By Peter Hercky
This month’s hot promotional topic is still the Internet. We won’t waste your time rehashing its benefits and potential, but we will say that for the relatively low cost involved with putting on a site, you should seriously consider it, if you haven’t done so already.
Three elements have to be in place in order for your site to succeed: listing in directories, promotion and content. Most people think the Internet is Search Engine driven. That is, the surfer seeks information about a product or service and a list of sites pops up. The fact is that searches often yield hundreds, if not thousands of site names relating to a given topic. If you happen to be number 124 out of 1,000 names, only the hearty and determined will stick it out until your site comes up. Sure, it’s important that you be listed and described appropriately, but don’t rely exclusively on Search Engines to bring visitors.
What else should you do to increase traffic? Promote, promote, promote. We don’t just mean add your Internet address to ads, mailing pieces and PR releases. We mean create ads, mailing pieces and PR releases about your site, treating it almost as a new product. Think of the web as a TV with a million channels and you’re on one of them. How’s anyone going to know you’re on and where to find you, unless you tell them?
Finally, let’s talk content. By all means, describe the features and benefits of your product or service. But, we also recommend attracting prospects before the buying process begins so they’ll be familiar with you as they make up their short list. One way to accomplish that is by providing information that’s useful to them in their daily functions.
Let’s look at our site (http://www.bizmarketing.com), for a moment. Yes, we have snippets of information explaining who and what we are. That’s useful when someone is in the throws of an agency review and needs to know of our capabilities. But in order to familiarize potential clients with us before their need for a new agency arises, we offer a “show.”
As a matter of fact, we offer three “shows” to attract advertising decision makers to our site. First, there’s the Ad Game (name the advertisers behind famous tag lines and win a prize). Second, we feature Addendum editorials for review by non-recipients. Third, we have a “hot links” page to advertising/promotion/marketing sites, offering visitors a handy resource for relevant data and information about these topics. Updating our site every few weeks keeps visitors coming back for more.
If you have questions about developing an effective, integrated Internet program, we’d be happy to answer them. Please call.
About the author
Peter Hercky is a partner at Hercky Pasqua Herman, an award-winning full service advertising, marketing and public relations agency specializing in business-to-business clients. The firm offers a full range of services to clients in every budget category across a broad span of industries. You can reach him at Hercky Pasqua Herman, 324 Chestnut Street, Roselle Park NJ 07204, telephone (908)241-9474, email [email protected].