Which promotional strategy is most effective

Your audience will determine which promotional strategy is most effective, but there is a group of actions that can be applied to almost all web sites, whether or not they have a substantial marketing budget. Even if your service is not actively competing with similar sites, you are still competing with the rest of the Web for your audiences time and attention. Being easily found is as much about customer service as it is about competitiveness the more easily you can be found, the better the service to those who know about you, the better the impression on those who do not.

Off-Line Promotion

These three activities are ones that any organisation might undertake, regardless of whether it has a web site.

Release

• Press releases to all stakeholders customers, suppliers, staff, owners as well as the media

- Launch events a new web site, or a new development within a web site, might be an opportunity for an event, or for a formal launch at a conference or exhibition

- Competitions off-line competitions involving the web site, perhaps some form of short quiz based on web content, designed to force participants to at least explore the site

- Trade and professional media always looking for relevant industry news, so more likely to feature your site than national media outlets

- Internet media and supplements if your site has an unusual example of some feature, or is particularly novel, then contact the general Internet magazines for a brief mention or even a case study.

The leading Internet magazines Internet Works, Internet Magazine, .Net and the others all list dozens of new sites in each issue. Several are also included in the broadsheet weekly Internet supplements.

Internet Resources Newsletter (http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/irn.html) lists several dozen new sites each month, and reaches several thousand readers and it’s free. It’s less appropriate for pure commercial sites perhaps, but suitable for those that have relevance to the academic and research community

Include

• E-mail signature sending out an e-mail without an effective signature file is like writing a business letter on plain paper. The signature should contain a link to the web site as well as other contact details. Ensure that all staff in the organisation have an effective signature

- All stationery items both for internal and external use should carry the URL

- Vehicles, shop-front and print Internet advertising should incorporate the URL

- Switchboard operators should be informed of the web site and its contents, as indeed should all staff

- Giveaways, souvenirs and other exhibition or course materials.

Everyone who deals with your organisation should be aware that there is information available on your web site. They should have a general idea of what is available, and of course they need to know how to access it.

Advertise

• Posters depending on the web site, Internet advertising on the tube, on buses or on billboards may be appropriate (budget permitting)

- Printed newsletters, inserts and flyers more affordable than media Internet advertising in many cases, and also better targeted

- Banner adverts individually negotiated banner adverts on specific web sites can be useful, although more general banner Internet advertising has a very low click-through rate and may therefore only be of limited effectiveness. Careful consideration as to cost and effectiveness is needed, but if a relevant site can be identified it can bring interested and informed visitors your way (as opposed to general sightseers). Costs range from £15 to £60 CPM (per thousand impressions)

- Radio Internet advertising can be surprisingly affordable, particularly for short concentrated campaigns, with a 30-second slot costing as little as £30 on local stations. If you are EasyJet, you can start a chain of cyber-cafés to promote your airline. If you are the BBC, you can get every programme to mention your URL. If you are Dixons, you can give away CDs from every shop. All of these are good examples of cross-promotion.

On-Line Promotion

While the three off-line activities have budgetary implications, the three key on-line activities are essentially free, costing only staff time to implement.

Link

Links operate in two directions, both of which can be harnessed to promote your site.