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75 useful & different ways of promoting your web business

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Alcsl

Alcsl

Free Member
Jan 25, 2008
202
36
Nottinghamshire
I thought that the below list of possible promotional ideas and techniques may be of some use to fellow UKBF members. Some no doubt may well have been covered in previous posts, but hopefully I’ve been able to add some more original ideas into the melting pot here that will ultimately help others promote their businesses. So, here goes! 75 useful and different ways of promoting your web business:
  1. Write a press release, research the contacts, and send it out to all the relevant magazines in your field announcing your launch.
  2. Test the water cost effectively using a service such as htmail.com – an opt in email list of UK people who will give you honest feedback on your site. This also helps spread the word.
  3. Add a viral element to your site, something that users will enjoy using, like free games, etc, and have the ability to email them to their friends, hence they help you with the cause of marketing. This is ours - http:www.honestjohnny.co.uk/play
  4. Forward your website to all your friends on Facebook & MySpace, and ask them to forward it to their friends. Only a small pass along rate can still result in sales.
  5. Make sure your site has a point of difference over your competition and use this in your promotions. USPs are strong tools.
  6. Tell the local press about your existence
  7. Donate to / sponsor a charity, they will often link back to your site, and this also goes down well with the press.
  8. Hold a charity fund-raising event where your website address is exposed well to those in attendance, again inform the press
  9. Get sticks of rock made up with your web address running through the middle by a specialist confectioner. Ensure you send a stick with each order when products are delivered to work addresses. Stick of rock so take a while to devour, and with your web address running right through the middle you’ll always be at the forefront of their mind.
  10. If your offices are near a busy road, hire an advertising blimp for a few days to fly above your offices with your web address spread across it. Particularly effective if you are near a motorway – although there may be laws around advertising near motorways so it’s worth checking. (www.theartofair.com)
  11. Get signage for your car showing your web address, it’s amazing how many people you pass on a daily trip to your workplace that will be intrigued and go on your site later that day – even more effective if you commute on a motorway.
  12. Get business cards printed up prominently displaying your website, leave them when and wherever the opportunity arises.
  13. Get onto all the social bookmarking sites such as Stumble Upon, Digg, Delicious, simpy, etc and spread the word that you exist.
  14. Print up postcard flyers and have a day in a city centre giving out as many to passing shoppers as you can, ideally run a competition to incentivise them to go onto your site
  15. Create an online only competition and submit it to all the free competition sites, this will bring you good levels of free traffic generally.
  16. Call up the ad execs at relevant magazines and ask for their best price for a whole page ad, (obviously presume it’s not rate card!), then ask for half a page rate, then quarter. Then say it’s still too expensive and ask them to call back if they have any late space available nearer close. Make sure you give them a mobile number (and that you have pre-made sized adverts ready to email them in the meantime) as when you get a late space call you generally have a matter of hours. But you will not believe the price drops! It pays to be prepared and snap up the late deals. Make sure they email you the sizes.
  17. Become a member in good forums, like UKBF, and ensure to visit and post regularly, then if allowed, put your web address in the signature.
  18. Get your domain printed onto umbrellas and give them away in a city centre one day when it’s raining. www.sussexpromotions.co.uk offer such services
  19. On the same theme, print your domain onto t-shirts or jumpers and wear them out as often as you can
  20. Aerial Advertising - It not as expensive as you think – get a plane to fly over a busy area trailing a huge banner behind it with your advertising message and site. Ideal at sporting events. www.airads.co.uk superb exposure at sporting events for example
  21. If you send your products by post, print or stick your web address onto every envelope, that way people see your site all the way through to the point of delivery.
  22. Try to get local radio stations to give you and your staff a mention. And ensure you get the domain name in there too. Not that many radio stations will read out the full domain, especially the nationals, but the locals and inner London ones generally do without any fuss.
  23. Do a PR Stunt- this can be anything that captures peoples imagination. Ideally it will be in a very public place, something outgoing, different, and original. If you feel it’s strong enough – tip off the press. People may have seen the recent Thriller dance on the London Underground just prior to MJ’s re-launch. Ensure you video it
  24. Leak the video on YouTube – if it’s good it could go viral very quickly. No doubt people watched RudeTube on TV the other night (50 best YouTube clips going around the world currently)
  25. Create a links page and exchange links using a programme such as www.linkmarket.net
  26. If you do exchange links with people, try to vet them a little first, check their page rank in alexa.com and try to keep it relevant to your business, there are rumours that poor links can affect your placement in search engines.
  27. Try Direct Mail marketing, such as services supplied by www.novadirectmail.co.uk – This can often be a low-cost yet effective way to get your website name out there to those that are not already online.
  28. Whilst on the topic of offline promotion – try leaflet drops in specific geographical locations. Obviously don’t do it yourself but use a specialist company – www.dbslimited.co.uk offer a national service for example, but it’s important to get a good company with a high reputation – vet them, those that are used by the local councils are normally a safe bet. They will normally say who they represent on their sites.
  29. Create freebies – everyone loves a freebie! A classic example is to create an Ebook that you can give away for free that helps people but directly refers to your own business and involves plenty of links into your site with signals to buy. If it general but draws upon your own site to use as examples it will both increase your traffic and sales. For example, if we were to do an ebook around saving people money and how to find better deals on credit cards we could potentially include reference links to a variety of sites offering current best buy credit cards (something that actually adds value and helps the user save money) for example: http://www.honestjohnny.co.uk/pages/bestbuy_creditcards.htm
  30. Try SMS advertising, it’s another cost effective route to promoting your business, companies such as www.textmarketer.co.uk offer this service
  31. A cheeky but clever promotional technique is to piggy-back a major event. If you can’t afford to have a stand within a major exhibition there will still be an equally large amount of people leaving the expo later in the day. Have promotional models of leaflet distributors give out information outside the venue (off the premises of course)
  32. The other slightly more expensive option – get a stand IN the exhibition!
Continued below!
 
