Become A Super Promoter - Lesson 7

A Leading expert Web Site

With most marketing strategies, you are an actor on someone else’s stage; a contributor to a magazine, a speaker at a conference, or a guest on a radio or television program.  But when you have a Web site, you are the writer, producer, director, and star of your own show, with the opportunity of becoming a mini-celebrity reaching a large number of people.

A Web site is also a powerful branding tool that tells your story, showcases your expertise, and puts a human face on your business.  A Web site expands your reach.  It’s a platform from which you can reach thousands of prospects.  It can also create new profit centers, and literally make money for you while you sleep.

You need a Web site if only because people today expect you to have one.  Not having a Web site these days is like doing business without a phone.   Create a Web site that advances your marketing strategy, attracts new business, and dramatically expands your market by building a loyal online following.

Master of Your Domain:  Make Your Business Web-Centric

Your Web site can become the flagship of your marketing strategy, achieving its full potential when you fully integrate it into your business.  A Web site is not a static, online brochure you create and forget about; properly set up and maintained, it becomes a virtual branch office and around-the-clock salesperson.

As a resource for your industry, your Web site can feature lots of useful information, including articles, links, downloadable files, client resources, and anything else of use to your target market.  Its also one of the most effective channels for establishing strategic alliances, facilitating co-promotions, promoting online classes and seminars, and reaching a global audience.

Press Room

Many Web sites fail to provide the kind of fast, basic information journalists are looking for.  That means lost publicity opportunities, since harried journalists looking for information will quickly move on to another source or subject.

In contrast, a well-designed Web site with an easy-to-use press center will attract reporters who are writing about your industry or community.  To design a Web site that meets the media’s needs, keep these tips in mind:

· Provide a direct link from your home page to your press center.
· Give reporters what they are looking for:  press releases, media clippings, and other information that facilitates their research.
· Make company facts and information easy to find and read.
· Prominently display contact information and include phone, fax, pager, and cell phone numbers, as well as e-mail addresses.
· Offer the names of people in your company who are expert in particular subjects.
· Include links to relevant sites, including industry organizations, clients, and governmental agencies.
· Invite reporters to register to receive future company news and updates.

Marketing Your Web Site

The Internet is billions of pages large, so it doesn’t take too much analysis to appreciate that the chance of someone finding your site by accident is close to zero.

There are three ways people will get to your site.  First, they come to it because you can tell them the URL, either directly or through your advertising.  Second, they find it through a link on another site.  Third, they find it through search engines.

The best place to begin promoting your Web site is within your existing contact network.  Plaster your Web site address on everything that represents your business or touches your buying public – your business cards, invoices, letterhead, and yellow pages ads.  It’s also worthwhile to announce your Web site through a mailing to vendors, associates, and business contacts.

Don’t merely tell people that you have a new Web site, offer them an incentive to visit; a free report, a sample product, a free teleclass, anything with perceived value.  You can provide extra motivation to people by offering special benefits that carry an expiration date.

It may take some effort to turn your skills, knowledge, and advice into products, but once you’ve done it, you’ve created assets that can then be sold and resold over and over again.  If you create and market information products that are in high demand, you can literally make money while you sleep.