How to Promote Your

How to Promote Your

Products on the Internet

Reaching Customers Worldwide

Dr Mark Brown

UQ Business School

University of Queensland

Brisbane, Australia

Three Ways to Promote Online


Spend a lot


Spend a little


Spend somewhere in between

How to Promote

Without Burning

Through Your Cash


Email Marketing


Search Engine Marketing


Linking Strategies


Web 2.0 Marketing


Affiliate Programs/Pay
-
for
-
Performance

Multiple Strategies

You probably don’t
maximize your
existing customer or
prospect base

Plenty of products
and companies
available to help
with good email
campaigns

Can be much more
precise with email
communications

Email Marketing

The Golden Rules

Don’t send SPAM!

Get consumers’ permission (i.e. Opt
-
in,
not Opt
-
out)

Provide something of value

special offers, newsletters,
announcements, greeting cards,
reminders, incentives

Carefully segment your market

Get help with copywriting/creative if
you can afford it

Always

measure response

Keep testing, try out new things

Outsourced, Hosted, or In
-
House


Access by any
web browser


Database
connectivity


Recipient profile


Event triggering


Design
templates


Bounceback
handling


Detailed
statistics

What is Lifecycle Marketing?

Awareness of customer’s position in the
customer lifecycle

Customer
-
driven, not offer
-
driven

Sending highly relevant messages when
they are most effective

Highly targeted campaigns 18x more
effective than offer
-
driven campaigns

(Jupiter Research 2005)

Not everyone gets the same email or
same offer on the same day

Much of it can be automated based upon
customer behavior

Testing


Setting up timing tests

how often (within a certain period of time)

best days of the week

best times of the day


Carefully design your landing page


Remail strategy


Refine…and then refine some

more!

A Few Key Tips

Don’t send too often
(ideal frequency?)

Make it easy to unsubscribe

If possible, have it come from a real
person

Make sure people can reply

Take privacy seriously

Keep it brief
-

use links for more
detail

Avoid list brokers

Co
-
Registration



Rankings (“organic”)


Pay Per Click


Don’t focus on one and neglect
the other

Search Engine Marketing

Some Popular Search Engines

Search Engine Optimization

Process of “optimizing” both on
-
page and off
-
page ranking factors in
order to achieve high search engine
rankings for targeted search terms

Also refers to the “industry” that
has been created around using
keyword searching as a means of
increasing relevant traffic to a
website

Search engines rank sites using
differing criteria

They need to know your site exists

Search engines “index” web pages but
it takes time

Give yourself the best chance by
“optimizing” your site pages

Add new content as frequently as
possible

Create your pages for search engines
with as much effort as you do for
people

Improving Your Ranking

GOOD: Check out our

products

page for more info


about

webcams

BAD:

Click here

for more info about our webcams

Using Keywords

Pick a couple of keywords or phases to
optimize for each page

Use language your readers would use

Do not over use
-

avoid keyword stuffing

Try to put the keywords in hyperlinks

This influences relevance of pages you’re
linking to

Useful Keyword Tools

Keyword Density

http://www.webjectives.com/keyword.htm

http://www.keyworddensity.com/

Online Advertising Tools

Yahoo!/Overture:
http://inventory.overture.com/

Google:
https://adwords.google.com/select/Keywo
rdToolExternal

Google Webmaster Tools

http://www.google.com/webmasters


Many search engines use links to
a page to determine its page rank

You should carefully plan how
your web pages link to each other

Again, design site navigation for
both consumers
and

search
engines

Always have a html/text
-
based
site map
-

crawlers like them

Linking Strategies

Link Popularity

Both number and popularity of
inbound links is important

Anchor text is important

(i.e. the use of keywords in link text)

Popularity is for an individual page,
not a whole site

Search engines use different
popularity algorithms

How to Get Links to Your Site

Get listed in directories (eg. Yahoo!,
Open Directory
-

dmoz.org)

Different from search engines

Lists of sites organized by topic, usually
editorially reviewed

Establish reciprocal links with
community and professional bodies and
smaller government agencies

Syndicate your content

Have your management team (or maybe
any employees) create blogs that link to
you

Link Format

Text links are the most crawler
friendly

If you use image links, also use
alt text

Should be able to reach any
page from a text link


Resources

www.searchenginewatch.com

Check link popularity at

www.marketleap.com/publinkpop

PPC ads appear as “sponsored listings”

Bid on price you are willing to pay “per
click”

Usually have very good tracking tools and
statistics

Ability to control ad text

Can set budgets and spending limits

Google AdWords

and
Yahoo Search
Marketing

(formerly Overture) are the two
leaders

Pay Per Click (PPC)

Example
-

AdWords

If you don’t have a PPC strategy

Results in 1
-
2 days

Easy for beginners to set up

Can turn campaign on and off at
any moment

Can geographically target specific
markets

Still need to monitor your keyword
bidding and ad ranking

…GET ONE!

