Drive Traffic to Your Yola Site, Strategy #4: Mind Your Marketing

Attract your target audience to your Yola website using a mix of online and real-world marketing methods. Be sure to include your web address (URL) in all tactics, and make it especially obvious online so people will be more likely to click directly through to your site.

4 Approaches to Promoting Your Website
Choose from a big bag of tactical tricks for bringing the right visitors to your website. Your options generally fall under four marketing categories: branding, advertising, press relations (PR) and other marketing. It’s up to you to understand your target audience so you can devise a strategy employing the most effective combination to attract them.

Here are examples of marketing tactics where you should display your website address:

#1 – Branding
“Branding” refers to the overall personality you impress on your audience. It starts with your logo and “look and feel” and extends out through everything that represents you – every piece of paper, employee interaction and brick-and-mortar store display. It’s represented in your:

Logo
Stationery – business cards, fax cover sheets, letterhead, envelopes, address labels, business checks
Signage inside and outside of your business – displays, napkins, coasters, awnings, signage on your building, door or directory
Shopping bags, shipping boxes, packing supplies
Packing slips, order sheets, invoices and receipts
Product labels and packaging
Gift certificates, rewards cards and coupons
Company delivery vehicles
Employee name tags and uniforms
Voicemail or answering machine greetings

TIPS
√ Cost effectively produce branded deliverables and swag (see #4 – Other Marketing, below), using online services like Zazzle (US), Café Press (EU, Canada, Australia, UK; worldwide delivery) or Moo (US and EU; worldwide delivery).
√ Rather than having your logo and URL printed directly onto your packaging, bags and envelopes, reduce costs by using attractive, custom-branded stickers and labels.

RECOMMENDED
Consider including your URL as part of your logo or at least locked up with it, especially if you offer an online service or shopping.

#2 – Advertising
Running ads can be a great way to reach new audiences and send them to your site. In addition to traditional forms of advertising, there are a growing number of online options that are often more flexible, targeted and cost effective.

1. Online advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) – Google AdWords and Bing Ads are examples of search engine PPC advertising — which can start sending visitors to your new website right away! In the case of AdWords, your ad will be highlighted at the top of Google search results or show contextually alongside related content in blogs or other online publications. You pay based on the number of people who click through to your site.
Social sites – Pay for ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or other social sites. They’ll be displayed for specific users according to clues about their interests.
Business directory listings – Submit your business info to top local directories including Yelp, Yell and Google Places.

TIPS
√ Free Ad Dollars from Yola
Pay for first-time Google AdWords and Facebook advertising using credits you can get with Yola Bronze, Yola Silver and Yola Gold (US & Canada).
√ Pro Help for PPC Success
A fully DIY approach to PPC advertising can be confusing and time consuming. Try a service like SiteWit to help you spend less time managing your search campaigns while getting better results.

2. Print ads

Magazines, newspapers and other publications
Yellow pages, hardcopy business directories like Angie’s List
Newspaper ads

3. TV, radio, billboards
These can be highly effective means of reaching large audiences. However, they are often also cost prohibitive. A less expensive medium can be streaming sites for audio and video, like Pandora, Spotify and You Tube (Google AdWords for video). Just remember to clearly and repeatedly announce your website address in any audio ads you create!

#3 – Press Relations (PR)
Good PR is a sure way of building your credibility and influence. Serve as a journalist’s expert source in exchange for a link back to your website. Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is one means of offering up support. Or you can submit news releases to distribution services like PRLOG, UKPRwire or BetaNews or to PR Newswire at a cost.

#4 – Other Marketing
Tactics may support sales efforts directly or cultivate existing customer relationships so they grow more fruitful.

Newsletters and other marketing mail – snail mail or email
Marketing and sales materials – flyers, sales literature, catalogs
Swag, ie, pens, T-shirts, gadgets, posters, tote bags, match books, refrigerator magnets, etc that you’ve had branded to give as gifts to customers and prospects
Affiliate marketing (performance marketing) for online stores – you pay commission to owners of blogs and other websites whenever they send you visitors who make a purchase. Check out ShareASale or Commission Junction to learn more about affiliate marketing or get started.

TIPS
Yola for Email Campaigns
√ Take advantage of Yola tools and integrations to launch and run email campaigns easily using Constant Contact or Mad Mimi.

Branded Swag to Keep Your URL Top of Mind
Offering customers small, useful gifts that display your URL is a great way to build your relationship while keeping your site in sight.

Get Found on Search Engines with Help from Yola
A cross between website marketing and content development, search engine optimization (SEO) is essential to your online promotion strategy. It entails building out and mapping site content such that search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo! give your website high rankings in organic search results and send more people to you.

Yola helps you gain points on search engines with:
√ Traffic Builder, an SEO tool that comes with the Yola Gold package
√ Automatic search-engine submission of your sitemap to major engines

Want to Learn More?
Intro to Driving Yola Site Traffic
#1 – Get Social
#2 – Create Content
#3 – Be an Active Online Participant
#4 – Mind Your Marketing
#5 – Flex Your Expertise

→ Last in this series about driving traffic to your Yola site:
Strategy #5: Flex Your Expertise (coming soon, so check back)

Stay Tuned
After the “Drive Traffic to Your Yola Site” series, we’ll be featuring posts on how to get the most out of the top social networks. You’ll see examples and learn practical tips and how-tos to send you on your way.

SOURCES
“5 Steps to Marketing Your Website” Startupnation.com
“10 Proven Ways to Market Your Website” by Ilya Pozin, Forbes.com
“A Practical Guide to Branding” by Karen E. Klein, Businessweek.com
“Online Advertising,” Startupnation.com
“The Web Marketing Checklist: 37 Ways to Promote Your Website” by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Web Marketing Today
Web Stores Do-It-Yourself for Dummies, Joel Elad, 2008
“Website Visibility: 7 Ways to Get Your Website Noticed,” Startupnation.com