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NetFaqs in This Article
• Promote Offline
• Build An Email List
• Write Articles
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Get Set and Go!
How to Market Your
Business On-Line,
For Busy Business People Who Don't
Have A Lot of Time.
...get
your site at TheWebsiteDistrict and then jumpstart your
marketing with these fast ideas!
by Dr. Kevin Nunley
"I'm at a loss on how we
can properly market our business on the Net," Karen
explained. "We've established an impressive marketing
presence in print media and I don't want our home page
to look shabby or sit there with no response."
Karen's words sound familiar
to many entrepreneurs. By now just about everyone knows
that a website alone will not draw many visitors. Your
on-line presence must be promoted tirelessly. Free classifieds
are everywhere. They also take hours each day to place.
Posting to newsgroups can
be profitable, but it's important to know the group.
Willy-nilly posting of commercial messages can get you
into trouble fast with the on-line community.
The same goes for broadcasting
hoards of unsolicited email messages. Rather than finding
lots of interested prospects, you may well find your
mailbox jammed with hateful replies and a suspension
notice from your provider.
What's a busy small business
person with limited resources to do? Thankfully,
there are several very effective on-line marketing methods
that are relatively easy and quick. Here are three of
my favorites, all well regarded by people who do lots
of on-line marketing.
Promote Off-Line.
Include your URL in all the
printed and broadcast advertising you do. Don't just
add your website address in tiny print at the bottom,
as some businesses do. Spread it across the page so
it can't be missed. Tell the reader or listener WHY
they should check out your on-line presence. Give them
a benefit for finding your page. Supply them with helpful
information or a discount that they can't find out about
any other way. Hand out a one-sheet about your website.
Include your URL on your telephone hold message.
Use the public's current
interest in exploring the Net. Whereas many people won't
read your brochure or analyze your newspaper ad, many
will enthusiastically click through your web site. Use
the opportunity to expose more people to lots of details
about your company, services, and products.
Build an Email List of Your
Customers.
While a great many people
hate unsolicited email, it's perfectly OK to send email
notices about your products or services to people who
have shown an interest in your company or bought from
you in the past.
Recently, when I called a
self-publisher to order a book, he asked me my email
address along with my credit card information. At first
I thought he might want it just for notification of
delivery purposes. But a week later I started receiving
his email newsletter providing me with helpful tips
and information on his latest publications. I find the
newsletter helpful and am more likely to remember him
and buy from him in the future.
Email newsletters are very
simple affairs. Simply write a letter to your customers
providing them with helpful tips. Include information
on your products and services.
Remember that letters are
still regarded as personal forms of communication. Make
your newsletter's tone conversational, friendly, and
informal.
Electronic mail is the marketing
tool of the very near future. We haven't gotten all
the bugs sorted out of it and many people do get irritated
at receiving mail they aren't interested in. BUT, email
is cheap, conserves natural resources, and doesn't pollute
the environment. That's a combination of strengths that
will ultimately overcome all challenges in a very, very
big way.
Write Articles.
Finally, write articles for
one or more of the thousands of new on-line publications.
The Net is about information. People come to their computers
to learn something. Use what you know about your business
to be the expert that many people are looking for.
It doesn't matter what your
area of expertise is--baseball, auto repair, tax law,
growing beautiful flowers--there are hundreds of thousands
of potential customers on-line interested in learning
more.
"But I'm no writer!" I hear
you exclaim. You don't have to be. As veteran on-line
freelance writer Gary Christensen says, "Look at it
as writing a page of instructions." If you can write
a page of instructions on how to do something, you can
be a published expert. (By the way, check out Gary's
marvelous list of links to the editors of on-line publications
at http://www.site-city.com/members/e-zine-master )
If you still don't feel comfortable
putting your wisdom down on paper, call your local college
English or Journalism department and ask for a capable
student to "ghost" write it for you. Take a cue from
the many celebrities and famous business executives
who write books with the help of a professional author.
Before you get discouraged
over the difficulty of getting the word out about your
business on-line, consider adding these three marketing
options to your promotional arsenal. There are more
than a few entrepreneurs doing very well by using nothing
more than one or two of these smart and efficient techniques.
Kevin Nunley provides marketing
advice and copy writing for businesses and organizations.
He can be reached at www.DrNunley.com. Click
here to promote your business to thousands of Media!
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