Promotion.
In general terms, it is activity that supports or is active encouragement to further something. This can be yourself, a business, or even an idea.
It is also something that should be in the forefront of your mind when creating a website.
As web designers, we have been asked by many of our clients about promoting their site. No matter if your website’s purpose is to have your own customers or you are creating it personally (such a blog), promotion is still a vital component.
As for when we believe you should start: ASAP!
There is no better time to start promoting your website than before your site has been launched. That way, from the get go, you are getting traction. The most time and labour- consuming portion of any marketing scheme is setting up that foundation. Therefore, it is best to begin working on that while your web designer is completing your site’s design.
There are differences in how you should market your site based on the type of site you have as well as your goals. A blogger who is utilizing it as a personal journal has different goals than a travel blogger who utilizes sponsorships or paid advertising with other businesses; despite both being bloggers.
We break down promotions into three categories: free, paid, and “traditional”.
Free:
Free promotion can take place online or in person. The first thing you should be doing is talking about your business/idea! The only way people are going to know about it is if you talk about it. Word of mouth is a kind of promotion that even large companies live for. Initially it will stem from you, but eventually you want this to spread to your customers or users telling others. Digitally, a strategy to driving organic traffic to your site is search engine optimization (feels like we’ve talked about this before!)
SEO cannot be emphasized enough. It requires research and won’t yield immediate results but long term it can end up saving you a lot of money while broadening your reached customers.
Paid:
Paid promotions are pretty self explanatory. You are paying for services or products that are going to place your website front and center. This can be through ads on search engines (ex Google AdWords) or social media (ads or even promotion through influencers). Paid marketing can yield quick results and present you with actionable data on what is working and what isn’t, often within the first 24 hours.
Traditional:
By traditional, we are also commenting on another form of paid ads, but these ones are in a more “tangible” form. This includes the use of pamphlets, banners, flyers, posters, labels, business cards, etc. The reason why we separated this from paid promotion is because how it is gone about, the type of work and employees used to create this strategy, and the end goals. These strategies have proven results and they could be of use to you for both your website promotion and/or products/services.
There are many different ways to promote your site. When deciding, take into account why you want others to know about your site, what level of interaction they will have, and your current goals. You can change your promotional strategy (and should as you develop and scale!). You can also utilize multiple types at the same time or have them build upon one another.
As a part of our offerings, LiveFive Web Design has marketers who can work with you on discovering the best tactic for you as well as develop a marketing strategy. Contact us to learn more!