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33. Do not under-estimate the power of promotional models – male or female. You don’t need to be at an exhibition either – you can integrate it as part of a PR campaign, they are paid to draw attention to themselves and your business or product. They are a sound investment, just be sure to capitalise on this and employ a photographer to get lots of shots you can use on your website.
34. Try alternative advertising – such as advans or ad trailers (those little bikes with giant posters behind them). Companies such as www.alternative-advertising.co.ukoffer such services at reasonable prices
35. Expensive but massively effective. Pay a seeding company to create their own viral around your site. Kontraband are seen as one of the best in the UK http://www.kontraband.com/viral-advertising.asp#contact
36. Brand everything you possibly can with your domain. This can be bags, clothes, flip-flops, beach towels, office stationery, etc. Try a company like www.rocketbags.co.uk
37. A Unique but different idea would be to approach a local college/university and ask if they would be interested in having your company supply notepaper to their students for free. In return – the paper is lightly branded with your company details. A cheap but highly effective way of getting your name into the student populations, your future buyers.
38. Rather than advertise in a local paper, enquire to the cost of adding an insert. There’s mixed emotions towards the effectiveness of this medium, but if your message is strong it may work well.
39. Thinking more outside the box for advertising often works well, again especially at events. In the summer for example you could look at giving away free bottles of water branded with your company details in a city centre or on the seafront – try companies such as www.waterpromotions.co.uk for branded water
40. Sponsor a local event or sports team – www.uksponsorship.com has a list of all the current opportunities on offer in the UK
41. Going back to the freebies, try and create samples if your business allows you to – again ensure your domain is highly visible on the packaging.
42. Giftbag / celeb gifting companies are also a great way to great your business/product/website out there. This one is more so for those businesses that actually have a product as opposed to a service, but I thought it’s worth mentioning this as a viable option for people to use.
43. In-game Advertising is starting to take off, there’s lots of companies such as www.game-advertising-online.com that let you pay to advertise your domain in popular web-based multi-player games. This is a cheaper route compared to the major games found on the shelves.
44. Look at other online advertising options, not just google, yahoo, etc. such as www.federatedmedia.net or www.Adbrite.com
45. Social bookmarking buttons are very useful. Try www.addthis.com which gives you buttons & a list of all the main BM sites, then it’s just a matter of going through each of them and submitting your site details. Great button for your site as well with data options to see how many are bookmarking you.
46. Guerrilla Marketing is getting more popular. Non-damaging forms of advertising are picking up lots of press, such as those offered by SAS http://www.streetadvertisingservices.com/
47. Buy expired domains similar to your own that are already generating traffic, redirect them to your own site. Such as www.expireddomains.com
48. Text Link ads are also a cheap way of getting people to your site. Companies such as www.text-link-ads.com give further information
49. Look at radio PR as a form of promotion, whenever you hear ‘specialists’ on the radio discussing topics there’s a very good chance that they have been positioned for that interview using a specialist PR agency, companies like www.radiorelations.co.uk offer this type of service
50. Advertising in new mediums is often a great way to get in front of new audiences. There is a form of advertising now available on London buses. A company offering this service is motional media - www.momedia.tv
51. Research new ideas for advertising your business & site, try www.adcracker.com/creativeideas to get those creative juices flowing!
52. Offer an affiliate programme for your product or services, there are tons of programmes out there to chose from that will get your name and products out there.
53. Go LARGE with your advertising, try companies like www.monstermediaoutdoor.com to get some ideas, they do HGV adverts, train ads, giant posters, etc.
54. Peg your business on Google Maps, and put a description and link down so people know what you’re all about.
55. Set up an eBay Shop and do a very detailed Me page – the search engines do pick these up. Link back to your site wherever you are allowed to.
56. Do similar for QXL – arguably the second largest UK auction site. Even if each of these only bring you 20-30 more people a day to your site, it’s new traffic and new people that didn’t know you existed a minute ago!
57. List your business in yell.com
58. Do the same for www.kellysearch.co.uk
59. If applicable it’s also worth looking at www.applegate.co.uk – an industry directory.
60.Whilst on this topic, list in other main directories such as Thomson local, thebestof.com and other similarly popular sites.
61. Try for a joint-promotion with a better known company, offer their customers a discount or free sample of your product/service when they buy over £x with them, it needs to add value to the company you approach for them to go for it, but also ensures that you stand to benefit – even just from exposure initially.
62. Arrange for a launch party (or promotional re-launch if you’ve been in business for a while), ideally to bring to peoples attention the launch of a new product or service you now offer them. The local magazines always seem to cover these (media and free booze seem to mix well!) have lots of these featured in their pages.
63. Approach local businesses on the high street and ask if they would stock your flyers by their tills in return for advertising on your website. The worst they can say is no!

