These days an internet marketing strategy plays a vital part of small business marketing strategies (or any size business marketing strategies, for that matter). Website marketing is an important part of just about any business, small or large. You can’t put up a beautiful (or any) website and hope that people will just arrive. You have to let them know, in every possible way, that your website is there. This has to be part of any Internet Marketing Strategy you develop.
This is actually a basic marketing principle. Customers are not going to look for you, you have to look for them. Promoting your website online and building traffic is the subject of thousands of Web sites, e-zines, books, courses, and seminars. Using the web to promote your site, however, assumes that your customers are surfers. But there is a large percentage of our population that is not as savvy with the internet as we would like them to be. So, what about the large percentages of the population who are not? They will only find out about you through traditional marketing and public relations media. This is particularly true if you serve a fairly local market. Fortunately these are the easiest and cheapest prospects for you to reach off-line.
Key Off-Line Internet Marketing Strategies
Here are some of the ways to make your website known (this list was taken directly from the Traffic Building Volume of Ken Evoy’s brilliant book, Make Your Site Sell! 2002:
- TV, print and other advertising
- Stationary and business cards
- Catalogs, fliers, billboards, blimps, etc.
- Direct Mail (prominently on every document)
- Telemarketing (make it part of the script)
- News Releases to targeted media.
The main principle, to which you can add all your imagination, is that internet marketing strategy includes any and all means of getting your Web site known and visited by targeted prospects.
Unless you have a high budget, the TV, radio, or classified ad route is not recommended, but if you do run ads, be sure to mention your Web site everywhere. Make it part of your Internet Marketing Strategy.
