All business owners should be aware that it would be silly to just set up shop and expect business to begin pounding at their door. Once a web site is up and running, you must entice new and existing clients to visit. To do this, you need a web site marketing plan. This plan should cover the first year of operations and it should be flexible enough to allow for optimization of effective techniques.

Traditional Advertising

One of the first things to consider is traditional advertising. The focus here is to drive potential and existing clients to your site using print (newspaper and magazines), radio, direct mail, TV, coupon books, and billboards. This type of advertising can be very expensive for a small business. The expected return on investment (ROI) for these types of advertising is as varied as the costs of the advertising themselves.

Press Releases

This is a great way to inform the media of special events tied to your web site. Media attention is a great way to gain company and product recognition. This aids in reciprocal linking, search engine clicks and ultimately sales. There are many release services available with many different options and fees.

Paid Internet Listings

Paid listings are the easiest and most effective ways to list your site for the world to see. These listings range from simple submissions to managed campaigns. Included in this category are listings in “yellow page” services, guaranteed click banner ads, paid inclusion, and premium listings.

Pay-per-click

Many search engines and directories now offer pay-per-click services. This type of advertising allows you to set the amount you are willing to pay for a click and monitor the actual clicks you receive. This guarantees that you will receive additional visitors to your site. The ideal use for pay-per-click is to gather user information for “Push Marketing” efforts. If you are offering a newsletter, an opt-in mailing list for specials or interesting information and updates, pay-per-click is the way to go. Click here for more information.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Although SEO is one of the most discussed advertising techniques; it is the most difficult and time consuming. The process involves optimizing site pages with researched keywords. Keyword research is done to determine what keywords will be the most successful in driving targeted traffic to your site. Once these keywords are identified, the site pages are modified to take advantage of how the search engines rank them. We offer a few options for SEO. Click here for more information.

Push – Pull Marketing

The push part of this tactic refers to materials that are sent from your business to prospective clients. The pull aspect is what the potential client chooses to view. Examples of push are emailed newsletters and special announcements. Pull is accomplished through many forms of advertising that entice the potential client to visit your site. Push and pull are used in conjunction because successful pull can produce great opportunities for opt-in pull.

Site Enhancements

This process not only improves the performance of a site, but also improves the effectiveness of a site. This process involves updates for changes in technology and Internet standards (28 point inspection), directory submissions, child friendly listings, paid advertising research, and award submissions.

Directory Submissions

There are over 2,500 niche directories that allow direct submission for listings. These directories are an important way to let potential clients know you are there. Although each directory accounts for little traffic, when they are combined this is a valuable resource.

Award Submissions

There are over 100,000 sites that offer awards for a well-designed and useful site. This is another way to drive traffic to your site. Most award sites will link to you if you qualify for one of their awards. Although the amount of traffic and interest in your product or service may be limited, it always pays to explore this avenue because you never know how a potential client will find you.

Reciprocal Linking

This type of linking has been around since the Internet began. Recently, there has been a boom on Reciprocal Linking due to the new Page Rank algorithm implemented by Google. Page Rank looks at a site and determines how many other sites on the Internet link to it. This information is used to help determine placement for Google search results. This means that it is important to have sites link to you. You can do this using reciprocal links. The basis of this is trading links (you link to me and I’ll link to you). There are two factors to keep in mind; the more popular the site is that links to you, the more their link weighs and links from sites that have content that relates to yours are preferred. Click here for more information.

Affiliate Programs

These programs increase traffic to your site and provide the possibility for an additional stream of income. As an affiliate of another site, you are paid when someone clicks to the main site from yours. If you start an affiliate program, you can pay other sites for clicks to your site. There are many options available to become an affiliate and to run an affiliate program of your own.