Marketing Strategy

ways i hope will help my site gain exposure

[lty83]

Hello All!

I'm starting an internet business website, below I will outline my plan of marketing attack:

1)
submit to search engines
optimize meta tags as well as page content, provide linking system for relevant content

2)
google adwords - invest $200-$300 dollars to start, any recommendations on max $$ on clicks?

3)
linking swapping with other similar sites

4)
i've collected a list of emails of users who wanted notice of launch of site, so i plan on creating a welcome email with possible charter membership advantages.. what do you think? good idea or bad idea?

5)
study my logs daily

6)
bcentral - considering a one url membership

7) overture - maybe? its a toss up between overture and google adwords - what do you think?

Thats all I can think of now, please if you have any recommendations or comments please let me know! :)

[Harry]

Focus on creating the site first! Your plan sounds good, but depending on the topic, don't go spend all that money on exposure. You need to maintain marketing campaigns over a long time before they are profitable. So focus on having something to sell before selling.

I'm not saying to focus on the product alone, as many developers do. Marketing is important, but I wouldn't even approach it the way you are. Focus on who your visitors will be and what's already out there. Then make the site for the what they need that they can't find elsewhere instead of buying exposure.

Even if you can afford to buy lots of exposure, you need to keep your people once they come. So how do you keep them and convert them into buyers? Adwords, Bcentral and Overture can only do so much. The rest is yours to do.

Hope that helps.

[Gareth Parkin]

I think you have the right train of thought on this but be patient it will take time.
I would definatley go for adwords if you can afford it - but ensure that each ad goes to a targetted page - create an ad that targets a specific product and direct that ad to a page that specifically deals with that product - we have used adwords very effectively. lets say we are targetting promotional pens (one of our product lines) we would direct the user directly to a page which looks exactly like the home page but specifically deals with promotional pens and then try to sell directly from this page with special offers, new product ect. etc. The key is to getting the user directly to what they are looking for as quickly as possible. Also I would have an area on your page where people can leave an email address for say a newsletter, literature request, prize draw etc. etc. Email addresses gathered from opted in users are a great way to build your business, you can then send out special offers etc. on a monthly basis for basically nothing - think long term as your business grows, but ensure you keep a record of the users opting in as the law is getting tighter on this.
I hope this is of some use!

[edited by: agerhart at 2:33 pm (utc) on Jan. 16, 2004]
[edit reason] removed URL [/edit]

[lty83]

Wow thanks for responses guys, The site is near completion, just had to recode some vbscript and asp because I guess it was overpowering my server hehe.. before it would take 2 mins to load on cable modem, now it takes seconds :-)

Do you guys think b2b sites are dead? I see many out there, just wasn't sure what your thoughts are?

Site should be completed next week, should I wait till it is fully indexed in search engines before i start with google adwords? or just start right away?

[Gareth Parkin]

Hi pleased to be able to help.

B2B is definately not dead, if anything done correctly is growing. I think yes get your site completed then start with adwords, but there is no need to wait for the search engines to index your site first - just get the adwords running when you are happy with the site and hopefully it will start generating business for you.

[domokun]

id optimise the site first, build up some good links AND THEN submit it to the search engines - your hard work should help the search engines to like you more!

personally if go with adwords but then ive heard some troubling things of late.

i notice you said you where going to check your logs daily, im wondering what it is that you'd be looking for?

[lty83]

Well I was going to check logs for search referalls, search engine indexing bots, possible errors, all that kind of stuff.

I'm kind of stuck between two different options, Its a B2B site, but i'm not sure if I totally want to lock it down, when i say lock it down i mean only let registered users view products, the other option I have it setup for now would be to allow everyone to view products, but hide seller information until person registers.

The only advantages I see to the first option would be at launch, when there are no products listed people not registered wouldn't be drawn away by the fact they see little products, but then again they may be drawn away because they do not know what lies inside, but the second option i think would draw more attention because people could see products, then really gain interest in pricing and contact information and want to register, what do you guys think?

Also, i'm not sure I want to expose sellers contact information such as email addresses specifically because someone could register, grab all the emails and then never come back because they have all the contacts.

Of course there are more advantages to being registered other than business contacts, i'm just not sure what do with that (any suggestions?)

Thanks!

[simonuk]

Adwords is a good way of getting visitors while the SEO is taking shape. you could be waiting a few months before you gain high placements so adwords should keep you going while it's all happening.

Simon.

[Compworld]

Go around an see if you can do cross promoting with other peer sites in your area of business. Also, consider going to USENET and forums to start building some contacts (NOT SPAMMING THOUGH). Ya have to crawl before you can walk in life. Works the same in business.

CompWorld

[zgb999]

>Do you guys think b2b sites are dead?

According to the UN b2b turnover for 2003 was at least 1400 BILLION Dollar.

So obviously there is a market. If there is one in your filed depends on many aspects.

[sem4u]

The B2B market is huge! You just have to get your strategy right :)

[Navdeep]

> 7) overture - maybe? its a toss up between overture and google adwords - what do you think?

its not the single one wheather to go for the overture or the adwords. you can't use the keywords as it is because the search count displayed on the overture or the adword could be different for your website.
so its upto you to choose the appropriate set of keywords from suggestions of overture and adwords. keywords should be appropriate to the contents of the site and that you have to look upon.