Online Promotions

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Internet Promotional Strategies The Internet
and Interactive Media Radford
University Angela DAuria Stanton, Ph.D.
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1. The Law of the Dead End Street

• Setting up a web site is like building a
  storefront on a dead-end street. If you want any
  shoppers, you must give them a reason to come.

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2. The Law of Giving and Selling

• Attract visitors to your site by giving away
  something free, and then try to sell something
  additional to those who visit.

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3. The Law of Trust

• Trust is the essential lubricant of Web business
  without trust, business grinds to a halt.

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4. The Law of Pull and Push

• Pull people to your site by your attractive
  content, then push quality information to them
  regularly via opt-in e-mail.

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5. The Law of the Niche

• Small businesses often succeed by finding niches
  that are either unfilled or only partially
  filled, and they fill them with excellence.

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Nine Major Types of Online Promotion

• Search engines
• E-mail Marketing
• Linking strategies
• Viral strategies
• Public relations
• Traditional media
• Networking
• Weblogs (Blogs)
• Paid advertising
• Affiliate Marketing

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3. Linking Strategies

• Join a banner swapping or banner exchange program
  Ex. http//www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/onlin
  e/banner-advertising/detail.mspx

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2. Linking Strategies - continued

• Reciprocal Linking
• Find complementary sites, link to their site from
  your site, and then ask them to link to you.
• Some sources
• http//www.linkexchanged.com/
• http//www.link-builder.com/
• http//www.express-marketing.com/reciprocal-links-
  tips.html
• http//www.gotop.com/
• http//www.links-creator.com/

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3. Viral Strategies

• Encourage others to carry your marketing message
  via e-mail, using their own network of
  relationships.
• www.hotmail.com
• Encourage site visitors to recommend your site to
  their friends
• recommend-it.com
• The key is to ASK!!!

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Elements of a Viral Marketing Strategy

• Gives away products or services free stuff
• Provides for effortless transfer to others
• Scales easily from small to very large
• Exploits common motivations and behaviors
• Utilizes existing communication networks
• Takes advantage of others resources
• Source http//www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-princ
  iples-clean.htm

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4. Public Relations

• There are free PR services and paid resources
  available
• http//www.prweb.com/
• http//www.pressreleasenetwork.com/index.html
• http//www.bizwire.com/
• http//www.prnewswire.com/
• http//www.XPressPress.com/
• http//www.online-pr.com/markpr.htm
• Develop an online media kit
• Begin with the basics (the five Ws)
• Who
• What
• Where
• When
• Why
• Dont hide
• link under a news or whats new or about us
  button
• Update the information and date it.
• Visit RU News

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5. Traditional Media

• Most people still get the majority of their
  messages through traditional marketing channels
• Put your web site address everywhere and give
  reasons to visit your web site

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7. Networking

• Search out bulletin boards, newsgroups, and
  discussion lists in your industry and take an
  active part.
• http//groups.google.com/
• Be very careful that you DONT directly advertise
  in these forums.
• Reasons to Network
• Your customers and prospects may see it, and be
  impressed.
• Journalists may see it and contact you for a
  story.
• The search engines rank you or your site higher
  because you have been mentioned online.
• When someone searches for you or your company,
  all of these comments are pulled up, too.
• Use signature files wisely.
• Read www.easytraining.com/signature.htm

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8. Weblogs - What is a BLOG?

• Blogs are alternatively called web logs or
  weblogs. However, "blog" seems less likely to
  cause confusion, as "web log" can also mean a
  server's log files.
• It is just a website organized by time. Weblogs
  make the organization of the time-dimension
  explicit by providing a calendar through which
  each entry can be retrieved.
• A frequent, chronological publication of personal
  thoughts and Web links.
• A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in
  a person's life and what is happening on the Web,
  a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although there
  are as many unique types of blogs as there are
  people.
• People maintained blogs long before the term was
  coined, but the trend gained momentum with the
  introduction of automated published systems, most
  notably Blogger at blogger.com. Thousands of
  people use services such as Blogger to simplify
  and accelerate the publishing process.
• A frequently updated website of personal ideas,
  thoughts, musings, news, information, or
  discussions of what one has eaten for breakfast.
• A web log is like a journal you write in at home,
  except its hosted on the Internet, and everyone
  can read it. Journalists from national
  publications have blogs at their websites. It
  gives them the chance to rant and rave, comment,
  voice their opinions, and write about stuff they
  cant publish in their regular publications.
  Blogs are more casually written than magazines or
  newspapers.

