Marketing Your Site

Now your website is up and running, how do you get people to come visit?  More important, how do you get the right people to come?  By marketing your site!  Contrary to what you might think, you should consider how you will market your site from the beginning, taking your marketing plans into consideration when planning your site design.

Mainship Systems can help you develop an effective marketing plan around your goals and your budget.  By carefully combining different marketing options, we can help you maximize you exposure, while minimizing your expense.  We can help you make sense of the various options available, and how to use them.

Search Engines
If you have a website, you want to be listed in the major search engines, easily found by people who are looking for what you have to offer.  Your website should be designed with search engine listings in mind, and should include the right metatags to insure that your site comes up under the right keywords.  Today however, search engines are changing the way they rank websites.  Many are charging for higher placement.  Others will rank sites according to popularity, as measured by how often a site is linked to.

Banners
While banners are no longer considered the ultimate in web marketing, don't dismiss them entirely.  They are still a relatively low cost way to get your message out.  A well designed banner can still bring people to your site.  Keep in mind, the more often people see a reference to your site, the more likely it is that they will visit at least once.  If you're willing to host banners on your own site, use can get free banner exposure through the banner exchanges.

Opt-in Email
An email campaign can be a very effective marketing tool, but you need to be careful that your email isn't regarded as spam.  Spam is a great way to lose business you haven't even gained yet.  You can also lose your web host account if enough people complain.  So how do use email?  You go through an opt-in marketer such as PostMasterDirect or YesMail.  These companies allow people to request email on topics of interest to them.  When you rent an email list from them, you only get email addresses of people who expressed an interest in what you have to offer.  This is a triple win situation: you only pay to send email to people who are already interested; the people who receive your email are receiving a requested service; and the opt-in company makes money keeping everyone happy. 

Online Advertising
Perhaps the simplest form of online advertising is adding a few lines about your website to the bottom of every email you send out.  Nearly everything discussed on this page will also qualify, including search engines, banners, opt-in email, affiliate programs, and referral pages on your own site.  You can also buy advertising space on other websites.  Sites that compliment your own, and web portals such as Yahoo would be good candidates. 

Off-Line Advertising
A common mistake is to ignore the benefits of off-line advertising.  Depending on the size of your advertising budget, try to locate radios stations, newspapers, magazines, etc. that target your target audience.  If your business is local, look into local papers, circulars, even Church and Temple publications.  Try sponsoring a local event.  You will not only be generating business, but valuable good will as well.

Affiliate Programs
Clearly, any business or venture would benefit from a network of salespeople, especially if they were all paid on commission.  This is exactly what a good affiliate program will do for you.  You offer other webmasters the opportunity to put your banners or other links on their website, and pay them commission on any business they bring you.

There are three main types of commission - click throughs, leads, and sales. A click through is when a visitor to an affiliate site clicks on your banner, coming to your website.  Click through commissions are generally 1 to 5 cents per click through, though I've seen them as high as 25 cents per.  A lead is when a visitor to your affiliate's site clicks on your banner or link, then signs up or registers on your site.  In most cases, an affiliate will only get credit for the lead if the visitor has not signed up before.  Leads are generally 5 cents to one dollar each, though I've seen them as low as 1 cent, and as high as 2 dollars.  If a visitor to your affiliate's site clicks on your link, then makes a purchase at your site, the affiliate is credited with a sale.  Sale commissions can be a fixed rate, or a percentage of the sale.  Which type(s) of commission you offer would depend on the type of website you have. 

Checks are generally sent out either once per month, or once per quarter.  You can set a minimum amount that the affiliate must reach before a check is sent out.  If the affiliate doesn't reach the minimum, the amount of commissions earned is carried over into the next cycle.  The affiliate doesn't lose his or her commissions, and you don't need to worry about spending more on postage than the amount of the check.

Mainship Systems can set up and maintain your affiliate program for you.  or you can sign on with one of the major affiliate programs. 

Your Paperwork
Perhaps the most important thing you can do to promote your website, is to promote it yourself.  Your website should have an "Email This to a Friend" or a "Refer a Friend" form.  Do you have business cards, invoices, proposal forms, signs, or flyers?  Make sure that they all include your new web address!