The two pillars of a sound internet marketing strategy

There are two pillars of an effective web marketing strategy. The first is effective website design. The second, and equally important pillar is driving traffic to the site. The two more popular methods of driving traffic are search engines and banner advertising. With a little creativity, much greater site traffic can be achieved than is possible with search engines and banner ads.

In our case, we are a tourism promotion company. We will have a drawing in which we will give away 50 vacations to the local ski resort in our community. Each of the 1,000,000 entry forms for the drawing will have the web address prominently displayed on it. We expect to drive a large volume of traffic to the site using this technique.

Originally Posted by rlabston ...The second, and equally important pillar is driving traffic to the site.....Each of the 1,000,000 entry forms for the drawing will have the web address prominently displayed on it. We expect to drive a large volume of traffic to the site using this technique.

Just having the website displayed (even prominently) on the forms may not be enough to drive the kind of traffic you need to the site.

Is there any way you can have them add to their drawing (perhaps another night, or an extra event) by visiting the website and registering there as well?

Pam

Originally Posted by LadySmith Is there any way you can have them add to their drawing (perhaps another night, or an extra event) by visiting the website and registering there as well?

I love your idea Pam. Give them a reason (WIIFM) to visit the website.

Originally Posted by LadySmith Just having the website displayed (even prominently) on the forms may not be enough to drive the kind of traffic you need to the site. Is there any way you can have them add to their drawing (perhaps another night, or an extra event) by visiting the website and registering there as well? Pam

I agree Pam. I didn't go into a great deal of detail about the use of these advertising pieces, focusing more on the volume rather than the techniques to employ. And you are right. It is not enough to simply display the website address. We need to give the contest participant a reason to use it. A couple of things are already planned. We will use the website to announce the winners of the contest, so anyone who is interested in knowing as soon as possible if they have won can visit the website to check. Another possibility is to provide the ability to make additional entries via the web. We might also offer a free gift to each person who visits the websight, like a calendar with pictures of the region or perhaps discounts on local products such as maple syrup (which I happen to produce here at my erablier). And, as you suggest, eligibility for the grand prize might require visiting the website.

You have identified a very important factor in driving traffic to the site, giving the prospect a reason to visit in addition to the address.

I agree truly, without a good site you can never have good traffic and without decent trrafic even well built site doesnot work but more than that good , content and customers interaction is also equally important

Originally Posted by mtajim I agree truly, without a good site you can never have good traffic and without decent trrafic even well built site doesnot work but more than that good , content and customers interaction is also equally important

I'm curious about how you see the customer interacting with the website.

I intend to offer registration to people interested in staying up-to-date with the news from our company and region. This means they can give me their name and address which I will keep in my database and I will email them updates from time to time and possibly, news of new promotions. I also intend to create the ability for travel agents to make reservations online.

Did you have some innovative ideas for allowing people to interact?

Good points. I think ultimately it's all about content-- at least for the search engine bots.

Originally Posted by julian4239 Good points. I think ultimately it's all about content-- at least for the search engine bots.

Search engines are useful, but are not a magic bullet. I use search engines extensively but there is one major problem with them when it comes to marketing. Not everyone can be number one. No matter how good your content is, someone will knock you off the top spot tomorrow.

Content is important for both search engines and ultimately, your prospect. Search engines can help to get your content in front of the prospect. So, content is undeniably critical in your internet marketing formula. Morever, content may well be the most important component of your website's effectiveness. But when it comes to driving traffic to your website, content and by extension, search engines, become less critical. Or at least they should. If you rely on search engines to drive traffic to your site, you are limiting your market to people who already know what they want and have already decided to look on the internet to find it. And you are relying on your ability to maintain a high position in the internet search, which not everyone can do. Only 10 sites can be in the top 10. Everybody else will probably not show up on the radar screen.

So, if the search engine is not the magic bullet, then how do you drive traffic to your site? I don't have statistics to back this up, but I believe you have to be both creative and scientific to be successful in this effort. Here are some scientific principles that are useful. First, it is easier to reach someone where he or she is than to get that person to find you. Secondly, the longer your message is in front of a prospect, the more likely he or she is to remember you. Another important principal to keep in mind is that people are more interested in their needs and desires than in yours.

Armed with these scientific principles (or just plain common sense), the creative part of internet marketing is a great deal easier. If you want to reach truck drivers, you'll probably get a lot more results from putting your message in a truck stop than by trying to figure out how to be number one on a search engine. I have a friend who is marketing a site for fuel tax credit. He is advertising in trade journals. I suggested that he put fliers in truck stops across the US and have a contest to give away 100 gallons of diesel fuel and some CB radios. Of course, the truckers will have to register on the website to validate their entries. How many of these truckers do you suppose would go on to google and seach for fuel tax credit?

My bottom line is this. Offer a good product. If you market it through a website, make the website content and appearanve something that you would want to revisit. And then go to your market. Don't expect your market to come to you.

Originally Posted by rlabston My bottom line is this. Offer a good product. If you market it through a website, make the website content and appearanve something that you would want to revisit. And then go to your market. Don't expect your market to come to you.

I'm enjoying reading your posts Robert. This is another piece of quality advice.

Originally Posted by rlabston There are two pillars of an effective web marketing strategy. The first is effective website design. The second, and equally important pillar is driving traffic to the site. The two more popular methods of driving traffic are search engines and banner advertising. With a little creativity, much greater site traffic can be achieved than is possible with search engines and banner ads. In our case, we are a tourism promotion company. We will have a drawing in which we will give away 50 vacations to the local ski resort in our community. Each of the 1,000,000 entry forms for the drawing will have the web address prominently displayed on it. We expect to drive a large volume of traffic to the site using this technique.

Uh, let's not forget copywriting. I would suggest it is more important the the two items mentioned. Online, it is
everything. The words on the screen.

This is indeed why the web is evolving to 2.0 now.

With bad site design, good copy and still pull opt-ins and
sales. And with poor traffic, although the site won't receive consistent visitors or views, the copy may be compelling
enough for a person to tell someone else about it.