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Customers - Attracting Them Part 2 - Out Of The Box Ideas
Posted by randy on: 2005-11-07 10:43:50
Customers - Attracting Them Part 2 - Out Of The Box Ideas
Justine Curtis, Enable UK
Blogs You can look into starting a blog for your site. A blog,
if well maintained, takes a bit more work and upkeep than the
occasional article, but the rewards can be considerable. Blogs
can also be extremely useful in obtaining good listings in
search engines such as Google. If you have a compelling, topical
blog for your site and get it listed in a couple of feed sites,
you have a great tool for generating both traffic and the
oh-so-valuable links back into your domain for the search
engines. The best thing about the blogs (and the articles) is
the price tag - just a little bit of your time.
Newsgroups and Forums A great way to establish an online
identity and develop relationships with your potential customer
base is by taking part in newsgroups and discussion forums
related to your niche market. These tools can really help you
communicate directly with your niche market and discover what
their wants and needs are.
For example, if you sell special baby products, spend some time
hanging out in new mothers forums - that's where your target
market's going to be!
However, most newsgroups and discussion forums do NOT allow
people to blatantly advertise in them. If you want to generate
traffic through these sites, the best way to do it is to offer
friendly, useful advice to people who express a need for
something, and then include a subtle link to your business site
at the end of all your messages.
If people like what you say, they may decide to visit your site
and check out your products or services.
Viral Marketing Viral marketing tactics like the basic 'forward
to a friend' type emails can be an extremely effective means of
getting your name spread around. Viral marketing often lives and
dies with its reliance on the gimmick or current craze. Viral
programs typically work fairly well with humour related subject
matter but these types of programs can be hard to sustain once
the current craze is over and they have run their course.
Banner Exchange/Ad Swaps Other online techniques like banner
exchanges/ad swaps with other sites are also effective tools for
getting some links pointing in. Typically however, it is often
the web sites that are eager to exchange links/ads that are
hurting for traffic and ranking worse than you are. However, if
they are relevant to your subject and appear to be professional
and on the up it isn't going to hurt you if you have the space
to accommodate them.
Refer a Friend A good way to drive visitors to your site is to
ask your existing customer base to do it for you! There are lots
of sites that offer free "tell-a-friend" buttons you can place
directly on your site, in order to encourage your visitors to
send e-mails to their friends telling them about your site.
If your site offers a free opt-in newsletter, contest, quiz, or
"tip of the day" -- in other words, any information that people
will want to share because it's fun, valuable, or exciting --
include a "send to a friend" button in that feature as well.
It's a great way to get the word out about your site to as many
people as possible and there is nothing more powerful than a
personal recommendation from a friend or colleague.
Offer Free Content One of the best ways to make sure your site
gets mentioned on other sites is to offer them valuable free
content. Many online business owners are happy to get quality
information to put on their site or in their opt-in newsletters
so offer them some of the regularly updated content you've
posted on your own site.
By providing other site owners with free articles, product
reviews, testimonials or advice columns, you'll be doing them a
favour as well as increasing the exposure of your own site. Try
to get your content published on popular web sites or in
newsletters that have large mailing lists.
Before you offer your content, do some research to discover how
much traffic the web site gets or how many people subscribe to
the site's opt-in newsletter. Try to find out which are the web
sites most popular pages for your niche market, this is where
you want your articles to be published!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Remember, this tactic will ONLY work if you
include your contact info and a link to your site at the end of
every article!
Emailed Promotions Email promotions are one of the top ways to
attract qualified traffic to your site. People who have visited
your site and signed up for your newsletter (or a contest or
survey) are far more likely to buy than someone who has never
heard of your site before. It's essential that you stay in touch
with these people!
Encourage visitors to frequently return to your site by emailing
them attractive promotional offers, such as e-coupons or
discounts on new products you're offering, notification of a
sale or a contest you're running, or even free services or
products you've decided to give away to a limited number of
people!
You can manage your mailing list and automate your email
promotions using software like Vertical Response.
To learn more about publishing an online Newsletter, visit our
archives at:
http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/internet_marketing_newsletter_.ht
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Affiliates Without a doubt, an affiliate program is the BEST
way to increase your site's exposure! You can get your
affiliates to drive qualified traffic to your site using ALL the
free techniques we've mentioned so far, as well as other
effective paid advertising techniques.
You can literally get your affiliates to do ALL your marketing
for you!
Many affiliates go to great lengths to make sure their sites are
highly ranked, and because they all link to your site, they
boost your web sites search engine ranking as well!
The best thing about affiliate programs is that you don't pay
your affiliates anything for all the work they do unless they
help you make a sale!
It really is a win-win proposition: The more sales your
affiliates help you make, the more money they earn as well.
As always, in order to maximize your site's exposure, it's best
to use a combination of the tactics listed above in addition to
those detailed in last months issue here:
http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/internet_marketing_newsletter_.ht
ml
For example, if you're sending out an email promotion, you may
want to include a "tell-a-friend" option in the e-mail so that
the people on your mailing list will send the promotion to
others.
If you have an affiliate program, ask your affiliates to post
your articles and product reviews on their sites in order to
help you build a reputation for yourself as an industry expert.
Remember, when it comes to online marketing, there are two
things you need to keep in mind: location and repetition. You
need to get your web site mentioned as often as possible in
places your niche market frequents if you want your site to be
seen by as many potential customers as possible.
If you think you could be doing more to boost your site's
traffic numbers (and really, who couldn't?), start putting these
Out of the Box ideas to work for you today, then sit back and
enjoy all that free traffic coming your way!
To catch up with previous issues of this newsletter, visit:
http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/internet_marketing_newsletter_.ht
ml Coming next month: В· December 2005 - Customers - Converting
Your Browsers Into Customers
Coming up in the rest of the series: В· January 2005 - Customers
- Keep Them Coming Back В· February 2005 - Customers - How To
Reactivate Them
Till next month. Justine Curtis Enable UK Internet Marketing
Information and Resources Make your web site work smarter! Web:
http://www.enable-uk.co.uk Email: info@enable-uk.co.uk
If you have any questions about any of the topics raised or any
other Internet Marketing issues, feel free to email me at
Newsletter@enable-uk.co.uk I do my best to answer all emails or
to cover the issues in future editions of this newsletter.
Feel free to forward this newsletter provided that it is sent in
its entirety with all links intact.
To use this newsletter in any other format, please email for
permission to Newsletter@enable-uk.co.uk
Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter is a monthly publication of
Enable-UK
Copyright В© 2005 Enable-UK.
About the author:
Is your web site driving high quality, targeted customers to
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web site work harder for you. For a complete range of Internet
marketing and advertising resources to improve search engine
positions visit Enable UK.
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