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Text Box: Promoting Your Website Online success begins with first step

On-line and off-line opportunities

Use your signature file

Most email and news-reading programs allow you to create a “signature file” that appears at the bottom of your outgoing messages. Anyone who reads your email or newsgroup postings will see your signature, so it’s a great opportunity to promote your business.

Your signature should include your name, your email address, your website address and a catch phrase that describes your business.

Work discussion groups, forums and chat rooms

The online world has numerous forums and chat rooms. Find a conversation you can contribute to and jump in. Participating in interactive discussions will bring visitors to your site.

Promote your URL (website address)

Your URL should be as visible and as widely available as your phone number. Prominently display it on your email correspondence, letterhead, business cards, invoices, print ads, radio and TV ads, Yellow Pages ads, delivery vans, answering machine messages, and any other place your customers might see or hear your name.

Swap links with other sites

Links from other Web sites are an important way people find your site. Swap links on a casual and informal basis. Ask anyone who seems interested - and to whom you wouldn’t mind being linked - if they would like to include your URL on their site, in exchange for you including theirs on your site.

Email Marketing

Email can be a cost-effective, high-response-rate tool for communicating marketing and promotional materials, and updating your customers with information and promotional campaigns involving newsletters, surveys and competitions.

Email can also provide real-time response tracking and analysis. At its most rudimentary level, email can tell you how many people received your message and how many messages “bounced”, or could not be delivered.

Manage and Protect Your Website

Once your website has gone “live” and you’re in business, your job hasn’t finished. You’ll need to maintain your site on an ongoing basis.

à Keep your content fresh

Update your website regularly. Set aside time to review content and make sure it’s still relevant. Keep customers returning for new content. To learn more

à Check your links

Changing content on your website may involve adding and editing your links. If you update your site frequently, consider adding a “What’s New” or “New Additions” area on your home page so your customers will know where to go. Test internal links and those
to external websites. If other sites have links to your pages, let them know so they can keep their content accurate.

Plan for the future

Once your website is online, you’ll need to monitor it for problems. Whether you’re building
it yourself or we created for you, plan a budget for ongoing and regular maintenance. Use monitoring software to check your site’s performance to make sure it is always accessible.

Better website guide