When it goes about Website promotion, people usually think about
such things as search engine optimization (also known as SEO),
different pay-per-click advertising opportunities (such as
Google AdWords and Overture), incoming links campaigns, and
other methods of online promotion. It seems obvious - the
Website is online, so one should promote it online. Although it
is true, people always undervalue a grand set of techniques of
offline promotion. So offline promotion is?Basically,
it?s a complex of activities that make your target group aware
of your Website?s existence through different material mediums
or word of mouth. Let?s imagine that you are trying to promote a
company?s Website. Your target group doesn?t surf Internet to
find a company like yours. It?s used to seek potential partners
trough exhibitions, industry magazines or so. However, you do
realize that if they see your Website and find all necessary
info there, they won?t pass by your company under no
circumstances. What should you do then? Definitely, you should
advertise your Website with those mediums that can reach your
customer?s mind freely. More often than you might imagine, your
message can be located offline. Is it right for me?Like
there is no universal cure for anyone, there is no common answer
for that question. However, there are two main groups of
Websites that can benefit from the usage of some offline
promotional techniques: - Online community
Websites; - Websites of companies that run their operations
offline. Why those two? The logic is different there.
As for the online communities, those unprofitable Websites unite
thousands of people common in their interests. So we can assume
that if your community Website is dedicated to e.g. blues
harmonica playing you can promote it widely with some material
fan attributes etc. Your aim here would be to involve as many
permanent visitors as you can.
As for the company?s Website, you should turn an attention of a
specific narrow circle of potential customers and partners.
Business people are like two-faced Janus; they believe only the
facts, people they know and material things, while they like to
get an info as quickly as Internet can afford (if not even
rapidly). Tell them about your company in a real time, let
others tell them about you too, give them your card with your
site?s URL, and you?ll be looking much more solid in their eyes,
much worthier than your competitors. Here the techniques
go?The number of ways of offline promotion is infinite. It
can be limited with your own fantasy only. However, it would be
wise to divide all possible ways into 3 main groups.
cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=1>
vAlign=top> Group
vAlign=top> Appeals to
vAlign=top> Presumable
Effect | Wide exposure
of site?s URL on different material mediums (bags, billboards
etc.) | People?s Curiosity |
- Increase of site?s general
traffic. - Some visitors can become
permanent. | | Usage of
site?s URL on company?s souvenirs, proposals etc. |
vAlign=top> Need to find a necessary info
vAlign=top> - Increase of company?s solid image in
potential partners? eyes. - Their awareness of company?s
existence. | Usage of
site?s URL on different occasions (press releases,
conversations) | People?s
Curiosity | - Increase of site?s
targeted traffic. | |
Let?s
clarify a usage of those groups.
1.????? Wide exposure of site?s URL on different
material mediums. Material mediums mentioned above can
be:
- Billboards;
- Bags;
- Umbrellas;
- Cars;
- T-Shirts and caps;
- Print, radio, television
ads etc.
That method can be used effectively mainly for
online community site?s promotion just because it appeals to
people curiosity. A general scheme of its performance is:
- A person sees an ad;
- He gets curious;
- He keeps the
URL in mind; - As soon as he gets to Internet he visits that
URL; - At the end, he either returns over and over, or he
doesn?t.
In some specific cases, such method can give
great results for companies? Websites as well. It can be true
mainly if:
- The company has a
well-known brand, so that such promotion can be just a
reminiscent advertising. - The company runs a specific
advertising campaign that makes people get curious and visit its
Website.
As a conclusion, one should say that
although such method can give high increase of general traffic,
only a little number of visitors would be targeted. However, the
word-of-mouth effect will change the scale to proper direction
then.
2.????? Usage of Site?s URL on company?s souvenirs,
proposals etc. This specific method can be applied mainly to
a marketing strategy of a company that runs its operations
offline. Since little souvenirs with company?s logo became a
kind of good form in business, no one would argue that having an
URL of a Website of a company you are going to deal with on the
pen that company has presented you recently could be both
pleasant and useful. Moreover, it is more likely that a person
will visit your site if he finds its URL placed on the clock or
a calendar on his table rather than if he would need to look for
it in his documents or in a search engine.
