VirtualMV/Web Development/Building Web Site/Marketing and promotion/Content

Introduction

By the end of this page you will be able to: Identifying the importance of marketing and promotion Describing ways you can promote your web site.

Creating a brilliant website is fruitless if no one knows about it. With millions of sites, capturing attention can be a challenge. Some developers offer marketing and promotion as part of their package.

Marketing is a mix of price, product, place and promotion. So you can tell someone you have a great web site (Marketing) and the site can be found by searching for the company name in Google/Bing (promotion).

MyLifebook.co.nz - the advertising flyer came out before the site went live.. woops!!

It is important to consider in your overall design, the future of the internet from a user perspective. For example, take into account the numbers relative to fixed broadband and wireless broadband and the trends that exist from a user perspective in the ever changing world of technology. Mobile broadband connection have grown in the past 6 months to 67.5% of the connected New Zealand population (freitasm.com, 2012)

• You can get things rolling yourself by registering your site with the major Internet search engines, all in one step, with Submit It!.
• A professional Internet marketer can really help spread the word fast and offer creative ideas for bringing more people to your site--everything from advertising on the Web to zippy contests.
• Consider posting to a blog or microblog (such as twitter). These are spidered more often than conventional web pages.
• Consider creating a YouTube video and embed on your site. There are companies producing videos for this purpose (e.g. http://broadcast2world.com/ a motion graphics and animation company based in India)

Promotional strategy

• 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

Design

• Landing Page Optimization tips: analysis of 50+ sites to find out what increases sales and conversions (Chphra, 2010) [1]

Google hits

• While there are numerous things measured by the Google algorithm, one thing seems to outweigh every other aspect. Google seems to heavily favor sites and pages that are listed in the Open Directory Project.
• At the very least, you will have to be able to get your root/index page into the ODP. Attempt to include your most important keywords in the title and in the description you submit to the ODP.
• After you have been able to squeeze your index page into the directory, try to do the same to as many of your subpages as you can.
• The minimum requirement is to make sure that each page has plenty of useful, unique content that is relevant to the category you are submitting to.
• The next part is to optimize the HTML code of the pages to match Google's algorithm as well as you can.
  • Title: The keyword or phrase should be included in the title of the page.
  • Headings: Placing the keyphrase in a H1 or H2 heading at the very beginning of the page.
  • Meta tags: Not useful with Google, but you won't get into trouble for using the standard keyword and description tags either.
  • Link popularity: ODP links are gold, but links from other respected sources, especially Yahoo, can be very valuable as well.

Open directory project

• The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web.
• It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors.
• Instead of fighting the explosive growth of the Internet, the Open Directory provides the means for the Internet to organize itself.

Using Web technologies

QR Codes

• You can get a free QR-Code Generator at http://www.qrcode.cx/

QRCode Generator http://www.qrcode.cx/

• Real Estate Uses Technology to Boost Sales(2011, Apr 11)[2]
  • KANSAS CITY, Mo.— The real estate industry is using new technology to get customers. Quick Response Codes or "QR" codes link consumer to information they need. The QR codes are appearing on business cards, fliers and for-sale signs. As long as you have an I-Phone, Android or Blackberry you can scan the codes. The codes then take you to listing websites, agents' contact cards, virtual home tours and maps."They can scan that code and it can automatically take them to the listing where they can see all the photos," said Michael Russell, realtor with Realty Executives of Kansas City. "They can see a virtual tour and if they're interested in the property, they can make contact with us instantly by pushing a button instead of having to search for phone numbers. "