Web 2.0 Marketing

Social Networking Media

Part of Web 2.0 phenomenon

Online social gathering places

Spreading from blogs,
podcasting, and messaging to
music and video sharing

Two Thirds

Of U.S.

Brand advocacy

drives business
growth

Brand advocacy

more important than
brand image or
satisfaction

91% of people likely
to buy on
recommendation

Economy Driven By WOM

Word
-
of
-
Mouth

Needs to be
remarkable in
some way

People must
want

to refer their
friends

Have an action
you want them to
take
(e.g. register,
purchase, visit site)

Viral Marketing

Video Sharing

Blogs
–

Why Use Them?


Search engine marketing


Direct communications


Brand building


Competitive differentiation


Relational marketing


Drive new business


Media and public relations


Reputation management


Position you as expert


Intranet and project
management

Set Strategic Goals for Blogs

For example…

We want to inform and educate our
customers and prospects

We want to provide entertainment for
our readers

We want to add a human face
–

a
personality
-

to the corporate mask

We want to improve customer service
and help customers better use our
products or services

We want to solicit honest feedback from
stakeholders

CEOs
–

People Want to Hear You

Podcasting

Why Is It Important?

Consumers are looking for quality
content on their own schedule

Advertisers cannot reach target markets

Traditional media is losing effectiveness

New media has not been exploited

Young segments are traditionally least
accessible

Newsprint declining
–

Blog readership
increasing

TV advertising disintermediated by PVRs

Radio audiences declining
–

MP3 increasing,
satellite radio

How Is It Relevant to Me?

Probably still a niche medium but
great potential

Podcasting provides opportunity to
talk with consumers at a more
conversational level

People trust individual voices more
than corporate voices

“Transparent” Marketing

Some people want to hear from you
and they can come knocking at your
door for content

How Do I Do It?

Need to spend a few hundred dollars
on quality audio gear

Essentially setting up your own studio

You want good sound quality

You want to be able to edit out the
‘ums’ and ‘ahs’

Consider the format
-

monologue,
interviews etc.

Some people even hire producers

Don’t just “try one and see”
-

do it for
six months and take a long term view


Places to Submit

On your own sites and blogs

iTunes
http://www.itunes.com

Podfeed
http://www.podfeed.net


Odeo
http://www.odeo.com


Yahoo
http://podcasts.yahoo.com


DigitalPodcast
http://www.digitalpodcast.com


Podcast Alley
http://www.podcastalley.com


iPodderx
http://ipodderx.com/directory


Podcast.net
http://www.podcast.net


Podcast411
http://www.podcast411.com


Podcast Pickle:
http://www.podcastpickle.com

…and many more…

Benefits of Podcasting

Gives the impression of
being Web 2.0 savvy (i.e.
at the forefront)

Providing content in a
form that consumers are
interested in

Integrates well with other
marketing activities

Podcasts are essentially a
Public Relations
opportunity

You can even pay to
advertise on other
podcasts if you wish (e.g.
kiptronic.com)

Affiliate Programs

Pay For Performance / Revenue
sharing

Amazon.com were pioneers with
their “Associates Program”

Many affiliate programs listed at
Refer
-
it.com

LinkShare, Commission
Junction…

Do They Work?

Source: DoubleClick, 2006

Conversion rates are not high but
they don’t compare too badly

Why Affiliate Programs?

Distribution is critical for most
businesses

A good affiliate strategy can
place your brand and products at
key locations on the web

Think of affiliates as valued
distributors of your products
-

treat them so!


Effective Programs

Step 1

Choose your offers carefully

Step 2

Match them to the target market

Step 3

Get creative
-

not just free
shipping or $$ off

Step 4

Consider offers that are exclusive
to your affiliate channel

Key Issues

Choosing a network

Reliable tracking and reporting

Payment and administration

Publisher distribution

Key Issues

Marketing your affiliate program

Forums and Blogs

Abestweb.com

Direct Marketing

Send actual products to your
publishers

Ask affiliates how they want to be
contacted

Web 2.0 and Affiliates

Items recommended
by community
members

Tags: user driven
categorization

Purchase by clicking
through affiliate link

Community also provides reviews

SUMMARY

You can establish a Web presence for
your company quite effectively on a
low budget

You would still do these things even if
you were spending a lot
-

just
outsourcing more or with bigger $$

You need to keep abreast of new
media developments as the business
environment is changing rapidly

It
will

affect you!