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ATTRACTING USERS TO YOUR WEB SITE
By Marc Kramer
"Web Sight"
marc@kramercommunications.com
A client of mine developed a web site to sell unique children's clothes. The site's graphics are great, the download time is short, the electronic commerce part of the site works smoothly and because he put in the all the appropriate meta tags his site comes up among the Top 20 in a search for children clothes web sites.
Unfortunately, he still isn't getting many visitors. Therefore my friend's focus needs to be on marketing the site. Unfortunately, he, like most of us, doesn't have a million-dollar plus budget to put together advertising partnerships with major search engines and advertise in national magazines.
In order to drive traffic to his web site this is what he should do.
Publicity: Editors receive press releases every day about new web sites that are popping up. The approach to take is to send a two to three paragraph letter to the business editor letting him know what makes the web site unique and why his readers could be interested in learning more about his web site. Paste a screen shot of the web site into the letter to the business editor. If the clothes are unique and the story compelling there will be interest.
Target List: Make a list of local, regional and national newspapers, magazines, on-line publications, radio and television stations.
Follow up: Once you have sent the releases, call the editors within three to five working days to make sure they received it and check to see if they have any questions. If there isn't an immediate response, nicely send them updates on how your site is doing.
Links: Develop links to other web sites to drive traffic to your site. Offer site owners a 5 to 15 percent commission. The amount of commission you offer will be dependent on the gross profit margins of your products. Amazon.com has developed such a successful links program that there are over 100,000 sites selling books for Amazon and each owner receives 10 to 15 percent commissions depending on the volume of business she sends Amazon.
Classified Advertisements: Depending on the uniqueness of the product, buying classified advertisements in large daily and national magazines is a cost-effective idea. My client with the children's clothing site is running a classified advertisement in magazines targeted to mothers of children age 2 through 10. Classifieds are also good in local newspapers like the Times-Herald if you are selling a service as such magic shows for children or handyman services. A magician can show photos and videos of his act and a handyman can list all of the various services he offers and a price list for those services.
Movie Advertisements: How many times do you get to your local movie theater 15 minutes before your movie starts and end up reading the advertisements and trivia shown on the screen? For individuals offering local services and products this is another inexpensive way to market your site. A friend of mine has a medical supply business for which he has created a web site. He advertised his web site on local movie screens and ran the advertisements only in projection rooms shows adult movies.
On-line Newsletter: Develop a newsletter that provides insight into your industry. First send it out to everyone on your e-mail list in your computer. Then offer it for free to individuals who visit your web site. My client can develop weekly parent's advice column and interview authorities on raising children. She can e-mail her newsletter once a week.
Sponsorship: Offer to donate your services or product at a charity auction. Charity auctions publicize their events and what is being offered at the events to prospective attendees. Usually charities mail to a minimum of a few thousand people to attract a strong audience to their event.
Partnerships: There are media outlets who are willing to provide free advertising for a percentage of the sales of a product if they feel the product has high potential. One large regional newspaper provided free advertising to a web site company selling antiques.
Network Marketing: Offer individuals who are looking for second sources of income the ability to promote your web site for a percentage of each sale. This would work similar to companies allowing you to link of their web site, except this audience may not have a web site, but they would be glad to handout brochures and talk about your product/service. The information these individuals would need to sell for you could be posted on your site and they could download your presentation materials as they need them.
Don't despair, if you don't have bags of money to spend promoting your site, just be creative.