Promoting your website/business

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Marketing for Little Guys, Part 2: Stretching the Budget Even Further By

Katherine Noyes

Small to medium-sized e-commerce companies can go a long way toward

marketing themselves online by doing some simple search engine optimization

(SEO) and taking the time to foster some inbound links to their site.

 

Both can be done without an advanced degree in

computer<http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/emarketing/58860.html#>science,

and both can cost little or no money.

 

However, the opportunities don't stop there. Thanks to the interconnected

nature of the Web, a number of other steps can help e-commerce [image: Free

Trials. eCommerce Data Solutions, Tax Rates, Address Verification &

more.]companies reach even more potential customers for next to

nothing.

 

Part 1 <http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/58800.html> of this two-part

feature looked at myriad ways small e-commerce firms can use SEO and links

to help customers find them. This installment looks at other tricks and

techniques to stretch the online marketing budget even more.

 

Start Writing

 

Offering your own useful content is a powerful strategy for marketing [image:

Email Marketing Software - Free Demo] online. Say you're a carpet cleaner,

for example. If you can write a short article with tips for keeping carpets

clean between professional cleanings, that could be of great value to

readers, Caroline Melberg, president and CEO of Melberg

Marketing<http://www.melberg.com/>,

told the E-Commerce Times.

 

" The best thing you can do with a good idea is give it away, " agreed Will

Dylan, author of *Small Business, Big Marketing*. " Good information about

your product or the problem it is designed to solve will establish you as a

credible authority in your field, and that will have a positive rub-off

effect on the trust level that people place in your Web site, " he told

the E-Commerce

Times.

 

Your keyword-rich article can be something to draw users to your own site,

and it can also be something you post on free article directories online,

such as Ezinearticles.com <http://www.ezinearticles.com/> or

Ideamarketers.com <http://www.ideamarketers.com/>, along with a link to your

site, Melberg added.

Swap Meet

 

" That helps with two things, " she explained. " First, you get a one-way link

into your site; second, and more important, you're getting your content and

ideas in front of a lot of potential new clients. And when other

e-newsletter publishers go out looking for content, they may pick up yours

and send it out to their rs. "

 

Those whose palms begin to sweat at the thought of writing more than a short

e-mail can try to tap into the capabilities of those around them through

barter arrangements, Melberg added.

 

" If your sixth-grade teacher told you not to rely on your writing to make a

living, you may want to form a strategic alliance with another business

owner <http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/emarketing/58860.html#>, " Melberg

explained. " Ask one who's a good writer to write your white paper for you,

and offer them some corresponding service in exchange. "

Keyword Needs Home

 

Search engine optimization and inbound links can take a Web site a long way,

but it takes time to get into Google's <http://www.google.com/> (Nasdaq:

GOOG) [image: Latest News about

Google]<http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/search.pl?query=Google & scope=network>\

top

ranking. Until that happens naturally, it might be worth considering

paid search, or the option of paying Google to list your Web site at the top

when users search on your keywords.

 

Prices, usually done on a per-click basis, are set in an auction-like

manner, so the more other companies there are interested in the same search

terms, the more you'll have to pay. If you compete in a niche market,

however, it may not be too bad.

 

" If you're trying to use the keyword

'automobile<http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/emarketing/58860.html#>,'

you're going to have to go up against the big guns, " Orvel Ray Wilson,

coauthor of the *Guerrilla Marketing* series of books, told the E-Commerce

times. " But if you compete in the market for custom horse collars, for

example, the range of potential competitors is probably pretty narrow, and

you may be able to buy a term for pennies a click. "

 

The lesson: " Be creative in looking for underutilized keywords, " Wilson

advised.

Going for the Relationship

 

In all of these strategies, the overriding goal is to increase your site's

search engine rankings and, in turn, the chances that users will visit.

Then, it's usually up to the visitor to decide whether they will stay or

make a purchase.

 

The job of converting a visitor to a customer is never an easy one, but

ePrize <http://www.eprize.com/>, which focuses on interactive promotions,

has an innovative offering aimed at helping small businesses do just that.

 

" We believe that marketing is headed toward the concept of one-to-one

relationships, " ePrize founder and CEO Josh Linkner told the E-Commerce

Times. " For small e-commerce companies to compete, they need to really get

to know their customers and prospects on a first-name basis. " That way, they

can engage them, nurture the relationship and convert more anonymous

visitors into customers, he explained.

Enter to Win

 

ePrize has long helped Fortune 100 businesses conduct sweepstakes as a way

to involve consumers in a personal way, and in January it launched

CaffeineNow.com <http://www.caffeinenow.com/> to bring the same capabilities

to small and medium-sized businesses.

 

In a 2002 study, JupiterResearch <http://www.jupiterresearch.com/> found

that 82 percent of consumers say they will provide personal data in exchange

for a chance to win, Linkner noted. " The most powerful tactic to convert

anonymous browsers into registered relationships is sweepstakes, " he

explained.

 

The basic Caffeine service, including graphics, security [image: Webroot

AntiSpyware 30-Day Free Trial. ] and even the sweepstakes prizes,

is free; each company then sets a weekly budget limit, and pay US$1 per

lead. It's entirely opt-in for consumers, and the result is an increase of

30 percent in click-through rates, and a 400 percent increase in

registration rates, Linkner said.

Spreading the URL

 

Finally, something many don't realize is that creating a Web site -- however

wonderful and optimized it might be -- is only the first step. In fact, it's

just as important for an e-commerce company to promote its Web site as it is

for it to create it in the first place, Wilson pointed out.

 

Companies should spend a third of their Web budget creating the site, a

third updating and maintaining it, and another third promoting it through

other marketing vectors, he said.

 

" One thing that's commonly overlooked is the importance of featuring your

Web site in all your other media advertising, including business cards,

bumper stickers and the like, " he said. " Put your URL everywhere. "

 

With your URL all over the place, you can only hope potential customers will

be too. Then, if you've done things right, they really will come.

 

 

--

Cheers!

Kathleen Petrides

The Woobey Queen

Http://www.woobeyworld.com