The Web represents a new marketing channel. Promoting the Web site is about giving people specific, tangible reasons to visit your Web site. These include service-oriented reasons, such as being able to track order status, review purchase history, and receive e-mail reminders, among others. Price-related reasons for visiting an e-commerce site include discounted merchandise and special sales.
A site's content can also give people a reason to visit. In addition to product descriptions, an e-commerce site can include editorial stories, tips, recipes, how-to advice, and similar items that indirectly promote a business's products and services.
There are many specific ways to promote an e-commerce Web site. Some ways, such as offline advertising, involve millions of dollars. Others can be done at little or no cost. In addition to online and offline advertising, Web sites are promoted through e-mail marketing, promotions and incentives, viral marketing, search engine listings, reciprocal links from other sites, and affiliate programs, among other ways.
According to a 2001 report by the Yankee Group, traffic to a Web site remains driven primarily by offline methods. Instead of developing integrated marketing plans that incorporated both online and offline media, companies were typically listing their Web sites only in traditional marketing materials.
Web marketers are interested in how Internet users discovered the Web sites that they visited. According to a survey by Forrester Research, the most popular ways that Internet surfers found Web sites in 2000 were
- by using search engines (80 percent)
- by linking from another site (59 percent)
- via viral marketing (56 percent)
- by watching television (48 percent)
- by guessing the URL (22 percent)
- and through radio (19 percent).
Since respondents could list more than one method through which they found Web sites, the totals added up to more than 100 percent. All of these methods suggest ways that Web sites can be effectively promoted to increase traffic.
OTHER WAYS TO PROMOTE A WEB SITE
E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS.
These are regarded as one of the most effective and low-cost ways to promote a Web site and generate leads. Through a weekly newsletter, companies can communicate with existing and potential customers on a regular basis. Often, these newsletters are forwarded to friends and colleagues, thereby increasing the Web site's reach to a wider audience of potential customers.
EVENT MARKETING.
Large companies hold events that are designed to generate enthusiasm about their products and services, including Web site promotion. Company representatives also talk with the media, visit customers, work trade shows, and speak at conferences to build enthusiasm for their company, its brand, and its products and services.
AFFILIATE PROGRAMS.
These programs let other sites drive traffic to a specific site. Programs for associates or affiliates are designed to make it easy for others to link to the designated site and to receive a commission on sales they generate. The simplest way to set up such a program is to put up a link to a simple sign-up form on the Web site. It's a good way to acquire new customers. The cost in commissions is usually no more than the cost of acquiring new customers by other means. Affiliate programs also make a Web site's content more valuable to visitors by offering them links to other products and services that are likely to be of interest. In addition to acquiring new customers, affiliates gain additional revenue from the traffic, leads, and sales they generate for other affiliates. Linkshare (www.linkshare.com) is an online information center for affiliate programs through which Web sites can join a variety of programs in different categories.
PUBLIC RELATIONS.
Web sites can be promoted very cheaply through a steady stream of news releases. News releases announcing new products, services, and features can be sent to local and national media. Once these news releases appear in the media, they become not just a business promotion but actual news.
PARTNERING.
Web sites that affiliate with established, brand-name companies enjoy higher visibility than stand-alone sites. E-commerce Web sites can build relationships with well-known trade magazines and media companies to gain more exposure and promotion.
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