Many people put up websites and they expect customers and prospects to find their websites on their own! This is the biggest fallacy online. If you have a website, you need to inform prospects and customers about its existence. You need to promote your website because without promotion, the website is as good as dead – no one is going to find it and no one will visit and no one will buy your products or services.
Here are 8 ways you can use to promote your website.
- Put your website URL on every outgoing email you write. Make it snappy and short. Remember to hyperlink it so your friends/customers/prospects can click it and be taken to your website instead of having to copy and paste the URL.
- Email family and friends. You may assume that everyone knows you have a website but many times, people, especially those closest to you never have any idea. Tell them about your website and what you offer and get their help to spread the word! Remind them from time to time too.
- Get a blog started on your website. This is tough for many people but getting a blog started and writing valuable content is still the number one attraction for any website. Google will rank you well if you have great content. If you don’t have any, it’s time to find writers who can help you write content for your blog/website.
- Lead people back to your website. We see that most people share everything on their Facebook page but never even once link their updates back to their websites! What a waste of time and effort! Your website is your headquarters so always lead people back to your website to read the full article or get the deal. Your social media page is your channel to bring interested prospects into your website.
- Advertise your website. It costs money but you get traffic and you may even get a chance to test if your products are as hot as you think they are. It used to be all about Google Ads but Facebook ads is getting a lot of limelight now due to their ability to narrow down specific demographics for you.
- Get into Facebook Groups or LinkedIn groups. Facebook Groups and LinkedIn groups are interesting. Join for the fun. Join to contribute your ideas. You are there to help, advise, comment and share. And you get to do serious market research if you’re really clever in asking the right questions. Don’t treat them like they are potential customers – treat them like focus groups because they’re a mine of information.
- Offer something for free. Give people something for free on your website as an attraction. For example, we offer 2 free chapters of our book when people visit our website. We also offer a free e-commerce guide on our website too. Then remember to tell everyone you have these amazing downloads and freebies on your website. It’s also best to call these out on your business cards as well.
- Guest post on someone else’s blog or website. Find another business website that complements your business. Check if she has a blog and is willing to feature your articles on her blog. You get to be in front of a new audience and your website is mentioned in the bio section. Make it a two-way promotion: take her articles and promote them to your audience on your own website too.
This article is contributed by Krista Goon of Redbox Studio, a web design and marketing firm in Penang. Redbox Studio’s speciality is in creating websites with marketing strategy to help business owners increase their online visibility, credibility and profitability.