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The Blogoshpere

• 50 million Americans (30 of all U.S. internet
  users) visited a blog in the Q1 2005
• Average blog reader viewed 77 more pages than
  non-blog ysers
• Blog readers average 23 hours online per week
  versus overall average of 13 hours

Source http//www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/demogr
aphics/article.php/3526591
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What is a blog post?

• A weblog post has three basic attributes title,
  link and description.
• Templates make it easy to start a blog site.
  Editing, posting and generation of the (weblog)
  website is largely automated.
• The simple addition of a calendar (whether text
  or graphical) joined to the now-familiar
  hyperlink offers 'more than the sum' of those two
  simple parts for helping readers orient
  themselves.
• Examples
• http//www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php/Resources/
  CorporateBlogsList
• http//fastlane.gmblogs.com/
• http//www.marketingpower.blogs.com/
• http//www.quintcareers.com/career_blog/
• http//www.scenicnursery.com/
• http//busymom.net/
• http//techlawadvisor.com/
• http//www.microsoft.com/communities/blogs/PortalH
  ome.mspx

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5 Ways Blogging Can Help Your Business

• Expose a new or little-known product or idea
• Improve your search engine rankings
• Position yourself as an expert in an industry or
  field
• Influence public opinion
• Engage in a forum openly with your customers
• Source http//www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/res
  ources/marketing/online_marketing/5_ways_blogging_
  can_help_your_business.mspx

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Sites to Help Set Up Blogs

• http//www.blogspot.com
• http//www.livejournal.com
• http//www.typepad.com/
• http//www.xanga.com
• http//blogdrive.com
• http//www.greatestjournal.com
• http//www.diaryland.com
• http//www.ebloggy.com/
• http//www.leiascofield.com/antibloggies/

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9. Paid Advertising

• Types of Paid Advertising
• Banner Ads
• Paid Listings in Portal Sites
• Sponsorships
• Pay-per-performance Links

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9. Paid Advertising - Banner Ads

• Typically 468 x 60 (accounting for about 42 of
  all ads) and animated, but they come in many
  standard sizes (IMUs Interactive Marketing
  Units)
• Sold on a CPM basis
• Average Click Through Rate (CTR) is percent
• Ways to increase the CTR
• Animated ads can increase CTR by 30.
• Make sure ad is under 15k or you may lose up to
  40 of viewers that dont wait for the larger ads
  to load
• Asking a question, for example What price do you
  want to pay? has been shown to increase CTR by
  up to 20.
• Using the words Click Here can increase CTR by
  up to 15.
• Using the word FREE can increase CTR by up to
  15.
• Using bright, sharp, contrasting colors can also
  increase CTR.

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9. Paid Advertising - Paid Listings in Portal
Sites
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9. Paid Advertising - Sponsorships
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Sponsor content within a site (gatorade) or
within an e-mail (AIG Direct).
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9. Paid Advertising - Pay-per-click (cost-per
click, pay-per-performance) Links
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10. Paid Advertising - Pay-per-sale Advertising
(Affiliates Programs or Associates Programs)
http//www.cj.com/ Commission Junction
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Affiliate Marketing Resources

• http//www.affiliateprimer.com/affiliate-primer-co
  ntents.html
• http//www.affiliatemanager.net/scc/articles.shtml
  
• http//www.wilsonweb.com/art/ads/affiliate_program
  4.htm
• http//www.clickz.com/experts/media/agency_strat/a
  rticle.php/3416591