after the company, no lengths were too extreme. Fortunately for small business owners, there are many other, more practical options for creating buzz about your Web site. Here are ten of the most popular.

10 Easy Ways to Publicize your Site

1. Put your URL on all business-related materials that serve as advertising. Think of where your company’s name shows up: on your letterhead, business cards, brochures, employee uniforms, company vehicles, and promotional items like T-shirts, hats and coffee mugs.

2. Include your Web address wherever your phone number appears for customers, such as in your ad in the phone book and on the pages of your catalog.

3. If you send press releases to the media, list your URL so it will be included in any articles.

4. Look into improving your search engine ranking by adding Meta tags to your site. This may not be the biggest source of your traffic increase, but it can’t hurt.

5. Consider paying for placement with a program like Yahoo!’s “Yahoo! Express” or Google’s “Adwords.” These are text-based ads, and keywords are sold by impression. No guarantees, but many have reported a 4 percent lift in visits.

6. Make sure your Web site is a two-way street for communication. Get talking in online discussion groups and chats. Consider placing customer surveys or feedback areas in prominent spots on your site. Often this information can be marketed as trend analysis news material. Be sure to always include your Web address in your signature. Likewise, add your URL to your email signature.

7. Improve your visitor return rate with email marketing. Send out a newsletter with tips and articles, or even just a simple email with a savings opportunity, to past customers and registered site members. Don’t forget to include plenty of links back to your Web site!

8. Exchange links with complementary sites—that is, you put their link on your site and they put yours on their Web site. It’s a simple and inexpensive way to open up your potential customer base. Look for sites whose offerings go hand in hand with yours. For example, if you sell tropical fish, find someone who sells fish tanks.

9. List your products with a shopping comparison site, or bot. Although some of the shopping bots operate on a cost-per-click basis, some are still free, like Google’s new Froogle Web site. Others charge on a commission basis. Examine your choices and decide what’s best for your business. It can be an efficient and easy way to sell your product and get your name on the Cyber Street at the same time.

10. If the customers don’t come to you, go to the customer by using auction sites like eBay as a marketing tool. Garner attention by selling your product at a low price, and then once the purchase is made, add the names to your customer list for future marketing (with their permission, of course).

Most importantly, don’t be afraid to get creative. You’re probably not ready for Super Bowl half-time commercials, or a blimp bearing your name at major events, but don’t allow yourself to be limited by the above list. And don’t forget: Even the Amazon.coms of the Web were once unknowns, striving to create buzz.