Los Angeles Web Design blog
Info on Search Engine Optimization, Web Design and Web 2.0
Common Sense Marketing for your website
September 3rd, 2007 by admin
Sometimes I am shocked when I go about my daily life and see many businesses who have a wonderful opportunity to market their website and they fail to do so. Not every business is privileged to have a storefront business with walk-in traffic and be able to use that to their advantage in getting more eyeballs to their website. Typical things I have seen are restaurants that have business cards or menus with no web address on them or a good local market or bar that I know has a website because I’ve seen it before and sure enough no mention of their website is anywhere to be found in their local establishment.
There are so many simple steps you can take to increase your traffic that take very little effort. I feel like there should be a class for this stuff or some kind of documentation but I guess many small businesses eventually find this out by making mistakes and learning the hard way. So if you own a small business or know someone who does this article should help and eventually help you increase your profits.
Printed Materials and brick & mortar advertising:
business cards - This one should be self explanatory, business cards are most likely one of your most important printed materials for your business. If you think you are saving money by using up all of your old business cards without your web address think again. Throw out your old business cards and get new ones or if you really have to save the ones you have then stamp your web address on the back or get stickers made with your web address and stick them to all of your business cards…you’ll be glad you did!
invoices & receipts - When you give your customers an invoice or a receipt, put your web address on it! Most likely in the future someone may have that invoice or receipt filed away and may look it up later to purchase more products or to plan to return to your establishment. Unless you have some old antiquated piece of equipment adding this address to your printed recipts or invoices should take a very short amount of time.
In-store advertising - If you have a store with walk-in traffic put up a banner with your web address. You can go to your local print shop and get a banner fairly inexpensively…in most cases well under $100. Well worth the investment in my mind. If you really have to do it the cheap way you can print out something on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper for free. If you have a trendy store and you want to do something really cool you can get a gobo light and project your web address on the floor or wall. Bottom line if you have people standing around reading and observing the inside of your store while waiting, having your web address in any fashion is better than having nothing at all.
Miscellaneous Printed Materials - There are also other various printed materials you can add your web address to if it applies to you. Such printed materials may be postcards, newsletters, flyers, product tags, menus, bags, etc.
Traditional Business Advertising for your website
Voice mail - This is one that gets overlooked all the time. If you have voice mail and many people call your business after hours. Mention that they can visit your website and then spell out or say your web address. In many cases they will be glad you did this because they may have already wanted to purchase your products anyway and you just made it easier for them. This may also save time for you because they may have called just to ask a simple question. By going to your website they can probably read a list of FAQ questions on your website and not call the next day.
Email - If you send out many emails to customers and clients then you should add your web address to your email signature. This way every single outgoing email is an advertisement for your business and it cost you nothing extra.
In-store announcements - If you have a sound system that plays in-store announcements then you may want to mention your website every now and then in your announcements where it applies and is also not too obtrusive to your customers. Remember you don’t want to shove it down their throat…you just want them to know that you have a website and that it exists.