New Website? Now What?

GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN! Start with your personal sphere - The best way to start the marketing of your new website is to tell your friends and family etc.

So that brand spanking new website is now finished and live on a server that has blazing speed, has a solid reputation of being secure from hackers, and has top-notch customer service. Your email is even up and running seamlessly.

The website itself has simple navigation and visual appeal, an effective call to action that sells your unique value, compliant code, and proper on page search engine optimization. Now what?

Simply put - market it where your target customer is looking for you. This includes local maps (on the internet this includes Google Maps, Bing and Yahoo), social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and a blog to write fresh content), and of course other advertising methods such as industry specific directory listings (relevant link building), paid banner ads, print ads, free classified advertising, and even email / snail mail marketing.

Also, don't forget about your local Chamber of Commerce or the Better Business Bureau. To get a complete and affordable presence on the web, just follow these 3 simple steps:

1 - Know where your target market is looking for you.

In the case of directories, use local as well as industry specific directories. Ensure it is optimized for local search engine marketing (keywords, core message, etc.). As time allows, don't forget to do a google search for yourself. Not only does this do well in reputation management, but you can also use this technique to link to sites that may have a profile on your business. For each link to your business, simply click on it, claim the profile, and edit it (add text, pics, and most importantly - a link to your new website). This is link building at its finest and is always good for seo if the link to your site is relevant.

2 - Post something that gains their attention.

For social media, use humor, shock, or merely something relevant and memorable. Post about new products, services, or happy clients. Offer a discount. Post misc. snippets of anything that would be relevant to the target customer in terms of common interests. Above all, be sure to do so often to stay in front of your target market but do so in a way that is not pushy, annoying, or otherwise regarded as merely spam. Find other pages that are relevant to yours. Just don’t be rude post on a competitors page. In the case of ads, stay true to the core message of your unique value. Relevant content is king resulting in good seo.

Offline, don’t forget about email marketing or snail-mail marketing to get your message directly to the clients mail box. Even in a digital age, paper ads (newspapers, magazines etc.) are still a powerful tool. The same rules as above applies - make it relevant and don’t spam. Networking and basic prospecting are key.

3 - Be ready to respond.

However, this requires the understanding that gaining visibility takes time, patience, and effort. Gone are the days of “build it and they will come”.

If you are looking to build a website, redesign your website, or need ideas to market your new website, give us a call. We are here to connect the pieces of your online presence.

Blog post originally posted Dec 22, 2013

Rob Shurtleff

The Website Guy