Spread the News...to ALL!

What's the use of having a Web site if no one knows about it? It's all about marketing from here! The key to online business success is clearly promoting and marketing your site to your target audience, in the venues they would respond to.

Search Engines
In the beginning, the easiest and quickest way to promote your site is to submit your site to the search engines. Search engines are an extremely effective method of site promotion, because most people use them to find the services they need. Some free search engines exist but most do charge a minimal fee. Some common search engines are google.com, yahoo.com, and altavista.com.

Email Marketing
In the past few years, email marketing has evolved into a lucrative way to advertise. Customers can sign up on your site and receive customized emails and promotions. You can also expand your customer reach by purchasing lists comprised of your target audience and sending emails about your company's products and services, promotions and news.

Site Promotions/Advertising
Once you determine your target market, you can choose the online or print placements your customers would most likely hit and provide them with various ads offering promotions or product information. Promoting your company's name into the marketplace through site promotions, across various media, offers your potential customers quick name and service recognition.

Keep 'em coming back:

Many companies find out that attracting customers to their site is not as difficult as keeping them browsing there and coming back. Web site "stickiness" defines the strategy to keep visitors on the site longer and keep them coming back at different intervals. Your Web site must be engaging and concise and very relevant to your customers' point of view. "What does this mean to me or how does this impact me?" must be answered every time for your customers.

Once your site is functional, monitoring the types of customers that are coming to your site through some sort of Web statistics package is crucial. You must understand your customer profile to effectively market products and services to them. In addition, identifying the venues your customers are originating from helps you tailor your advertising plan, while determining the pages most often hit enables you to make your site more robust and informative.

Next Steps:

5. Add functionality/Upgrade

Previous Steps:

1. Register Your Domain Name
2. Find a Hosting Company
3. Design your Website