Continued below!
 
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64. Join a business club, they typically meet early mornings once a week for breakfast and discuss each others business and pass referrals. A very effective way to secure new business, as each individual is helping promote each others business during their working days when the opportunity arises.

65. Create a forum or discussion board, etc on your site that will generate opinion and help ensure people come back again and again.

66. Never believe you can’t achieve something. You’ve set up your business already, so why can’t you eventually turn over tens of millions if that’s your goal? Approach whoever you need to in your quest to reach your targets, never feel a company is too large to get into. Ultimately there is still a buyer or decision maker sitting at a desk inside that office no matter whether it’s an office of 3 people or 3000 people. It’s still just a person that makes their decision based on you and your company, all you need to do is get to that person, it may be slightly hardly to infiltrate larger companies, but it’s still totally possible and the rewards are often so much greater.

67. Set up Facebook groups and MySpace groups that users can join.

68. Try Facebook advertising, their latest offering is cheap and very targeted. Highly recommended.

69. Approach marinas, many of them offer large banner space for advertising businesses on the rails all around the marina – often double sided so both those on the boats and those looking at the boats see your message. Lots of high net worth individuals ‘floating about’ (no pun intended) and very often a captive audience.

70. To really capture an audience with your message try something such as www.itflys.co.uk – floating media products. The BMW 1 series floating around the shopping centre is captivating.

71. Join ecademy.com for online business networking

72. Offer a rewards scheme or a referrals scheme to your users to tell their friends and family about your services or products.

73. Try and break a world record and obviously tell the press about when you intend to do it so they can feature your attempt, go for it either by yourself or promote it as a joint venture to include your customers and encourage them to get people involved as well, people will talk!

74. Find closed down shops in prime locations and go onto the land registry to get the owners details. Approach the owners direct and ask if they will allow you some adspace in their windows whilst the store is vacant. They will often be pleased to get any revenue out the store whilst it’s empty.

75(!). Sponsor a local roundabout! Again not massively expensive but a great way to be seen.



There is no doubt further room to build upon this list, but I thought I would share a range of those practises I feel may be of help fellow UKBF members

Al



 
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Thanks for the tips - some very interesting ideas there. I'd like to make a couple of comments on tips 25, 26 & 48.

Tip 25 - Personally I'd never touch a links programme with a bargepole. You'd do *much* better finding link partners more organically.

Tip 26 - You should always check out your link partners, but definitely for more than Pagerank. See who else they link to - make sure that their outgoing links are to decent sites. Also see who links to them. Yahoo Site Explorer is best for this. Finally, the links out of your site *categorically DO affect your ranking in the search engines*. There's no doubt about this fact.

Tip 48 - Google very much frowns upon any kind of link buying. Plenty of SEO professionals think that sites that run Text Link Ads have been penalised in Google. Would your site be penalised if you buy a link via Text Link Ads? The jury's out at the moment, but I wouldn't risk it personally.
 
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Stamp Out Suicide! is a web based resource and so working through this list should prove useful.

