letterhead, business cards, signage and paper advertisements
such as flyers or newspapers ads. 2.Using uniforms with your
corporate slogan can we a walking reminder to all your customers
who they are doing business with, and who they should return to
in the future for all similar services. 3.Develop some
promotional items with your URL to give away for free. Whether
it's something as simple as a free pen, or something a little
nicer like a java mug, placing your website name on these items
will remind whoever possesses it about your business and its
products. 4.When dealing with the media, including your URL with
all press releases will mean it possibly showing up in their
articles, giving your site a whole new world of exposure and
audience. 5.Signage for corporate vehicle can now be as easy as
a metal sticker. Don't forget to add your URL to your vehicles,
and pass by thousands of potential customers for free. 6.Include
your URL in your phone book listing, and make sure your company
is listed properly. Just like search engine listings, phone book
ads for businesses can be just as tricky, so be sure you are
added to the correct category when registering your business.
7.Display your products in a catalog that customers can peruse
offline, and add your URL and toll free number to every page.
8.Promotional giveaways through such organizations as radio
stations, churches, or gyms can be great ways to spread the word
about your company and website. Make sure all donations or
giveaways are done in the name or your website, and you are sure
many folks will hear about your URL. 9.Develop a quality,
custom, logo. This tool can be used in co-operation with all the
above, and more, giving you even more of an impact on your
potential customers. They will have an easier time remembering
your URL if it is incorporated into an attractive, colorful,
logo. Online Promotions 10.Develop a weekly newsletter for
announcing special discounts, industry events, or corporate news
for customers and site visitors alike. This will bring back old
customers for repeat business, as well as develop new customers
whom initially sign up for just the newsletter. 11.Develop free
articles for publication, distribution and submission all across
the web. There are many directories, e-zines and webmasters just
waiting for your free articles to add to their resources. Not
only does this bring your site more exposure through the links
back the articles contain, but it helps enhance your reputation
as an expert in your industry. 12.Correctly optimize your
website, especially your homepage, for the keyword terms most
relevant to your products or services. 13.Add detailed, keyword
filled content to every important page of your website,
especially your main URL. This will further optimize your site
for search engines, and gain you more exposure through higher
rankings. Just a simple paragraph about what you do and a
picture is not enough. The word keywords the better. 14.Explore
PPC (Pay Per Click) listings through Overture or Google AdWords,
to balance out or beef up the exposure you are already getting
through you well optimized URL. 15.Include an "exchange links"
option on your links page, or even devote an entire page to this
option for your site visitors. This will develop more links back
to your site, and more exposure will follow. 16.Create you own
links directory, by searching out link partners who offer
similar or complimentary services or products, yet are not in
direct competition with you. 17.Come up with creative, yet cost
effective, sweepstakes and promotions for online customers.
Apply it through using the signups for your weekly or monthly
newsletter as entries. Offer visitors more entries if they can
suggest your site or newsletter to a friend, and then contact
that person via email with the appropriate information for them
to signup as well. 18.Harness the power of numbers and create an
affiliate program to use hundreds, even thousands of others to
sell your service as well. For a nominal share in the profits
this advertising pays for itself because it is performance
based, not traffic based. You pay for what you get. 19.All
orders placed online should include an invoice printed on
corporate letterhead, a product catalog, and a free promotional
gift such as a pen or mug as described in #3. 20.Have someone
from your staff participate regularly in online discussion
groups, signing all responses with the hyperlinked URL of your
website. A very effective technique to get many employees
interested in corporate promotion is to allow certain "breaks"
in their day, which are specifically centered around them being
online, discussing industry news in industry related forums and
chat rooms. They are free to meet new people, surf the chat room
of their choice (as long as it related to your business) and
converse with whom they wish. 21.Invite customer feedback
through an online poll, and find out exactly what they want, how
they want it, and if you have got it or not. 22.Create
mini-sites to add exposure for your main URL, and then place
these sites on auctions sites like e-bay. Run special promotions
and prices for certain items just on these mini-sites, for
specific blocks of time, and find out exactly how successful
this tool turned out by your order fluctuations. 23.Place min
adds in classified directories all directly linking back to your
main URL. Most often these classified sites are free, or charge
very little to place an ad on a regular basis. 24.Create a forum
on your own website for customers whom are interested in your
products. For instance, if you run a mortgage site, creating a
forum for buyers and sellers of homes to exchange tips and
experiences on selling their homes, and finding their newest
dream homes, would be quite a nice marketing tool. 25.Utilize
the power of the internet to spread links back to your site by
developing a tool that countless numbers of people, even people
loosely related to your industry, would find interesting and
beneficial to their visitors. When they place the tool on their
site, the code will have a link back to your site already in it,
because you develop the product. Such tools could be traffic
counters, online poll tools, and free search engine submission
devices.
Make the decision that is best for your business, and best of
luck! Please visit Josh Greth at CardStreet.com. Copyright 2003
Josh Greth. All rights reserved.