Web Promotion Strategies
There are as many different web site promotion plans as there are web sites. Each business has their own goals and objectives; each has their own specific audience; each has their own core values; and because of this uniqueness, each path to success is a little different.
The investment. Before we get into major factors that play into strategy development we need to consider the investment. Advertising is an investment in your business; and like any investment, it pays to do your research and make your choices carefully. Two words about web promotion that will be key in making a good investment: knowledge and experience. These two factors will be your two most precious commodities. Anyone can obtain knowledge and experience... if they are resourceful enough and they have plenty of time and room in your budget. But, like a Dentist doesn't always make a good mechanic - business owners don't always make good web promotion specialists. So, if you want to do this yourself, be ready for a long and demanding road; because that's what it will take to gain the knowledge and experience you'll need to bring about the desired results of more qualified traffic that will ultimately cause an increase in business.
Time is a factor. The execution of any web promotion strategy takes time - weeks and, more often, months. Although it's been done, don't expect 50,000 visitors in the first week. Success does not happen overnight and good marketing results are not instantaneous. Approach your web promotion strategy as a long-term commitment with regularly scheduled follow-up for as long as you want to be effective on the Internet.
Marketing integration. Web promotion also needs to be an integrated part of the total business marketing strategy. Web promotion goes hand in hand with developing a logo, a slogan or tag line, email campaigns, direct mail efforts, telemarketing, networking, print advertising, promotional events, and whatever else is in your total business marketing strategy. All these marketing efforts are driven by company goals and objectives. All your marketing efforts will have your target audience at the center. And every business decision will be driven by the core values of the company. Before stepping forward with any web marketing strategy, first have these things written out in your business or marketing plan... then the direction for your web promotion be much clearer.
P4P or organic? Now, when you get to putting together the web promotion piece of your marketing plan, you will be faced with a decision of doing pay-for-position (p4p) or organic positioning (natural placement in search engine listings). Many companies will choose a combination of both p4p and organic, but your goals will drive which one you should do and to what level of each. For instance, doing p4p at the beginning of your search engine promotion effort will give you good placement until your organic positioning efforts start showing you closer to the top of the organic listings. At that point you may want to pull back on your p4p efforts. However, you may not want to come out with a blast or your budget may not support a p4p campaign, and so you may only want to put all your efforts into organic listings. Again, it depends a good deal on the goals and objectives of the company.
How much? Everyone wants to know how much all this web promotion costs. We can't tell you exactly. It really depends on what you want to do and how serious you are about your exposure on the web. Have a budget in mind and work with all your options to achieve the best results within your budget. It doesn't always work exactly this way, but one good measure of how much to budget is to establish how much of your business you expect to gain from the Internet, then proportion that amount of your total marketing budget to your Internet marketing effort.
There are plenty of web sites that can help you with all this. Some have good advice, some have bad or outdated advice. If you choose to do it on your own, read much before proceeding with anything to make sure you have good information before you start. If you don't have time to figure all this out, hire a professional to help you.
Journey Internet has a professionally trained search engine specialist on staff. Call today for a consultation - 719-638-9925.