Developing and implementing a strategic marketing plan is an essential part of your Internet success.

Your plan must include both short-term and long-term strategies in order to succeed.

Short-term marketing strategies are those that bring you a temporary boost in traffic. Although these techniques are very important to your overall plan, they are only a temporary traffic source and must not be solely relied on.

Short-term marketing strategies include:

  • Purchasing advertising
  • Bulletin Boards
  • Search Engines

Long-term marketing strategies are those that bring you a steady stream of targeted traffic over time. These strategies will continue to produce results even years down the road.

Long-term marketing strategies include:

  • Opt-in Lists
  • Freebies
  • Content

By creating and implementing a balanced marketing strategy, using both short-term and long-term strategies, you will drive a steady stream of targeted traffic to your website.

Creating a successful Internet presence involves much more than designing a great website or having the "perfect" product. Listing your website with the Search Engines is your first step, however, you must not solely rely on the Search Engines to bring you traffic. You must develop a complete promotional strategy and work it every day.

-> Search Engines:

A significant amount of website traffic originates from the major Search Engines. Most Internet users will go to a Search Engine, type in a keyword phrase and look through the top 10 - 20 results. Most of the time, they'll find what they're looking for in the first 10 results. The percentage of click throughs is even smaller. Listing near the top and grabbing the attention of your target audience is the top priority.

Your first step will be to optimize your web pages to the best of your ability. Visit http://www.searchenginewatch.com for a complete overview of the Search Engines and optimization.

-> Opt-in List

As soon as your website is up and running, you should immediately begin building an opt-in list. An opt-in list is a list or database containing email addresses of individuals who have chosen to receive your email messages. Your messages may be web site updates, product updates or an ezine. They provide you with a direct line of communication with potential customers and enable you to promote your
products or services. For further information, visit the following web address:
http://www.web-source.net/ezine_basics.htm

-> Organizing Your Strategies

A good way to organize your promotions is to set up a web page, for your personal use, which will contain your complete strategy. This page should be stored on your hard drive and not uploaded to your server. Your page should contain four sections:

  • Daily Promotions
  • Weekly Promotions
  • Monthly Promotions
  • Miscellaneous Promotions

Each of these four sections should contain the appropriate information for each of your promotional resources such as website name, user ID, password (if applicable) and hyperlinked web addresses for each website you plan to use for your promotions. This will enable you to open your web page each day and visit the sites you have listed.

-> Daily Promotions

Link Exchanges:

Exchange links with websites similar to yours, but not in competition.

Discussion Boards:

Visit some popular discussion boards and share your expertise. Although you may not advertise on discussion boards, you can include your signature file with your post.

Visit the following web address for a complete listing of some of the top discussion boards:
http://www.web-source.net/web/Discussion_Forums/

-> Weekly Promotions

Your weekly promotions should consist of placing a paid ezine advertisement and/or arranging ad swaps with fellow publishers.

Visit the following web address for a complete listing of hundreds of publishers and contact information for advertising. http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=doe

To organize your ad placements and swaps, place the publication names, publisher names, ad dates and hyperlinked web addresses within your weekly promotion list.

-> Monthly Promotions

Your monthly promotions should include writing an article in the area of your expertise and promotional exchanges.

To organize your monthly promotions, place the names and hyperlinked web addresses for each of your promotional resources within your monthly promotions section.

Writing Articles:

Writing articles that may be freely published with your bylines is one of the best promotional methods online. Your article may be published in hundreds of ezines, on websites or even in magazines.

Visit the following web address for further information:
http://www.web-source.net/write.htm

Promotional Exchanges:

Cross promoting is a powerful technique used by many Internet marketers to increase the exposure of their products, services or publications. You simply decide what type of promotional exchange you would be interested in and contact fellow marketers to discuss an exchange.

The most effective technique used in cross promotions is recommendations. By providing each other with a personal recommendation you can increase your response rates tremendously.

Here are some popular cross promoting techniques you can use
to boost your business:

  • Ezine Ad Swaps
  • Subscription Exchanges
  • Ezine Column Swaps
  • Byline Exchanges
  • Signature Exchanges
  • Ebook Exchanges
  • Private Web Rings
  • Ride Alongs
  • Upsells
  • Free Bonuses
  • Forum and List Moderation

-> Miscellaneous Promotions

Promoting your website offline is an often overlooked way to increase your traffic. Your web address should appear on all of the following:

  • Business cards
  • Letterhead
  • Envelopes
  • Receipts
  • Invoices
  • Sales letters
  • Brochures
  • Flyers
  • Post cards
  • Fax documents
  • T-shirts
  • Pens
  • Pencils
  • Mouse Pads
  • Phone book listing
  • Voice mail message
  • Newspaper/magazine ads
  • Vehicle

Below, are several resources to assist you:

IDit Plates - Put your web address on your vehicle.
http://www.iditplates.net/new/2711/index.html

Magnetic Signs - Full size magnetic signs for your vehicle.
http://www.magneticsigns.com

Visit iPrint for all of your printing needs.
http://www.iprint.com

Place ads in newspapers, magazines, on the radio, or on TV. Visit the following websites for a complete list of resources to assist you:

Gebbie Press
http://www.gebbieinc.com/

NewsDirectory Newspapers
http://www.newsdirectory.com

Newspapers Online
http://www.newspapers.com/

For even more promotional products, PromoCity can add your logo to any one of over 500,000 items.
http://www.promocity.com

Press Releases:

CanadaOne provides a free interactive press release builder.
http://www.canadaone.com/promote/pressrelease.html

Gebbie Press provides over 10,000 links to print and
electronic media on the Internet.
http://www.canadaone.com/promote/pressrelease.html

Dr. Kevin Nunley will write your press release and send it to 5,000 media contacts.
http://www.drnunley.com

Automated Press Releases will enable you to send your press release to over 10,000 media. You write your press release or they'll write it for you.
http://www.automatedpr.com

Once you've created your promotional web page, open it within your browser and add it to your favorite places or bookmark it for easy daily access. Set up a specific day for your weekly and monthly promotions and perform your miscellaneous promotions as needed.

Although these promotional strategies are far from complete, they provide you with a basic overview to get you started.

Once you've implemented your promotional strategy and continuously work it each day, you'll be amazed with the results of your efforts. Consistency will be the key to driving massive traffic to your site.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery. http://www.webdesignmastery.com And, Ebook Starter - Give Your Ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book. http://www.ebookstarter.com Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to Etips and receive a copy of the acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies." http://www.web-source.net
 

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