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Web Marketing 101May 06 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Marketing your E-Business website is essential to making a profit. Here are some pointers.
Everyone talks about how the internet is going be the next big marketplace for the 21st century. This statement is just due to the fact that the internet is the most far reaching form of marketing a company can provide for it's customers without spending a whole lot of cash. Companies can invest little in initial setup costs and reach potential customers all over the world. Therefore potential is there, think about it your customers can order products 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from anywhere on the globe, or you can reach them wherever FedEx UPS or USPS can reach. Then there is the ease of customer service via the web; email, surveys, forms, comments, complaints all at the click of a mouse. However with all this new found power to reach potential clients all over the world. We may forget the most basics in promoting a website. Here are a few tips that will help get you going on the right track. 1)URL: Remember to make your URL very simple, something that incorporates your company name in it or something that is easy to remember. The most successful URL's are ones that are easy to remember. Yahoo, EBAY, etc. 2)Get your name out: You can do this by including your website on your company literature. Such as brochures, newspapers, advertisements, and business cards. Also if you have notices a lot of companies give out t-shirts with their URL's on them. These are a cheap way to promote your company as well. 3)Target: Target your customer. Advertise in relative magazines and include your URL. E-Zines are also a cheap way to maximize your advertising dollars. This way you can target a specific audience. For example if you are selling athletic shoes, you should advertise to young adults, athletes, and other people who will actually use the shoes not people who never need a pair of sneakers. 4)Research: Research your competitors. The good thing with the internet is that your competitors business models are available for you to look at online. Look at how may yahoo, and ebay look alikes there are out on the web. Also see how they are promoting their site. Such as what keywords they are using. 5)Search Engines: Advertise to all the major search engines. Lycos, Yahoo, Hotbot, Infoseek, and others. This is fairly common practice, so do it. 6)Cross Link: Crosslinking, banners, webrings, all ways that you can benefit from other communicating and working with other websites, and this practice won't cost you a penny. So find a company that is related to you, if you sell shoes, see if a sock company or an athletic website will link you. 7)Offer: Have other ways of luring customers to your site. Have games, tips, whatever way you can imagine. If you are selling kitchen supplies, have recipes available. This way they will have a reason to come to your site. Also have a way they can register with your site so that you can get some information about your clients. This way you can also mass email to them to let them know about any promotions that you have available. Another way is to offer things in return for registering a discount or a t-shirt this way you build a relationship with your client. 8)Direct: Try to direct traffic to your website. Many 800 numbers you call for customer service have a recording that states that you can get most information from a company website. This way you can minimize the amount of customer service reps you have by directing questions that do not require personal attention to the website. Have a FAQ for this purpose. 9)Security: If you are selling something on the website you should assure your buyers that it is secure. Most first time buyers online are scared for security reasons. Thus secure credit card orders are a must and also providing secure order forms. Many third party companies provide this service. Also have a privacy statement about how you will not sell private information that you collect from step number 8. 10)If all else fails If all else fails, seek professional advice. There are plenty of consultants in this field. Yahoo is one that I know of, but there are many others too. Summary: Anyone can setup a website, but to be successful and generate the traffic so that you can make a profit off your website it takes certain tricks of the trade as well as getting the basics right. Thus focus on the basics first then all will fall into place.  |
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