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Marketing on the Internet
1.
Does Your Website Earn Its Keep?
by Barbara Casey
Originally, I had planned to write an article
called "Do You Need a Website?" The "bottom line" of the
article would have answered "Yes", because a website allows you to:
-- demonstrate your work
-- advertise your events
-- sell without a physical store
-- automatically collect prospect information
-- inform and instruct
-- show testimonials
-- create a client community
-- and so much more, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Websites offer a lot of space to explain what we do, how we do it, and the
benefits to be gained by using our product or service.
So, yes, most of us need a website to stay competitive, to appear credible, and
to explain our (non-mainstream) businesses.
Websites, however, cost money to write, design and host. Many search engines now
charge annual fees to register. You have to pay to renew your domain name every
year. These are marketing expenses that are a part of doing business in this
millennium, but a website, like any other marketing tool you use, has ot
to earn its keep.
You know you "should" have a website. How do you make sure it does its
job of (a) attracting new business and (b) keeping current clients from leaving?
How does your business, or mine, make itself known among the millions and
millions of sites on the world wide web? Word of mouth works to some degree;
building an email mailing list helps; having your articles published in other
peoples' ezines works quite well, too. But the main method is still having a top
20 placement in the search engines.
Did you know there are over one million websites for "coaches" and
many, many thousands for "psychics?" It's tough to appear in the top
1,000 on these lists, never mind on page 1 or 2.
How much time and attention should we realistically spend on making our website
a useful and profitable marketing tool?
A "passive" website that serves as an online brochure is not likely
to reap many repeat visitors, but it can be a helpful aid for prospective
clients to learn what your business is all about. It offers a "safe"
way for individuals to "check the goods before they buy."
On the other hand, people are more likely to return to your site if you post new
content periodically. The more familiar they are with your product or service,
the more likely they are to buy from you or take a chance on using your service.
How do you get prospects to visit your site in the first place?
1. One key way is to always include your domain name on your marketing materials
-- business cards, brochures, flyers, promotional items -- and in your
display advertising.
2. Another way is to make sure your web pages are written with search engines in
mind. Suppose your website centers around an intuitive counseling
practice. You'll want to make sure the words "psychic" and
"intuitive counselor" are mentioned a few times in the text on your
home page. "Readings," "psychic readings," and "phone
readings" are other likely keywords that people will use to search for you.
3. Make sure the title of your website includes the keywords that visitors are
likely to search for. For example: "(your name) -- the intuitive counselor
the psychics use" or "the psychic who specializes in phone
readings." Once you figure out the words folks are likely to use to search
for you, you can tweak your website to gain a higher listing in the search
engines.
4. You can boost traffic to your site by exchanging links with other websites.
The more links you have coming INTO your site, the better you look to the search
engines. Make it reciprocal with other websites whose themes fit with yours and
everyone gains traffic.
5. A fifth way of making people aware of your website is an e-mail newsletter.
This is a topic I'll be covering in detail soon. I enjoy researching and writing
the material for "New Radiance Updates" and I'll pass along some of
the best ezine tips and resources I've found so far.
6. If you're serious about getting a bigger "bang for your buck" from
your website, there are many excellent tools to help you. I have purchased and
am a fan of Dr. Ken Evoy's web promotion materials. His "Make Your Site
Sell" is one of the most respected e-books in the field and his Site Build
It web creation tool includes one of the best all-round business and marketing
manuals I've ever seen. To learn more, please visit http://sitesell.com/newradiance.html
Copyright by Barbara Casey
(Barbara Casey is author of Living Your Real Life
- Guided By Your Soul's Mission and host of http://www.newradiance.com - over 90 pages
of inspired marketing ideas for home business owners.)
2
To Ezine or Not To Ezine
by Barbara Casey
What happens after a visitor looks at your website? Does (s)he
comeback to look some more? One tried and true way to maintain interest in your
products and services is with an emailed newsletter -- an ezine.
An emailed newsletter serves exactly the same purpose as a
printed and mailed newsletter. A newsletter helps you:
- gain credibility by showing what you know
- stay visible to prospects and clients
- keep customers updated about your services, classes & new products
- build trust over a long period of time
- promote your products & services in a gentle, informational way.
As with a printed newsletter, you'll want to consider your
ezine's:
- frequency of mailing (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly?)
- its theme (which aspect of your business will you accentuate?)
- its tone (funny, serious, philosophical, practical?)
- its format (plain text and/or HTML with graphics?)
Once you have over 50 to 100 subscribers, you'll want to
investigate online ezine hosting services.
Topica (http://www.topica.com)
operates the free Topica Exchange service - the tradeoff is an ad in your
newsletter that may have no bearing on your business at all.
Yahoo groups also offers a free service: http://groups.Yahoo.com.
New Radiance Updates uses Topica E-Mail
Publisher, which
charges a fee based on the number of messages mailed per month, but there
are other good email list hosting services.
If you look at the bottom of the ezines you receive, you'll
get a clue as to the mailing list manager each one uses.
If you're thinking about starting your own ezine, here's
a short, preliminary "to-do" list.
1. Figure out ways to acquire permission to send information
to prospects' and clients' email boxes. For example, on the Florida Directory
mail order form, I include a check box and space for an email address so
individuals can request a subscription to New Radiance Updates.
2. Start pulling together (a) articles you have written, (b)
class outlines you can work into articles and (c) sections of your books that
you could feature as articles in your ezine.
3. Revitalize your website so that it is attractive to your
ezine subscribers. You'll be promoting it in your newsletter, and might want to
"shine it up" before publicizing it a lot.
4. Decide on the kind of message you wish to convey to clients
and prospective clients. I'm a "how-to" type of person. I enjoy
researching a subject, pulling out the essentials and passing the basics on to
others, to get balls rolling.
Here are a few ideas you could use or adapt:
(a) If you're a channeler, you could feature discourses of a
universal nature as your main content, and promote intuitive readings of a
personal nature as your sales message.
(b) I receive one ezine from a marketing consultant who helps
business owners write advertising copy that influences people to buy. His ezine
features examples of advertising psychology case studies, supported by
statistics. It's one of the more interesting ezines I get.
(c) In my niche marketing course, "Marketing with a
Mission," I center practical examples of the theory around a (fictional)
counselor who focuses her business on abundance issues. With a niche like that,
you'd never run out of newsletter material -- and an ezine would help fill her
workshops and counseling schedule.
5. Ask current clients what they'd like to see in your ezine.
6. Begin researching ezines in your field and in other areas
of interest to you to get ideas of format, style, tone and content.
7. Check out a few of the ezine-focused websites, such as:
- http://www.ezine-queen.com
- http://www.ezine-tips.com
Copyright by Barbara Casey
(Barbara Casey is author of the niche
marketing course "Marketing with a Mission" and host of http://www.newradiance.com - over 90 pages of inspired
marketing ideas for small business owners.) -- Barbara Casey is an
Inspirational Business Coach and publisher of New Radiance Updates -- Inspired
Marketing Ideas for Small Business Owners. www.newradiance.com]