Point 7 also applies to our site, should anyone want to take note! We will leave the walkathon page on the site for at least three months and during this time we will be making a determined effort to promote awareness of the site.
 
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pete_m said:
the links out of your site *categorically DO affect your ranking in the search engines*. There's no doubt about this fact.
Click to expand...

Pete can you expand on this please? Are you referring to quality sites linking into 'site abc' will improve ranking (my belief), or that 'site abc' with links out to say bbc.co.uk, yahoo, msn, etc will rank better?

I know if 'site abc' runs links to many poor sites, this hinders its positioning in the search engines, so is the opposite true when linking to major sites?

Al
 
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With ref to #57/58: Another good place to get listed for free is the "Central Index" directory. They power the business directories on websites like The Sun and The Times Online, Magic Radio Online, as well as a whole load of other sites. Sign up to one and you'll be automatically listed on the whole lot.
You may get a sales call for a paid listing as well when you sign up, but they don't hassle you. (and in fact it seems like quite good value for the paid listings)
Try this url: directory.thesun.co.uk
 
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A really good interesting list I thought.

Good to hear some different ideas and some of them I will be definately be looking into.

Looked into roundabout advertising before and I thought it was very expensive but it depends on your budget.

Many thanks,

John
 
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Was going away to do 56 - QXL, unfortunately it is closing down!!

maybe time to dig out that auction site idea again :rolleyes:
 
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47. Buy expired domains similar to your own that are already generating traffic, redirect them to your own site.
Click to expand...
Can you explain how this works? I would have thought that any traffic to the domain name was generated by the current content (even if it's just holding page stuffed with google ads), and therefore when you redirect it and google subsequently re-spiders it you would then lose all the traffic as google realises it's no longer a site in it's own right but merely a redirect to another site which is already indexed. Or did I miss something?
 
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Hey Dymo King,

Sorry for the delay coming back on this one, busy week...!

My interpretation of this (which may be accurate or may not!) is to buy an expired domain that has been ranked fairly well on google in your industry in the past, then perhaps not simply re-direct it with zero content - your comment is quite right - but instead add similar (not duplicate) info to what you have on your own site onto that new domain with links and references back to your existing site wherever possible, or if the opportunity allows it, develop a whitelabel on your new domain of your existing site - in essence then you are competing with yourself, but you own both the sites and have further exposure on the web for your chosen industry.

Al
 
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I've finally got around to adding a few more ideas, only a handful for now (hopefully not duplicates!) and will get around to adding more soon!

76. Add a free games area to your website. There are several good outfits that let you add multiplayer games to your site (often a little or no cost), some come pre-populated with users on a generic server (pooled from other sites), so it can give your site the impression it has good levels of traffic if it doesn't already. If the games are strong enough people will bookmark you and return to your site.

77. Speak to a local business that has frontage onto a major road or motorway and pitch them for ad space. We have recently secured a superb piece of ad space on private land right next to a road that gets approx 10,000 - 15,000 cars driving past it everyday. Helps with brand recognition for the locals, at the very least. We did try to get a huge banner onto the side of a factory next to a major motorway, but we're still in talks with them because they want all all the space for their own signs (obviously!).

78. Do some 'out of the box' marketing - why not contact a land owner right next to one of heathrows major runways and employ a group of people to create a huge piece of land artwork that is only really visible by passengers on the planes coming into land who are looking down at the ground below. A company did this a while ago for some kind of adult service (can't recall their name), but it worked an absolute treat and got loads of press, which is how i stumbled across it. Obviously you'll need to ensure you're not breaking any laws though...!

Will be back with more soon!

Thanks for reading,

Al
 
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Excellent tips on promoting business, You can also try this out, Start marketing yourself in forums, chat rooms, and blogs as an expert, After you make about 15-20 posts, add the link to your website in your signature. People will check you out.

it's really easy to find 1000 websites that sell the same thing. Make people able to TRUST your website by giving away your product for free, If people don't trust you and what you have to offer, they'll just leave without buying from you.
[FONT=&quot]

 [/FONT]
 
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Thanks so much for these tips! I've found that running a successful online business is much harder than it initially seems, and you need all the help you can get in order to get your feet off the ground!
 
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An interesting list sure, but it depends on the sort of budget that you are working with. I did like the point about StumbleUpon though. That is something that we are looking to implement for our website http://www.commercialroute.com.
 
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Keep coming back to this thread as its such a good one and get fresh ideas each time I come back to it
 
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Very Useful!! Ive bookmarked this and will sit down when the kids are in bed and go through it all. Thank you for such a useful post!
 
