Advertise your website - for FREE! Tip #3
In the first part of this series we looked at email signatures and how important it was to have your website address listed prominently in it. And in the second part we looked at various online ways to draw attention to your website.
In this third part, we’re going to look at the various things you can do offline to publicise your website. I’m actually an online website marketing expert but there is some overlap - the main aim is to get your website address in front of as many people as possible and encourage them to visit your site.
Online or offline, the same rules apply - you have to give people a reason to come and look at your website. In fact, with offline you have to be even more persuasive because rather than asking someone to just click a link, you’re asking them to go fire up their computer and then type in your URL.
This brings me to another point - make sure that your URL is memorable. Now I don’t know if this image is fake or not - but if it’s real then I am astonished! Please, whatever you do, don’t publicise a URL like this!
So, what can I do?
Do you have your website address on:
- Your company stationery?
- Any vehicles that your company has?
- Your office signs?
- Any merchandise that you produce?
- All of your promotional literature?
Wait a minute, I’m doing all of this stuff.
OK, most of the things above are pretty obvious. But remember what I said - you have to give people a reason to come to your website. So just having a web address hidden away at the bottom of your flyers isn’t good enough - very few people are going to be inspired by a link.
Instead of having a web address on your flyers, you should have a web address with an invitation to the reader:
“http://www.yoursite.com - take part in our fiendish quiz and win a free marketing consultation”
“http://www.yoursite.com - use code ‘XXYY’ to get a 10% discount on our services”
All of a sudden there is a reason to go to your website, and if your website is good enough then you’ll be marketing to them whilst their on the site, doing the quiz or whatever.
The same goes for your company vehicles. If you click this image then you go to a Flickr site where people are discussing Calmac ferries and the fact that they have a giant link on the side of their boat.
There’s some easy free publicity for them. You can do the same. Why not be creative with your links on your company vehicles? Instead of just having a plain old URL on your vehicle you could have a question:
“Want to know more about me and what I’m doing in my van? Visit our site at http://www…..”
That should be enough to pique the interest of a few motorists!
I don’t have a company van…
OK, but do you drive to the office each day? If so, do you have your URL on your car?
No? Why not?
You may pass thousands of people each day going to and from your work - why not try to market to them while you’re driving. You probably see the same faces each day and you’ll have a captive audience -if you flash your URL at them often enough then curiosity is going to get the better of them!
OK, I get the point!
What I’m getting at is that you can always improve your online and your offline marketing! Take a little bit of time and look at what opportunities you have to publicise your website, and then look at whether you’re making the most of them.
I’ll bet that you can definitely improve them!
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Some good tips here. Most of them wont work for me as my ‘business’ is simply a blog site. However, my wife is considering opening up a new massage office… gonna keep this bookmarked!
Thank you.