VirtualMV/Internet and Web/Promotion/Content

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Overview

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By the end of this page you will be able to:

  • Understand Promotional strategies and techniques

Introduction

  • Without effective promotion, your website is unlikely to be seen as often as you would like.
  • As you have invested time and money in the site, promoting it certainly makes sense.
  • The site will not achieve the aims hoped for if the target audiences do not know it is there and are not often reminded of it.
  • The person or people in an organisation who have the responsibility for marketing should develop and help implement a website promotional strategy.

Promotional Strategies

A promotional strategy should address:

  • who is managing the strategy and the decision-making paths
  • promotional techniques (see the next topics in this section of the website for promotional ideas) – for each ask:
    • why deploy this technique?
    • how will it be deployed?
    • who will do it?
    • what is the implementation schedule?
    • what resources are required – people, money and equipment?
    • what are expected benefits – and how will they be measured?
  • risk management strategies – what could go wrong and how you will deal with it
  • the internal communication plan – how the strategy will be explained and sold to everyone in the organisation, its sponsors and supporters
  • its strategic fit with your organisation’s marketing plan
  • the evaluation plan – what processes and criteria will be used to assess the success of the strategy and how any necessary changes will be made.

Promotional Techniques

  • Register with an existing search engine
    • Do it yourself (may be free)
    • Ask someone else to do it
  • Advertising the organisation’s website address in traditional media
    • magazines
    • newsletters
    • posters
    • billboards
    • newspapers
    • television
    • radio programs
    • books

Ensure that the website’s domain name appears, or is mentioned, whenever you have interaction with clients or customers.

  • letterheads, invoices, receipts and envelopes
  • emails
  • business cards
  • packaging, wrappers
  • uniforms
  • signage on buildings, windows, vehicles
  • recorded messages on staff mobiles and the office switchboard number

Other promotional methods you might consider include:

  • issuing press releases about virtual events, additional features on the website or reaching milestones
  • entering Internet awards
  • inviting reviewers to review the site and write it up in magazines and newspapers.