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really useful posting. I'd also add the idea of getting an effective video. I'm from cmypitch.com and we have a number of video production companies listed. If you leave a lead using our new quick quotes service (which is totally free for the business leaving the lead), video production companies matching the specifications you've asked for can then contact you offering you their best price...works pretty well for them too (they just pay a small fee).
 
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glad eveyone's getting some use out of it. I know i need to add some more soon, just haven't had the free time lately! Promise I will get around to it soon though...!

Thanks Again

Al
 
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well since I did this original post Twitter has come out of nowhere, so I'd now also add that to my list of promotional techniques. From the looks of it there's plenty of the regulars here already embracing Twitter as a useful free promotional tool for their business. It's really very good, and when used in moderation can prove very helpful in gaining peoples awareness of you.

My tip would be to use their search function to find people 'tweeting' (i think it's called :| - damn, not even 30 yet and i'm feeling old) about your given industry, product, service, interest, etc. Then you can reply to their 'tweet' and all of a sudden you're on their radar. Of course, use this method with caution in order to not be classed as a spammer, wait for people to throw out questions or tweet about things relevant, and if you genuinely can offer the person some good advice based on what they're asking or commenting on - and it's relevant to your own business - then take that opportunity with both hands!

Also, I'm not sure if this is in the original list too (because I can't check now i'm mid-post) but Addthis.com is also a superb free tool that lets you add a bookmark button onto your sites that then lets users who enjoyed your site link your page to all sorts of useful networking sites (facebook, digg, bebo, etc)

Al
 
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Every time I look at something like twitter I just come up completely blank as to how I can use it with my business.

Does anyone have any examples of regular e-commerce businesses using twitter successfully? and not people selling some exciting product that would generate at lot of interest... I mean just a regular business selling regular boring stuff that people just need to buy...
 
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Not bad, and some of the tips are worth doing. Unfortunately, many are unworkable for quite a few reasons.

Lack of Experience
Time
Money
Lack of Results.

I've done quite a few promotional things based on those 75 tips, and if anyone wants to know why most wont work, I'll answer in great detail telling you exactly why. But here's a taster why the results will be very low or not cost-effective for most of the tips:


Tip : Press

Just sending out a press release to useless PR databases won't work - bcos Journalists dont use them. Only way to truly get any PR is to use a professional agency. These guys contact the press on your behalf and know all the contacts (which you will NOT have) and how to write a killer Press release, that pretty much guarantees a printed story.


Tip : Review emails

If someone sent me an 'out of the blue' email wanting a review, I would delete it/treat it as spam. Better off posting to forums for that kind of thing.

Tip : Viral

A Viral element is tough to invent and putting a bookmark me/add to facebook link isn't viral! A viral ad system is where I place adverts to a site and that advert block has my link on it everwhere it goes. Quite different to a 'bookmark me' or 'have you seen this' link.

Tip : Radio Stations

I dont know who told you that Radio Stations are easy to sell to, but I think you'll find its a high fee option and you will not be getting for free - I assure you of that one. Heck they even charge you for a copy of the interview/mention on CD, and the cost is £100 each btw.


Tip: Forward website to Social Websites, friends etc

Yep, nice general market there, but advertising is always about exact targeting and those segments will be A) wrong age group B) ignoring all adverts.

People that frequent social sites dont go there to view adverts. They go to chat..... Your ads will be ignored


Tip: Donate to / sponsor a charity, they will often link back to your site,

This is NOT free, seeing as one has to 'donate' to get this link. Charities are busy enough without dealing with requests for link planting. However you word this sales pitch (which is what this is) at some point to get the link, you'll have to mention what you want, and at that point you'll be refused. It will be taken as a spam request and rarely works.



Tip: Get sticks of rock made up with your web address running through the middle by a specialist confectioner.

Quite expensive to do, and will be a minimum order of eg: 500/1000 - I'm telling you! At least 50p per stick, so that's £250 at least.....

And then you got to distribute these by mail? yet more cost. Rock is nice, but very sticky and sweet and thus not to everybody's taste - could be a big gamble as to whether rock gets binned or a high chance people won't even notice your clever web marketing ploy. Tough to associate websites with sweets, unless you run a confectionary type website, which means the targeting will be way off and pointless.


Call up the ad execs at relevant magazines and ask for their best price for a whole page ad, (obviously presume it’s not rate card!),

But it will be a rate card! Don't kid yourself, it will be the same rates as they charge everybody else. Depending on the magazine, (if we are talking offline mag here), it will cost you for several issues and many thousands.

More cost if it's niche! One niche magazine I contacted wanted £35'000, another wanted £800 for suspect readership figures.
 
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