One of the great benefits of the Web is it's accessibility - practically anyone can have an online presence. Unfortunately, this is also one of the negative points - the amount of content on the Web today is truly staggering, which means that without careful planning and intelligent effort, it could be easier for clients to find the proverbial "needle in the haystack" than to stumble across one's site.

This has left numerous businesses somewhat disillusioned about the potential of the Web to generate profit, both directly and indirectly. However, just because it did not quite turn out as expected the first time, does not mean that this is a necessary status quo.

The methods used to improve this state of affairs can be broadly categorised into two - passive website promotion, and active promotion. There is no "better" choice, both means of website promotion are complementary, and both must be employed to ensure the best possible results. Naturally, dependent on many factors, not least cost, one may favour to a greater degree one method over the other.

Passive Promotion

Don't be fooled by the title! This does not mean that one can simply lie back and let it all just happen! Passive Promotion refers to all the techniques utilised to ensure that your website can be found, where and when it matters, by your target clientele. "Passive" means that your visitor comes to you on his/her own initiative, without you "pushing" your website/products/services to the client - i.e. the client finds YOU because he/she WANTS TO, and is actively seeking out the services/product that you are offering.

Thus, everything is done to ensure that your site is "prepared" for this search by your potential client, in such a way that he/she WILL find your site, and find it as quickly and easily as humanly possible. This is, naturally, very important since there is undoubtedly great competition for this client's custom, and such competition may come from the most unexpected places, with none of the traditional distance barriers.

Read more about our Web Hi-Liter programme here...

Active Promotion

Active website promotion is all about using other techniques to actively: a. make potential clients aware of your site, and encourage them to visit; b. increase brand awareness; c. a combination of the above. It resembles closely what one would consider to be traditional advertising, in many ways, but given an online dimension and with exciting possibilities which are just not possible utilising other delivery media.

There is a choice of strategies for active website promotion, ultimately the selection is usually a combination of several options, each option's weighting depending on factors such as the results expected from such a campaign.

Possibilites include:

• identifying the best sources for your target market, and paying for enhanced listings/positioning within these sources
• distributed and targeted advertising, such as paid banner advertising
• utilising e-mail opt-in lists, both from subscribers to your site (if appropriate) or as offered by third parties.

Naturally this list is not exclusive, other possibilities abound. However the most important factor, since there is, naturally, a cost element involved, is the monitoring of results. The progress of, for example, a banner advertising scheme, must be easy to monitor via a user interface, such that one may have a means of studying the return on investment - facilitated by integrating visitor statistics interpreting tools into the site. 

Such tools, commonly known as "hit counters" but offering fuller statistics than simply the number of page views, can also supply information such as where your visitors are coming from (referrals), thus it is easy to see which campaigns are working and which are poor performers.

How may we help?

We will consult with you on the combination of schemes which is likely to offer the best results - we will study your online "product", your goals, and expectations. We will seek to understand your client, even, and your competition. We will then recommend a course of action, avoiding the common pitfalls, of which, for the uninitiated, there are many. Our experience in this field will prove invaluable - we can see through schemes which, at first, appear to be a good idea, and can normally spot a non-starter from a mile away... 

We are "with" you all the way through the campaign, monitoring day by day progress, and fine-tuning/adjusting accordingly for maximum effectiveness. Come the satisfactory conclusion, we are sure you will be pleased with the results - and in all probability, you will decide to extend the campaign, and convert it into an ongoing commitment. 

Interested, but don't know where to start? Contact us today without obligation!