Company?s correspondence is also a good medium to advertise your
Website. Don?t forget to include the URL in all your letters and
proposals, and people who are interested in such services will
definitely spend several minutes to browse your Website.
3.????? Usage of site?s URL on different
occasions. That?s what is usually defined as word-of-mouth
effect. You can include the URL of your Website into all your
press release and articles about your company that you publish
in prints. That will definitely make people who are interested
in further info about your company to browse the site. It can be
also interviews or just private conversations when you can
advertise the Website. And if it?s really informational and
useful, you can expect a great effect of viral marketing when
people will promote your Website yourself. In fact, although it
seems the easiest way to proceed, it?s the most difficult and
long-term technique to get more or less sizable result. However,
it?s worth trying.
What?s the next?
Although now you can
think that offline promotion of your Website will be a cure, do
not fall into a trip of thoughtless running of advertising
campaigns. This simple algorithm can save your time and money if
you use it.
- Define your target group. Will they really
take care about your Website if they see an offline
advertisement? - Think how you can reach their attention.
Whether it should be TV or radio ads, billboards or bags and
T-shirts, souvenir pens, calendars etc.? - Define where you?ll
place/distribute the final advertising mediums. - Think what
message will make people curious enough to visit your Website.
- Prepare a draft copy and test it on some of your
acquaintances. - When an ideal copy will be developed, you can
start your campaign.
As a conclusion, try to think from
a position of your target group. That will make you able to
produce the most efficient message and distribute it wisely.
Just several tips?
And if you?ll think from a position
of your target group, you?ll understand that you should make
everything for them to memorize your Website?s URL. This applies
mainly to if you wish to try to place your ads onto T-shirts,
caps, bags, cars, billboards etc. There are tree main tips to
make it easy:
- Do not use long URL?s
- Use meaningful
URL?s - Try to make people curious with a logo or
design
About the long URL?s. Imagine a person with a
text on T-shirt, ?THE-BEST-ONLINE-COMMUNITY-IN-THE-WORLD.COM? or
a shorter one, ?PLAY-BLUES-HARMONICA.INFO?. Although those URL?s
are meaningful enough, it would be hard to people that pass by
such ad to read and memorize it. Hence, you loose visitors. It
would be much better if you use a short type such as e.g.
?NEIGHBOUR.COM?, or ?BLUESHARP.INFO?. Anyway, if your Website is
already known online with its long clumsy name, you can register
a shorter one and redirect visitors to a real site.
If you aren?t an owner of such companies like Procter&Gamble
(PG.com) or KPMG (KPMG.com), unlikely it would be good for you
to name your site something like ?BDFR.com?. People won?t
remember such set of letters, so you won?t benefit from your
offline promotion.
Although if you can?t use an URL name that will explain the main
topic of your Website, you still can get targeted visitors.
Place this URL along with a logo or informational design. It
will certainly lead to a higher attention to your ad and
subsequently will increase a targeted traffic to the Website. As
for the logo style, it can appeal to two main issues:
type=disc>
It can lead to people?s curiosity; It can be
informational.Whatever style you choose that will
define a quality of traffic you?ll get.
And at the
end?
At the end, you should really think if offline
promotion can help you increase your site?s traffic and make it
more targeted. It?s obvious that not any Website can use it.
However, if you believe that yours can, if you apply an
algorithm mentioned above, if you take care and adjust your URL
to those three tips, if you use various techniques you?ll
definitely be able to say then that your site?s visitors are as
targeted as you always dreamt for.
About the author:
Alex Polonski is a Senior Sales Manager?at
XITEX Software Company,
Ukraine. The company works in offshore software development
market since 1999 anв has a fair expertise in J2EE and
.NET technologies. Among company?s own-developed and marketed
solutions, one can see a J2EE content management system,
Xitex WebContent M1.
