Marketing Your Commercial Website Offline

Marketing Your Commercial Website Offline, Does it seem strange that we write a book on the power of Internet marketing, and our first chapter on publicizing your site deals with going offline?

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Well, it shouldn’t. We’ve worked for years in traditional marketing communications, and while we now focus exclusively on digital communications, we still know a thing or two.

This chapter discusses the ways you can (and should) publicize your site offline, augment your existing advertising, and gain media publicity. Don’t view the WWW as a stand-alone, view it as part of your overall marketing efforts—one tool in the tool chest.


Note

The full name of your Web URL includes “http://…”. You’ll remember that this is telling the computer to treat the address as a Web site (hypertext transfer protocol). Most browsers will now accept an address without this prefix (applying it by default), and it’s probably no longer necessary to include this as part of your address.
In fact, most servers no longer need to identify a machine as “www….” (as in www.ha.net) in order to pull up the pages, and this too can be omitted, though including this does make it clear that this is a Web address.


Why Offline?

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Let’s face facts: A computer screen can only hold a fraction of the information of a printed page, even the best online streaming sound is a pale comparison to radio in both quality and maximum audience size, and TV is still the entertainment medium of choice. It is the combination of text, graphics, and multimedia in an instant, interactive communications package that makes the WWW so powerful, not its strengths in any one facet. Therefore, you may want to look at other marketing tools to help make your WWW project a success—you aren’t compromising anything by falling back on tried and true communications methods.

If you have the time and budget,

even the smallest offline campaign can provide a great return on your investment, especially if you have an existing communications list that you’d like to convert to the WWW. Part of your job in online marketing is to help convert people to this new medium, and the way to reach these people is via traditional means.

One of the main ways to convert people is to augment your traditional advertising, and this is addressed later in this chapter. However, besides augmenting what you’ve already got, there are certainly some steps you can take to promote your site specifically.

Jump on the Bandwagon

 

The national and international news media has done quite a bit of selling for you already. You can hardly turn on the TV or read the paper without seeing something about “Cyberspace” or “The Information Superhighway,” and this is certainly to your benefit.

Whether you are designing ads to specifically promote your Web site, augmenting existing ads and materials, or going after press publicity, the simple fact that you are now a member of the information revolution will go a long way toward promoting your site and company.

Furthermore, many professionals are starting to feel like they’re missing the boat when it comes to the WWW. A good information campaign about your own efforts will help your clients better understand this medium. If the clients are big enough, or if you are planning to streamline certain operations by handling them online, it may even be in your interest to help facilitate your clients’ getting online themselves. (See “Be the Internet,” later in this chapter.)

Involve Your Clientele

 

Perhaps one of the best things you can do is involve your clientele in the creation of the site. (See Chapter 15, “Customer Service Online.”) By either response mail, phone interview, or personal conversation, you can let your existing clientele in on the (secret) fact that you are creating a Web site, and ask them what they’d like to see on it.

Obviously, this may help you design at least the customer service section of your site, but it goes way beyond that. By requesting input from your clients, you are including them in the process and giving them some ownership of the outcome. Many will feel that they have contributed to your site and will like it that much more.


Warning

This plan can sometimes backfire. If your biggest client gives you some input which you can’t or don’t choose to apply to your site, the client can feel a bit jilted. The best way to avoid this is to include what they requested if possible. Your second choice would be to plan on including their “design” in a future revision of the site, and to discuss this with them.


 

If there is simply no way you are going to include a big client’s input in your site design (like: “I think you should give hotlinks to your competitor’s sites”), you should personally contact your client and discuss this decision. Of course, be diplomatic. Don’t tell them it’s the dumbest idea you’ve heard—tell them that it unfortunately conflicts with some of the goals of the site, and that you’re working on a compromise that will meet both your needs.

Clearly,

you won’t be able to include everything your clients have requested, and that’s OK. Fortunately, humans are pretty good at talking themselves into things, and if you include anything on your site that even remotely resembles their suggestion, they’ll take credit for it. It may help, if you think you’ve given someone the impression that they’re unimportant, to put a spin on things. You can call them—before they call you—and tell them how their input “X” had a strong influence on the design of page “Y.” Even if they can’t see it, they’ll often accept credit for it.

Finally, always thank people for their input—just as you have a thank you page after a form, and for the same reasons. First, it lets them know that their input has been received, and second, it lets them know they are appreciated.

 

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