Forum Moderators: phranque
1. Direct E-mail
2. Newsletter sponsorship
3. Business development
4. Reciprocal links
5. Banner ad
6. PPC
7. SEO
8. Directories
9. Message boards
10. Articles, company news and etc.
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I'd really appreciate your thoughts about the ones I haven't mentioned, the ones I've missed at this list.
The reason why I want to open this thread is to discuss in depth the ways of online promotion and answer on the question 'Which ones are the most effective?'
Thanks a lot in advance.
- What about Affiliation program?
- From our experience, a promotion method that is effective is word of mouth.
Agentwebranking
Speaking about an affiliate program...it really depends on a
product or service you offer on a market.
A word of mouth:-) These magic words don't come from nowhere -
you have to spend a certain amount of money, time, forces,
nerves and etc.;-) to achieve a Good Word of Mouth! But try to
imagine the situation when you have to convince your boss about
spending some money (usually more then just some;) ) on promotion
in situation when even tracking codes don't give you an answer on
the question 'If we spend a money right or not?' Like we all know
these days people don't buy something at once, they spend a time
to do a research about what's going on on a market, about some
particular company and etc. And let's say I spend $? for the
previous month and I had put it mildly not a very good ROI, but
suddenly people start to buy my product real good at the current
month....Why's that? Have they just ripened enough to buy my
product or....?
I am going to have to disagree with you there. Promoting your site via online mediums can prove to be much more effective as it is a direct connection, while offline marketing relies on the person to remember the URL for any given amount of time and then go online and enter the URL.
Promoting your site via online mediums can prove to be much more effective as it is a direct connection
Flipside
It depends on what type of beast you are dealing with. If you have the cash and the service to back it up you can use the traditional marketing avenues, like TV, radio and print. But these sorts of approaches are use by the big boys like Tesco (UK supermarket).
Another factor is the business model you are are working from. For example:
a internet revenue only site would not benefit as much as an existing business that does both online and ofline trading. You may be a local only business so offline marketing would be just as important/effective.
Just my devils advocate slipping in there.
Cheers
Each has distinct advantages and disadvantages.
A person can easily scroll right past an ezine ad without even noticing it while a postcard with a well targeted targeted headline will command attention every time.
I know lots of folks that have had a greater ROI from well executed offline marketing campaigns than from anything they've done online.
It's all a matter of getting the right message in front of the right person at the right time.
Depending on what your target market is, this can often be achieved with much greater effectiveness offline than online.
Back to the topic at hand...
Extremely effective promotion strategies not mentioned in the list above:
Three of the most effective ways to reach new customers are not through advertising at all and one has already been mentioned...
Direct referrals by existing customers.
Free Publicity
and
Joint Ventures with other businesses that already reach your target market.
Word of Mouth:
Referrals can be achieved through refer-a-friend scripts, direct rewards to customers for their referrals, and other viral marketing methodologies.
Free Publicity:
There are hundreds of media outlets that are starving for stories. If you don't have anything newsworthy about your site, it's time to start thinking about how to change that. There is literally millions of dollars worth of exposure available for those that know how to come up with a good hook that ties into their product or service.
JVs:
Joint Ventures are the single most under utilized marketing strategy in the world and can yield greater returns with less effort than any other single approach to acquiring business.
I know folks that have acquired literally tens of thousands of subscribers to their online newsletters using nothing other than free Joint Ventures with other publishers and webmasters.
Think about who it is that already has the attention of the folks you want to reach, then figure out a way to create a win / win / win situation that benefits not only you, but also your potential Joint Venture partner and their audience.
So... straight to the point. I'd like to discuss the methods
Dante_Maure has mentioned.
1. Direct referrals by existing customers.
Sure it's a great way to promote your site and thanks God we do
have a great number of customers enough to give us valued
referrals. But what if you've just started your online
business?...It seems like it's impossible to use free promotion
methods at the early stages of a web site promotion, right?
2. Free Publicity
Sure, YES, on 10000% it's a great way of promotion, 'cause it
builds a good word of mouth. I've just put it to the item
"Article, news and etc."
3. Joint Ventures with other businesses that already reach your
target market.
Yeah....it really depends on how good your site, depends on is it
good enough to attract other businesses to promote your site on
their ones.
It seems like it's impossible to use free promotion
methods at the early stages of a web site promotion, right?
Not necessarily... in fact many of the very best ways to jump start a new venture can have little to no expense, though they may take a good deal of strategic planning and elbow grease.
First, I'd look at what the venture can do to create a strong "hook" that is worthy of media attention. Then to leverage the short term traffic that results from the publicity I'd:
- make sure I had an incentive in place to encourage opt-in and/or registration so that I can build an ongoing relationship with the visitors.
- look at what could be done once visitors make it to the site to encourage strong word of mouth pass along and insure that doing so is easy to execute.
Now let's look at Joint Ventures...
In the beginning I'd be willing to literally "give away the farm" just to attract worthwhile partners.
I'd offer literally as much as profit share as I could afford, to anybody that can reach my target market.
Even if I only break even on the initial promotion to my partner's audience... at that point I can leverage those initial sales into greater profits through repeat purchases, upsells, and encouraging referals.
This is assuming the site has a product or service for sale.
If it's an advertising or affiliate program driven site I wouldn't even consider it unless there was an enormous potential for viral pass along, free publicity, top rankings, or excellent linkage opportunities due to attractive, unique, in demand content.
Yeah....it really depends on how good your site is...is it
good enough to attract other businesses to promote your site on
their ones.
Bingo. All the visitors in the world won't mean a thing unless what they find when they get there is of great value to them.
If you're offering outstanding quality, forming non-competitive but complimentary partnerships can be a very accessable goal.
Your existing customer base is your single most valuable asset.
Do you have a way of being in touch with your current and past customers? Email or snail mail addresses?
Not only can you leverage your existing base to kick start your online presence, don't discount the possibility that within your own customer base there may be many potential opportunities for Joint Ventures.
