Take every opportunity to send people to your site and make sure that there is something in it for them; otherwise they will soon fly away.
Now that you have a top-notch professional site with an e-commerce secure store, you are ready to go into business on the web. You will need to promote your site like you would any new product or service. You will want to put together a Public Relations campaign such as a professional email that contains graphics and links. You will need to send the email to all your current customers plus friends and acquaintances. Make sure that you only include people that actually know you. At this point in time you will also want to prepare a press release announcing your new site and what is special about it. This press release should also be sent to eMedia as we talked about before.
Your print materials will need to contain the web address and a generic (or your own) email. If you spend money on newspaper advertising, you will need to place your website address and perhaps an email address. I always include my email address because I want people to email me to ask questions no matter where they saw the ad. I use a generic email address such as info@BizMechanix.com so it does not interfere with my regular email. If you sponsor an event or give a donation, you need to make sure your web information is on the donation or is part of your sponsorship byline: Do not be shy, Put it EVERYWHERE!
Now that we have seen a number of ways to use the web for our marketing, you must also note that the web is a good way for potential clients to learn more about you. Before a business relationship can be formed, there needs to be at least three things:
First is chemistry. Chemistry simply means that you like the person and find you can get along with them.
Second is integrity. Integrity is discovered through backing up what you say with real life examples and giving references to your work. If you hesitate, then it is not likely a business relationship will ensue.
Last, there needs to be an appropriate business fit. If there is not a match for the two companies, then there is no point in pursuing the relationship. The web will help you discover more about the other company and they will find out more about you in the same way.
Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite. She decided to find the best ways to get people’s attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the “Networking Queen”. Blueprints for Success – Networking: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprints for Success Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in 2006. For more information visit http://www.BlueprintBooks.com
I recently read an article titled “Crossing the Line” that
really got my attention. Here is what I read “Affiliate
marketing is now an integral part of the web’s composition.”
This article was written by Greg Shepard and published in
Revenue a magazine dedicated to affiliate marketing.
I agree with Mr. Shepard’s statement however it is what he said
next that surprised me, this is what he wrote “It’s also now widely
heraleded as the web’s most cost-effective marketing vehicle.”
Say what! No way, I happen to know of a marketing medium that
is much more cost effective, results oriented and can be
utilized for no-cost. Now do I have your attention, I hope
so because those of us who have been in the Traffic Exchange
Marketing Business and those that came before us could
teach Mr. Shepard a lesson or two about affiliate marketing.
I liked the concept that he spoke of next and continued to
read despite his previous statement. Mr. Shepard went on to
mention something that I have incorporated at one of the
marketing websites that I own. Greg went on to say that many
Marketing and Traffic Delivery Merchants were creating a
hybrid traffic delivery model called CPP (cost-plus-performance)
vs. the old model of delivering impressions or hits on a CPM
or cost per million basis.
The CPP model delivers a paid campaign with a performance
campaign to better increase affiliates return on investment.
As I mentioned earlier one of the methods that I use is
to offer guaranteed unique traffic plus the ability to
send out an add to over 200,000 e-zine readers of various
e-zines combined with the power of a Traffic Exchange
Marketing service.
Mr. Shepard goes on to reiterate that the future of
affiliate marketing combined with CPP will take back
click-through inventory that was previously lost to
Google’s AdSense and other similar advertisers. “The
result is a whole new world of opportunities for
merchants, affiliate managers, and affiliates.”
After reading that I decided to list the traffic that
my marketing service delivers each day, week, and
month. This is something that is not being done in my
business however I suspect that it will soon be
adopted by many of my savvy counterparts.
I did find two traffic exchanges that listed their amount
of impressions delivered for that day and those were:
StartXchange.com owned by Tim Linden and 10Khits4uNow.com
owned by Rob Gehring, Vinterchange.com listed the total
impressions delivered since the beginning of their inception
and ProClickEstate.com lists thier traffic delivered by week.
As the title of this article mentions trends and the traffic titanic,
I am not suggesting that the traffic exchange marketing business is
sinking however there are a great many exchange business’s
out ther that have room for improvement on quality and deliverability.
The Traffic Exchange Marketing Business has come a long way since the day of the first traffic exchange, we have
room for improvement and from the people that I know and
the information that I am privvy to we are on the right
track. One market that we can do better to capture is
the market share of affiliate marketers. It will be
interesting to see what the next five years brings to
traffic delivery and online marketing!
Copywrite 2006 Mark “The Marketing Professional” Brown
Mark Brown is the owner of The Marketing Professional
Newsletter and Exclusive Members Community as well as
Pro Click Estate, one of the internets most effective
marketing services. http://www.TheMarketingProfessional.com
